Hi people. I'm back with an improvement of my MKW single segment speed run.
First, I'd like to thank the SDA staff for being nice and cooperative and having such a good site up and running. Hopefully it keeps the quality up and keeps improving as time goes on.
Now, time to delve deeper in how this improvement happened. At first, i wanted to wait until the other guys who were attempting ss runs submitted their runs to see if I still could improve past them but none of them ended up submitting a run in time, so I decided to make an improvement for the site on my own.
I figured out that keeping everything the same was going to be boring so I decided to up the difficulty to hard mode since the CPU was a pushover in normal mode. The items are a different matter since they screw you up more based on luck than actual CPU difficulty but overall in hard the CPU has an advantage because they're closer and could take advantage of blue shells to get ahead of you.
Another thing is that, since luck is such a big factor in this game, you might end up accepting several average races if you don't get hit by items very often. That's why the first few races look a bit rough. Good luck alone put me like 1 minute ahead of my old run at that point before I got to the Bowser Castles.
In the technical side, I decided to make this run in 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio since widescreen support was added to anrichan some time after I was done with my old run and playing with this aspect ratio is much more comfortable since i'm used to it (I used 4:3 only for run attempts)
I kept the same character/bike combo because I perform much better with it and it gives you more maneuverability in tight spots due to its sharper cornering and smaller size. If you're one of those who can't stand Daisy's screams, you'll have to deal with it until someone beats my run with either Rosalina or Funky.
As usual, there's outside factors that interfere a bit with the run. This time it was my annoying nephew that happened to be staying at my house the weekend I did this run. He wanted to play multiplayer but since he sucks so badly at the game, I preferred to keep going with my attempts while he watched. He complained for a while but eventually got bored and just watched me play.

Well, that seems to be it concerning why and how I made the new run. Now, time to check it out track-by-track:

Moonview Highway: the only bad thing here was that fake item box between the trucks and bomb. I was saving up the shroom for a blue shell but instead used it here. Good thing no blues came in the race. Otherwise, I would have restarted.

Grumble Volcano: I think this was my best time in this track. No items caused problems and only some bad bounces and offroad sections were the bad spots of the race. Tricking and not tricking seems to be the same due to track layout. Hitting CPUs with green shells going backwards feels good man.

Koopa Cape: the only mistakes here were miscalculating the shell lasers and hitting a banana. Everything else was good enough. No item rape either.

Maple Treeway: I almost fucked it up at the end of lap 1. Later, I dodged the damn wigglers and then I got hit by the first blue shell. At least it was just 1. I got no triple tricks at the bouncy bridge but that's hard to get.

GBA Shy Guy Beach: first retro track of the run. This was the first race that was worse than in the old run and all thanks to that crab I failed to see on time. Luckily I got no blue shells and stuff.

Daisy Circuit: it was much better than in my old run. No blue shells at all. There was a Bolt of Lightning which screwed up my SC at lap 2. Those mistakes in lap 3 have to be caused by something that distracted me when I was playing...

GC DK Mountain: it was an okay race. Lap 2 was a bit bad because of the MT miss and banana but it was in a hard to dodge place. Crashing on the wall was better than taking that red shell on lap 3.

Moo Moo Meadows: another race which was my best time. The only way to improve this would be to get some shrooms for the shoomspot and doing the low trick in the ramp.

N64 DK's Jungle Parkway: if I didn't miss the MT at the tunnel and did the MT after the finish line properly, I might have evaded the blue shell by hitting the ramp but the timing was really tight. Other than that, those bananas messed up the first MT in lap 2 and 3 and the red shell got me on the side in the tunnel. I was screwed up on that one either way.

Bowser's Castle: well, there it is folks, the first truly bad race of the run. I got a nasty combo at the end of lap 2 and also messed up the end of the half pipe section twice. At least the bolts hit at times that didn't cause major trouble. I lost like 16 seconds compared to my BC race in the old run.

N64 Bowser's Castle: here's another bad race right after the previous one. Lap 1 had a bad start because I got hit right at the start and then at the end the wall stopped me with its psychic force (I didn't touch it). Lap 2 was good but lap 3 was when things got really bad. First half full of thwomp and wall crashes and then at the end the POW manages to throw me off track in an unexpected place. It was the first time that happened to me. Also, I messed up the MT in the stairs section 2 times. Despite all of this, the race was still better than what I had in my old run.

SNES Ghost Valley 2: ...and since disgraces come in trios, this race was also awful. Normally I'm very consistent in this track and get sub 1 minute but this time it was a complete disaster all around. I even messed up the boost start. The only redeeming factors were the star and gold shroom. If it wasn't for the first 9 good races and big gain, I would have quitted right here.

