GBA Shy Guy Beach

GBA Shy Guy Beach is the second course of the Banana Cup in Mario Kart Wii. Its first appearance as a course was in Mario Kart: Super Circuit.

Overview

Current BKTs

Type	Unrestricted	No Ultra	No Glitch
3lap	0:55.893	1:01.343	1:19.830
Flap	14.743	20.194	24.588

GBA Shy Guy Beach has a 3lap viable ultra shortcut, which uses wallclips, superhopping and respawning to save time. Outside the ultra shortcut, it also currently benefits from the use of superhopping in 3lap and flap categories. Hence, it has three 3lap and three flap categories.

Unrestricted 3lap

Video: 0:55.893 by Ejay B, Monster, Thomas (2022)

The current strategy for UR 3lap is to superhop for the first two laps, then perform the ultra shortcut on lap 3. The Phantom is used for its high offroad and relatively low handling, while Waluigi is used for his acceleration bonus.
The first mushroom is used right away, because it provides stronger acceleration than the start boost. The first turn is taken shroomless, but not enough EV can be accumulated to stay at 120 u/f through it, which is why the offroad stat is useful. The race proceeds with superhopping at 120 u/f, using the accumulated EV to drive through the water with no speed loss throughout. The ultra is performed on lap 3, using the last two mushrooms to perform an ODB clip. There is a brief delay before turning around to hit CP 1, and satisfy the lap completion requirements for the ultra. After respawning, the quickest way to reach the last KCP is to reverse into it, then accelerate without an SSMT due to the high acceleration stat, and superhop to the finish line.

Unrestricted Flap

Video: 14.743 by Ejay B, Monster, Thomas (2022)

The current UR Flap BKT is the third lap from the 3lap TAS. The fastest strategy is to perform the ultra shortcut, respawn, reverse into the last KCP, and superhop to the finish.

No Ultra 3lap

Video: 1:01.343 by Monster, Thomas (2024)

The current strategy for NU 3lap is to perform superhopping for all 3 laps. The current BKT branches off the UR 3lap, therefore uses Waluigi on the Phantom, even though it is not the optimal combo. The first mushroom is used for quicker acceleration after the countdown, and the last two mushrooms are used to cut the last two turns slightly tighter with soft wall interactions.

No Ultra Flap

Video: 20.194 by Thomas (2024)

The current NU Flap BKT is the third lap from the 3lap TAS. The fastest strategy is to superhop for the entire lap, entering the lap at 120 u/f and using mushrooms for slightly tighter cornering using the soft walls at the edges of the track.

No Glitch 3lap

Video: 1:19.830 by Alego11, Corvid, Ejay B, Jellopuff, Thomas (2025)

Funky Kong + Spear is used for the high top speed. None of the turns are too tight for Spear.

• First water puddle: The wheelie is held over the water, getting a small airtime pocket to touch offroad for only 2 frames. The QM interval for airtime is ~4 ms long, but the QM for dropping to only 92 u/f instead of 89 is much more strict.
  

The reason why this strategy works, is that the track isn't actually flat; the beach (slippery ground) and water (offroad) are placed at two different levels, joined by shallow offroad slopes everywhere on the track. This creates many convex slope changes, which can cause the bike to either stick to the slope or go airborne, depending on QM.

• First turn: The acceleration from the miniturbo is used to briefly drive over the offroad slopes without slowdown, due to a quirk with the "maximum speed" value. Additionally, the offroad slopes cause the bike to wobble just enough to get a 1 f bounce during the miniturbo deceleration, allowing for a slipchain. The slipchain saves a few milliseconds compared to fully optimizing the line through the turn.
• Second turn: Hard left drift, with soft inputs at the end. A quickhop is done to both realign, and to gain more airtime at the slope change into the offroad.
• Offroad cut: The mushroom is used here on each lap. The airtime is used to delay the mushroom further, allowing to cut slightly more offroad and have less boost overlap with the miniturbo. Charging a miniturbo during the mushroom boost is faster than doing a wheelie; the speed during a drift with mushroom boost is very close to the cap of 120 u/f, so charging a miniturbo provides another speed burst for not much cost.
  
• Islands: With good QM at several slope transitions, it is possible to avoid slowly hopping from island to island, and even charge a slipdrift through several islands. A spinhop is done on the first island to get good rotation for the rest of the section. A slipdrift is started when driving from the second to the third island, and another when exiting the sixth island.
• Pink ramp: This is a slow ramp which sets IV to 59 u/f. A hop is done on the first frame the ramp is touched to reduce airtime as much as possible. It is possible to get an "early" acceleration out of the offroad. This is because the front bike wheel touches the slippery ground, while the back wheel is airborne; because at least one wheel is grounded, and neither wheel is touching offroad, the bike is allowed to accelerate from the trick boost. A spinhop is again done over the next water puddle, to align for the last turn.
• Last turn: Using the slope transition once again, the bike can get an airtime pocket over part of the water. The bike lands during the miniturbo deceleration; this allows it to briefly drive over the offroad with no penalty, as deceleration between multiple sources doesn't stack. A slipchain is also done for realignment.
• QM locks: The first water puddle is a very strict QM lock, as mentioned. The first slipdrift on the island, and the pink ramp, are also notable QM locks which the TAS has to lose a couple milliseconds for each lap.

On lap 2, the first crab after the offroad cut gets in the way. This forces a slightly wider line, losing 4-5 ms, but due to QM locks it doesn't actually cause any time loss long-term.

No Glitch Flap

Video: 24.588 by Alego11, Corvid, ego, Ejay B, Jellopuff (2025)

Like for the 3lap, Funky Kong + Spear is used for the high top speed.

• Lap entry + first turn: The lap entry is done on the right side of the track, in preparation of the first turn. The first mushroom is used there, to cut through the offroad and reach the side path. After the water puddle, a right slipdrift into a left slipdrift is done to gain a lot of left rotation. The slope transition is used to go airborne and delay the mushroom usage, then a spinhop is performed to clear over as much deep water (out of bounds) as possible.
• Side path + second shroom: Two miniturbos are done on the side path, the second released quickly with a chain drift. The second shroom is used at the end of the side path, cutting more track than the 3lap shroomspot allows. The soft walls at the edges of the deep water are used to get airtime, allowing for a slightly tighter line.
• Islands + pink ramp: Same as the 3lap.
• Last turn: The third mushroom is used slightly before the last turn, to cut through the offroad on the left. A spinhop is performed to land on the soft wall and get a bounce, skipping over the water and reaching the finish line (which extends to the left) without the offroad penalty. The mushroom is timed such that the offroad immunity runs out just as the soft wall bounce happens, to cut off as much offroad as possible before the last turn.

History

TODO: History of all strat developements. Section devoted to the ultra shortcut, and superhopping.

TAS Competitions

GBA Shy Guy Beach has featured in two tasks of the MKWii TAS Competition (Task 13 2020, Christmas Task 2023) and one season of the MKWii Collab Competition (Season 1).

Future

Known timesaves

NU 3lap/Flap

• Use Funky Kong + Shooting Star for lower handling, shroom through first turn.

Potential timesaves

UR Flap

• Use Bit Bike for higher acceleration after reversing into the last KCP.

UR 3lap

• Waluigi + Phantom is not confirmed to be the best combo for the track.