Slow ramp
A slow ramp is a special collision type in Mario Kart Wii.
Overview
Slow ramps allow the vehicle to trick, and add a certain value to its Y velocity, so that it can go airborne. This speed can be canceled by hopping on the frame that the slow ramp is touched, making hop tricks an effective way to reduce airtime.
Slow ramps also lock the vehicle's IV until it touches the ground again; this is done by decreasing max speed up to the speed lock value, at a rate of 3 u/f per frame, and disabling any other changes to IV, such as EV to IV conversion or airtime deceleration. The magnitude of IV is effectively constant while the vehicle is airborne, but EV and direct position updates can still cause the vehicle to move faster than the intended speed lock.
Uniquely, slow ramps allow the vehicle to keep turning in the air using the handling stat even after 20 frames have passed. Turning in the air as such affects the facing direction of the vehicle, but not IV. This turning ability is disabled if the vehicle hops out of the slow ramp, but leaning for the first 20 frames is always possible.
Slow ramps are only found on a few tracks, and the values for the speed lock and added Y velocity change for each collision type. The table below lists all values used in the game's 32 race tracks.
For certain slow ramps, the speed lock and Y velocity are increased if a mushroom, boost pad, or 100 u/f flip trick ramp boost is active upon collision. These values are listed in brackets.
| Variant type | Speed lock (u/f) | Y velocity (u/f) | Used on |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 50 | 35 | GBA Bowser Castle 3 yellow ramps Moonview Highway vehicle tops |
| 1 | 50 | 47 | SNES Ghost Valley 2 ramp |
| 2 | 59 | 30 | GBA Shy Guy Beach ramps |
| 3 | 73 (100) | 45 (70) | Mushroom Gorge ramps |
| 4 | 73 (100) | 53 (65) | Mushroom Gorge red mushrooms |
| 6 | 55 | 35 | DS Yoshi Falls umbrellas |
Techniques
Wallriding
- Main article: Mushroom wallriding
After touching a slow ramp, the IV vector remains constant in magnitude until landing on the ground, even when colliding with a wall. This can be heavily abused on Mushroom Gorge to create shortcuts; by driving into a wall with very high pitch rotation from taildiving, the IV vector points up, allowing vehicles to climb up walls.
This quirk allows for another minor application in the no glitch category; after touching a slow ramp, landing on a mushroom while hitting the wall collision edge reduces max speed, but does not affect IV, so the vehicle does not slow down.
Offroad glitch
- Main article: Offroad glitch
Touching a variant 3 slow ramp without touching a variant 4 slow ramp before landing causes max speed modifiers, such as wheelies, boosts, or offroad, to be disabled. This is fixed by touching a variant 4 slow ramp, or respawning. This oversight is relevant on Mushroom Gorge, the only track to contain either slow type variant.
Speed lock removal
It is possible to remove the speed lock during airtime by performing a jammed trick. After going airborne so the trick can occur, touching the ground while the trick cooldown is non-zero removes the speed lock, without triggering the trick boost; then, going airborne a second time before the cooldown expires allows the vehicle to move through the air without at its current speed, and the trick boost is triggered upon landing again.
This technique only removes the speed lock by resetting maximum velocity on the ground, but it does not affect IV by itself. If a boost is active, the vehicle can accelerate to its max speed again; otherwise, it moves through the air with reduced IV.
This technique is used for each slow ramp on GBA Bowser Castle 3 NG, and on the yellow ramp at the end of SNES Ghost Valley 2. It is also performed after the wooden bridge on Mushroom Gorge, albeit without a boost, recovering IV with STA.
Mushroom abuse
A variation of speed lock removal, performed on Mushroom Gorge. On this track, the no glitch route involves bouncing on several slow ramps in a row. If speed lock removal is not performed on the first slow ramp, then IV is already at 73 u/f upon landing on the second slow ramp. However, the speed cap can be removed by landing on the mushroom for 1 f, then bouncing off again. By tricking off the previous slow ramp, the boost increases IV by 6 u/f for each grounded frame on the mushroom, and can be preserved in the air if the speed lock is not activated again.
The basic pattern of bounces is the following: land on the mushroom, 1 f airtime, 1 f ground, airtime. The vehicle leaves the mushroom at 79 u/f. (The first airtime can be longer than 1 frame, but it is slightly slower.)
Another harder pattern, used in the no glitch TAS, is as follows: land on the mushroom, 1 f airtime, 2 f ground, 1 f airtime, 1 f ground, airtime. This sequence allows the vehicle to leave the mushroom at 91 u/f. Landing after the first bounce resets maximum speed; during the 2nd grounded frame, the speed lock is applied again, causing maximum speed to decrease while IV increases; the last grounded frame causes maximum speed to reset again.
Outside drift momentum
- Main article: Outside drift momentum
Outside-drift bikes can gain significant EV on slow ramps; this is particularly useful on Mushroom Gorge and GBA Bowser Castle 3, which feature several slow ramps in a row. This is done by landing on a slow ramp with a drift, with the bike facing away from the IV vector, then ending the drift on the next frame and leaning.
Supergliding
- Main article: Supergliding
The speed lock effect ends once the vehicle goes airborne, then lands. However, it is possible to touch a slow ramp in such a way to avoid all airtime. This is occasionally referred to as slow ramp abuse; the vehicle moves around the ground with the effects of the speed lock active. In this state, the vehicle's IV is set to the speed lock value, although max speed modifiers such as wheelies and boosts still have an effect, and turning only affects facing yaw, so the vehicle must rely on wall hits to move around. Going airborne and landing, or respawning, ends the state.
After slow ramp abuse is activated, wheel EV decay is deactivated, so bikes are able to repeatedly lean to gain EV. This is known as supergliding, and it is currently not useful on any category.