GC Mario Circuit: while this race overall wasn't that good, it was mostly because of the CPU. I really hate when a red shell comes and I get a shitty fake item box. At least if they were like in MK64 and stopped shells, they would be useful but no, they suck. 2 blue shells didn't help either. The highlight was drafting off Yoshi and then he getting eaten by the piranha plant.

Luigi Circuit: most boring track ever imo. It went well mostly except for the red shell at the end. Fun fact: going in reverse to get the zipper behind was faster than just accelerating to get the front zipper.

DS Peach Gardens: changing my route on lap 1 was a stupid move after all. Also, I got some embarrassing wall hits and the bolt messed up my lap 2 ending. I lost like 5-6 seconds compared to my old run here.

N64 Sherbet Land: protip: never ever rely on lucky bounces in a ss run this far into it.

N64 Mario Raceway: my paranoia for red shells made me grab 2 item boxes after the blue shell hit. I guess it is better being prepared for unexpected stuff since I'm past the midway point by now. I missed the sub by so little.

Wario's Gold Mine: just after talking about safety, I go and mess up the boost start. I really hate how tight the timing is for boost starts in this game. 1 milisecond early and you mess it up and 1 milisecond late and you get the weak boost start. I got a blue shell combo on lap 2 but outside that, nothing major. At least it was much better than what I had in the old run.

Toad's Factory: it's becoming too common to have a race without CPU interference but one big and dumb mistake. This time it was going too much to the right after the tunnel. As a result, I go over the wall and into the water (first time I fall like that too). Outside that the race was decent.

Dry Dry Ruins: just like the previous race, no CPU interference and one big dumb mistake. At least this one was a random bad bounce but I didn't think it could go that bad from that angle. My tactic to bypass the sand trap in the tunnel is quite foolproof.

Mushroom Gorge: the blue shell made me miss the sub. That's about it here since all else went as expected. I skipped 2/3 mushroom bounces and that saves time.

SNES Mario Circuit 3: good race overall. Just that lightning knocking off my bananas but luckily I didn't need them later.

Rainbow Road: I was going pretty well until I missed the big trick in lap 2. if it wasn't for that, I might have reached the cannon before the lightning but, like in DKJP, the timing was pretty tight overall. Everything else was standard fare.

DS Yoshi Falls: I wanted to make a "Yoshi Fails" joke here but this race was one of the better ones and no mistakes.

GC Peach Beach: the only mistake was going into the grass in lap1. I think it was my best time because the CPU never hit me with blue shells or lightnings.

DS Desert Hills: in this track I got my revenge on the damn red shells. 3 of then and none could come close. The track layout helped a lot. I couldn't do anything about the blue shell but at least I cut a bit of the last corner with the fallen shroom.

Mario Circuit: this track used to be one of the riskiest ones for me but it has been quite laid back in most of my recent runs. I got a random fallen shroom in lap 3 and also got lucky that the blue shell came after I had won the race.

GC Waluigi Stadium: lap 1 was good but then the CPU proceeded to do 2 combos one after the other at the start of lap 2, i messed up the low trick in the ramp and didn't take well the hops in the blue jumps area. It was a considerably worse race overall compared to my race in the old run.

DS Delfino Square: it was okay all around. I missed 2 MTs but there were no big mistakes.

DK Summit: this race was average. Lap 3 became a mess when I took the shortcut in such a way that the bike turned more than expected and sent me right into the hole. To top it, a blue shell was waiting just as I came back. The good thing is that I evaded a blue shell with the cannon and a POW in the blue jumps section.

GBA Bowser Castle 3: at least one of the castles turned out good. Only a blue shell made me lose time. I took the jumps the safe way since I can't afford to try weird stuff at this point.

Coconut Mall: ...and finally the last race. Overall it was going pretty well until I turned too much to the right and hit the damn car at the end. The bread almost got burned at the oven's gate. Baby Mario messing up my wheelie on lap 1 was the other weak part of the race. Catching the fallen shroom and having no bounce was a nice bonus.

Well. This is it. Another long ss run filled with luck bites the dust. There's still room for improvement but lots of luck is needed. 1:05 is possible if the CPU feels nice and you land most of the tricks properly and the items don't make you lose extra time. You could even get 1:04 but then you would be better off buying lottery tickets if you're that lucky. I settled with high 1:07 because I had good luck for most of the run compared to what I was getting most of the time and it was really close to my 1:06 goal (if that rBC race wasn't so bad....). It would have been nice if I saved some failed attempts for a bloopers video but I usually delete the bad footage as soon as I restart a run.

I hope you find the final product enjoyable. Some of the mess ups and falls are even funny when watching the run and quite rare compared to the usual item attacks."