The blue shell in Mario Kart is the worst design flaw in the history of games...

The blue shell in Mario Kart is the worst design flaw in the history of games. It's an item that punishes you for being good at the game; therefor, the race part that the entire game is based around is ruined. What a shit game.

Type the sound effect this thing makes

*whiiiiiiiiirrrrrrrrrrr*

That's why 8 is the best one in the series. It has the leading racers have stay in the items game by allowing to obtain a way to counter it with the horn.

It’s a negative feedback loop, intended so when played as a group/at a party the people farthest behind can get a chance to catch up. Anyone who plays Mario kart by themselves should be sent to a mental institution

ACTUALLY:
All of the mario kart items suck.
Try to prove me wrong, bro.

So basically you’re saying if you’re in first you should get the best items and finish the race laps ahead of the others because the game is rewarding you for being ahead

What item do you suggest then?

I much prefer SASRT because the attack first place item gives first place an additional obstacle course to deal with.

Infinitely better approach than blue shells.

>"NOOO, I need to get first place!"
>*whirrrrrrr*
>*repeated dabbing*
>BOOM

If you were really good, you'd know how to dodge it or learn to immediately give up first so you can immediately take it back once it hits the other.

I've never like Mario Kart.
Racing games are shit, exept for CTR single player. I think Need For Speed shit is ultra gay, but at least it does have retarded gay ass items like Mario Kart.
Driving is fucking boring.

based
a vacuum that sucks in everyone who plays nintendo games

Literally git gud.

>It's an item that punishes you for being good at the game;
Are you saying 1st places should get stars and mushrooms while last places should just get bananas?
Fuck off.

It's a casual party game not a competitive e-sport AND EVEN THOSE still have comeback mechanics you fucking neanderthal.
If you really were good you would know how to avoid it anyways, so gallantly commit suicide.

I see the pain in your life and it makes me sad

You don't know me, so don't pretend you do just for internet smug points on an anonymous imageboard.

I haven't made my quota of internet smug points yet I'm just clocking in my hours. Don't hate the player, hate the game. Or hate the game if it's Mario Kart.

>git gud

The blue shell adds tons of variance and thus skill is de-emphasized. Its main purpose is to punish you for being too good.

See

The problem isn't that it punishes you for being front runner. The problem is that it the guy who usually rolls the blue shell is not actually fucking benefiting from it at all. It's an item of convenience for the guys in 2nd and 3rd, not the guy in last place. All the while wasting an item box on an item that COULD have been useful for them. It's practically a cuck tier item for the guy who gets it.

Mario kart is inherently flawed
>reward players for being bad at the game
>Whole meta is just staying in mid pack and waiting for a powerful drop to shoot you into first at the last moment

Are you dumb? Do you expect to be rewarded with better items for being first?

Nobody seems to understand that Mario Kart is a casual racing game, which means that morons in last get nice items like Bullet Bill or lightning that make it feel like they're winning when they still suck and get 12th.

>hurr durr, you saying 1st place should get the same items as everyone else too?
>no mention of this in OP's post
Sup Forums's reading comprehension, ladies and gents.

My boy, just dodge the blue shell.

>Its main purpose is to punish you for being too good
No, it punishes first place. If you weren't a scrub you would be far enough ahead that blue shells wouldn't matter.

>considerthefollowing.jpg
the problem isn't the blue shell but the way that enemies rubberband behind your ass the instant you outpace them

>learn to immediately give up first so you can immediately take it back once it hits the other.
Does that actually work? I assumed it targeted who was first when it was fired, so even if you let a couple people ahead of you, you;d be hit anyway?

DS did a far better job (even if unintentionally), the shell could be dodged with a well timed short boost followed by a jump, not easy to peform and you couldn't do it anywhere but damn satisfying to do and made you earn the first place and potentially fuck with anyone else around you

I can only comment on the Wii version, but in my experience, 1st place was often a very protected place to be in. If you are in the front-middle of the pack like 5-3, you had to dodge a lot more offensive items like more red shells, bullet bills, starts, and big mushrooms. 1st place really only needs to worry about blue mushrooms, and apart from that just keeps a green shell or banana peel behind him to avoid reds from 2nd place. But we weren't amazing players that would compete online, just placed a thousand or so matches after work.

