Wii Warm Up: Getting shelled

by Candace Savino on Apr 26th 2008 10:30AM

Since Mario Kart Wii is coming out soon, we wanted to know what some of your favorite (and least favorite) items are from the series. The one we're most curious about is the controversial blue shell. Do you hate it? Love it? What other items do you covet, or hope that you don't get stuck with?

Tags: blue-shell, items, mario-kart, mario-kart-wii

Reader Comments (38)

Favourite item: Lightning Bolt, because I'm a sadistic SOB and enjoy running people over.

Least favourite, well... http://xkcd.com/290/

The cursed blue shell should have stayed on the ground where it f'ing belonged! Back then it could hit more than just the player in 1st place!

Mario Kart is the worse thing about Mario Kart.

i couldn't find where to post, but...have you guys drawn the winners for the 5 copies of mario kart wii? and when will the winners be notified? sorry for asking here

I don't really dislike blue shells, it's the AI which will hit me with 2 or 3 blue shells towards the end of the last lap that I hate. My favorite items are the regular shells, red or green. I also like the ghost and feather in battle mode because they're good for annoying other players.

Exactly, everytime I would lose to the stupid AI in front of my friends I'd always say that it cheated. Which it did. ???There is a feather in this new MK??? I didn't know that. Does it make you jump really high like it did in the original?

Same here. I would be dominating during an entire race but then get hit by a blue shell right before the finish line and lose. I hate how common they are in the DS game, as opposed to the N64 one, when they barely ever appeared.

bannanas, I could live with out them

three red shells has always been my favourite, and always will be. Super-turbo-mega-ultra-reusable mushroom boost is always more useful than i expect it to be, unless it's on a track without edges in places!

the new "POW" item is pretty terrible. I mean, it's fine to use, but it's a bit cheap and there's not really any evasive move you can use to avoid it, and they couldn't even come up with an actual item or for it or anything, just the word POW and then everyone gets knocked around. lame!

Meh, I'm neutral on this blue shell hate. Most of the time it's pretty useful but other times it isn't. Just like any other item I guess. I'm more worried about the backfire effect you would get from Banannas :'(

The irony of the blue shell is that it fails to benefit the user in any way, you get it when you're in like, 5th place and it's of no use to you, just 2nd place or whatever.

Unless you get it and then you suddenly become Micheal Shumacher and suddenly you're second or third place then you use it, it's pretty useful like that. But I think the main point of it is that if the 1st guy has been first before, this will help slow down his gain in point should he win 1st place again.

I loved the fact that you could hold the blue shell behind on the N64 version. Very useful for defensive driving.

Bullet Bill! And Double Dash's Chain Chomp. They're great for getting across those tracks that you have trouble on.

I wish that items were actually random. we all know that first place only gets bananas and green shells.

Favorite: Feather, cause it means my favorite battle area cant exist till its back.

Disliked: The trick block, very rarely is it useful for me, and well it seems lately that the blue shell has been more of a use to me than harm. And yes the blue shell can help you win when you use it, it just has to be a gp you just have to gain some spots back fast.

It's not any single item that I love or hate, but I do wish Mario Kart would include a "hardcore" mode, for lack of a better term. Something for the racing purist lover in all of us. Yes, I know there's F-Zero, but imagine having a selectable mode in Mario Kart where racing, not battling was the emphasis.

Well, there's yine trials/ghosts to beat.

And I think in MKWii you can turn items on low or off

**Time trials/ghosts to beat

Banana peels. Everything is more useful than a banana peel.

Banana peels defend against Red shells

Although they nerfed that somewhat severely in MKDS, and i don't know how effective it is

They will certainly lose their effectiveness with these very wide MKWii tracks

Fake item blocks, red shells, and green shells all protect against red shells too. Bananas aren't completely useless or anything, but come on, whenever you get one you think "Jesus, all I've been getting all race is bananas."

You're so right on that one. That's actually what runs through my mind when I do get a freakin' Peel. OUT OF ALL THE OTHER ITEMS, WHY THE PEEL?!!

I think I have the perfect answer to the question, if blue shells are cheap or not...

It depends what position your in :).

The blue shell is great when you are in a close 2nd, use the blue shell, and then immediately pass the person in 1st place.

It gives you a great lead.

The blue shell should be given only like 1 or 2 times a race and should stay on the ground and hit everyone then jump up and explode on 1st place.

Blooper is pretty useless in MKDS but w/o a constant map in MKWii, it may get more frustrating. I also don't like the lighting cause it slows you down a lot and lets everyone lose their rank. I wanna try out the Lighting cloud though, its the first item you can hand over to someone.

My favorite may have to be the tripe red shells and bullet bill. Triple red shells are destructive and let ya have two items while having a mini sheild and the bullet bill for it's usefulness when you're in last place.(Though i'm not in last place all the time xP)

Blooper. As a person who enjoys the single-player mode as much as the multiplayer modes, Blooper is utterly useless against a computer

I have the same feelings about Togepi's Night Shade in Smash Bros Melee and Mr. Resetti and Nintendog in Brawl

Ugh. The computer cheats when those items come up. Such a load of crap they are.

Eh, I like the star,

hate the single banana.

I haven't really played MK since the GBA version though.

I could deal with the blue shells in the N64 days, but they have gotten progressively more annoying.

Golden Mushroom is my favorite.

Fake boxes are one of my favorite items because so much damage can be brought upon other players with them.

Least favorite has to be lightning, I never get it and is always used on me =(

Blue shells you just have to learn to dodge ;)

I love the giant green shells for Bowser and Bowser Jr. in Double Dash if for no other reason than I tend to get them nearly every time. Makes a mess of the Baby Park stage!

I freaking hate lightning bolts. They make you all small and easy to KO. I especially despise them when I grab them when that happens. I still can't believe I beat Co-Op Event DK & Diddy on MK stage.

hahaha

*by lonesome

At least blue shells announce their presence with an ominous whooshing sound, so you can slam on the brakes at the last second and screw over 2 or 3 people besides you. At least then you have company. This is in Double Dash and DS, of course...not sure how the blue shell works in MKWii.

Favorite item would have to be Bullet Bill/Chain Chomp (same thing really). Autopilot, speed boost, and the ability to destroy anyone in your path. Yes please.

The blue shell was the best in Mario Kart 64. It didn't appear very often, it could hit people other than in first, it wasn't an enormous hindrance to the person it hit, but it was a guaranteed hit which was a blessing.

The only improvement on the shell is the explosion it causes, allowing other people around you to get hit as well.

And while we're complaining, what happened to the quintuple bananas? That was my favourite item. Now that it's down to three I have almost no love for it.

Bullet-Bill ftw! OK, it's pretty cheap winning a race only by getting a bullet in the last lap...but who cares? Won means won.
2nd goes to the mega mushroom.

@Mr Khan: Not exactly true. The AI makes some mistakes when you use the blooper.

I read in a german mag that you can avoid the spinning after a POW by jumping three times in a row at the right time. Can anyone of you guys confirm that as I have not managed that trick yet?

Wii Warm Up: Getting shelled

Reader Comments (38)

Posted: Apr 26th 2008 10:42AM DonaldMick said

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