>the people farthest behind can get a chance to catch up
That's fucking bullshit, it only helps the guys between second and fourth place because those are the ones who might be close to even take advantage of that. For the guy who is at the bottom he can already get pretty far with the Bullet Bill. If the blue shell was about helping the ones at the bottom it would hit everbody ahead of you, not just the guy in first place

There shouldn't be any items at all. Whoever is more technically skilled at a game should come first. This is why Mario Kart is flawed.

Banana placement is a game on it's own.

but it can hit other people. besides if it did hit everyone it would effectively be the same thing as the shrink powerup

I've said this before and I'll say it again

The reason its there is because being in first gives you an advantage from other attacking players. 2nd place - 2nd-to-last-place are subject to what I like to call the "chaos cluster" in that that group is more subject to change positions more frequently due to the items being used. That combined with 2nd place being the only reliable position to challenge first by items, gives first an even larger lead than their skill would provide.

To put it another way, second can challenge first by way of a green or red shell (or a banana, yeah right), but first can easily counter it with a banana. Second and beyond has to worry about speed collisions by mushrooms, bomb-ombs, stars, and bullet bills in ADDITION TO the items first has to deal with. The blue shell helps to negate that (with in some games, it's even counter-able)

Is it perfect? Obviously not, but then again it's a videogame and supposed to be fun

Yes. I've always felt like this item was bullshit and Mario Kart in general has always been very unfair. I know it's a party game, but this shell is just stupid. I don't get the point of fucking the player over for being in first place. And it seems to happen more on the last lap for extra trolling.

With later versions of Mario Kart, it's only gotten worse too. It was fine in Mario Kart 64 as it rarer to get hit with one, but Mario Kart 64 also had the worst rubber band AI fucking ever.

>besides if it did hit everyone it would effectively be the same thing as the shrink powerup
Them just remove it and keep the shrink, it's miles better if you are getting your shit fucked anyways, there is literally no point for the flying blue shell unless you are in second place hoping for a clutch.

Make it only spawn when the player in 1st is further than everyone else by a certain distance, boom problem solved and it actually serves a purpose now.

>usually given to someone in 4th place and below
>benefits the person in 2nd or 3rd instead of the person who send it in most games

True ludo is

>1 banana
>chain of 5 bananas
>1 green shell
>3 circling green shells
>fake item box

In 64, 7 and 8 it hovers along the ground and hits anyone in the way. From Double Dash to MK Wii it had wings and bypassed anyone who was in the way.

In Double Dash and onward the changed it so the shell also explodes on impact so it can still take out several players who happen to be near 1st place.

because all the powerups work that way? There's clearly a best and you don't always get it.

>be in first for the briefest of moments
>blue shell shows up
>fall back to 2nd or 3rd
>still the target of the blue shell
>end up in 5th or worse

>In 64, 7 and 8 it hovers along the ground and hits anyone in the way
Good to know.

>You don't know me

If you respond like this it means he was right, just sayin

SASRT has better item design

The problem is with who gets it user, if the blue shell was a rare second place item I would get it because that is the guy who will benefit from it, how many races where you were winning but got your shit fucked because some dude in sixth or lower got the blue shell and it didn't even helped him in the end?

Mario Kart would be improved of there were only bananas and green shells. Prove me wrong

Mario Kart would be more fun if it just had green shells and bananas. Yes, even as a party game. Dumb random items meant to take all skill out of it aren't fun.For some reason people on Sup Forums have this weird insistence that for a game to be fun skill and competitiveness should be taken completely out of the equation and it should just be about watching wacky items do wacky things.

Mario Kart without items isn't Mario Kart it's just a bland racing game. There are plenty of those out there.

>no mushrooms
>hurrr what the fuck is a shortcut

I agree. Every offensive item can be dodged or nullified. It's great

You're on the right track, I think if you remove red and blue shells itll work.

>Mario Kart would be improved of there were only bananas
FTFY. Banana placements are just too much fun.

Isn’t that what happens anyway?

Without the blue shell the game would be horrible unbalanced with the rest of the items since it would just be a scuffle amongst the lower ranks while 1st pulls away, even with the blue shell you can probably see this happen.

It's your own fault for getting hit by one if you didn't come prepared to first place with a horn or a mushroom. Fucking get good.

Blue shell targets 1st place when it was shot. You could end up dead last but if you were 1st when the bullet left the gun, you're the one that's dead.

>Without the blue shell the game would be horrible unbalanced

In 64 when the blue shell was way more rare, the game didnt feel unbalanced. it felt more balanced

All Mario Kart needs to feel balanced are green shells, bananas, mushrooms and decoy item boxes

"balance" doesnt mean "everything needs to be equalized". if the person in 1st is pulling away it might be because hes better than everyone else and it could still be perfectly balanced

>roll the right item
>manage to reach first place while carrying it
>get hit by random lightning and lose it
T-Thanks.

>Blue shell targets 1st place when it was shot.
Pretty sure it can still change halfway through, I remember rusing a lot of CPUs like this

True, but also it so happens the middling ranks are fucking each other with triple reds and shit and flipping places while first is flying above the clouds since 2nd gets fuck all except for fucked by third

It's a party game. It's not meant to be taken seriously.

And why cant the person in last place "git gud" instead of getting a blue shell to launch at 1st out of spite just to give him some feeling of doing something? Making he could actually get better at the fucking game and stop being in last?

I’ll place that into the "shit ideas" jar.

how didn't you know this already?

it's easy nigga, just fuckin brake

A party game doesnt mean it cant be competitive. Competitive is fun

>it's another get hit by lightning then by a blue shell immediately after episode

Granted I think the blue shell is fine, but fuck does that shit suck.

Some games this is only true when the shell is already close to you, if not then it attacks the current first place.

>HURR DURRR I'M SKILLED I'M THE BEST MARIO KART PLAYER EVER IN THE WORLD I AM A GENIUS THE BLUE SHEL IS BAD BECAUSE IT INTERFERES WITH MY UNPARALLELED GENIUS AND SKILL
If you were so fucking good you wouldn't get hit by blue shells, either learn to play the fucking game or shut the fuck up. If you play as though items don't exist you're going to get fucked.

>do this
>second and third place sail past
>apparently didn't do it early enough so blue still roasts my ass

I'd take out lightning before the blue shell every time desu

The game would be all around more competitive if blue shells didnt exist, this is undeniable. They are shit.

Lightning >>> blue shell

lightning slows everyone down and gives the person in last a chance to catch up
Blue shell targets the person out of first, purely just to give the last place person some sick communist pleasure of making better people worse off

These.
Being in first place is advantageous in Mario Kart. You're basically the only guy except for the 12th that can run at full speed without interruption.

You only have yourself to blame if you're not watching the minimap.

>comeback mechanics
The blue shell isn't a comeback mechanic, it doesn't help the person that used it catch up.
If you are getting the blue shell you are so far behind that in an online race you have basically no chance to catch up to the front runners unless it is very early in the race.

you don't get it in last place you get it around 6th-9th place

the thing you really should do is go off the side of the map precisely because lakitu makes you immune and it's a lot faster than getting hit

You can play around blue shells, you can't play around lighting.

Haven't played 7 or 8

>Be in the back of the pack.
>Hit an item box.
>Get a single mushroom.
>The two guys ahead of me both got Bullet Bills

t. Vinny

2nd should get more item variety. Make it really fucking hard for 1st to stay in first.

And remove those stupid coins.

>Make it really fucking hard for 1st to stay in first
fuck off, 200cc is perfect as-is

The only real skill involved in MK is how well you handle drifting/boosts on the courses, and the rare occasion you can actually hit someone with a well-timed banana peel or green shell. Due to the RNG of the item roulette it's pretty much impossible to "git gud" beyond this.

Thanks, you just convinced me to never buy Kart 8

While I think the severity of this complaint is overblown, it does contribute considerably to why I think Super Mario Kart is one of the best entries in the series.

I get why this is but it's still the dumbest shit.

First place also gets to collect coins first, never misses item boxes, and has fewer bananas to dodge

>not placing them at the finish line and running over them yourself as you finish

Okay but it doesn't help people who dead last or just about. The only people who benefit are the people in 2nd or 3rd.

> I assumed it targeted who was first when it was fired, so even if you let a couple people ahead of you, you;d be hit anyway?
That's what Nintendo wants you to think but it doesn't technically lock on to somebody until you hear it coming.

>Get blue shelled
>Get red shelled
>Get bullet billed
>Get star fucked
>Run over a banana and fall off the edge
>All of this within 10 feet of the finish line

...

death to waifufags

I wonder what would happen if you threw a blue shell while inn1st place. Anyway, post items you would get rid of or repurpose.

>Remove
Coins
Golden Mushrooms
Lightning
Blooper

>Repurpose/tweak
Crazy 8 and others like it
Fake item blocks
Bullet Bill

Don't allow other players to steal items from your crazy 8

Make fake item blocks look like real blocks, I remember them being red in DD I think, what's the point if it's that obvious

Controllable bullet bill