Just feels like it promotes the antithesis of good play. If you’re so good that you’re way out in front the blue shells won’t matter (not sure if this is even possible because of rubber banding, as I haven’t played any MK since N64), but if you’re just barely good enough to be battling back and forth with 2nd place a blue shell from someone with no chance of winning can ruin your race.
If the person in last with the shell is human it won’t affect their crap score but can spoil yours, so that doesn’t really change how they feel about their performance. If it’s an NPC it’s just random bullshit from the game telling you to stop doing well at the game.
I think it’s purpose is to give you a further challenge when your running away with the race. Can it be a little bullshit? Sure, but Mario Kart has always been about overcoming the bullshit and winning anyway. Like in the original the CPUs had access to special items that you just couldn’t get and could use them without hitting item boxes. That’s bullshit, but it’s still in my top 3 best Mario Kart games.
Since you haven’t played since 64, I’d say give Double Dash or 8 a shot, there’s significantly less rubberbanding (there are catch-up items instead) and they change the way blue shells work. They’re still bullshit but they have a blast radius so they can potentially take out a few racers at once so you can fight your way back to 1st a little more easily.
Just feels like it promotes the antithesis of good play. If you’re so good that you’re way out in front the blue shells won’t matter (not sure if this is even possible because of rubber banding, as I haven’t played any MK since N64), but if you’re just barely good enough to be battling back and forth with 2nd place a blue shell from someone with no chance of winning can ruin your race.
If the person in last with the shell is human it won’t affect their crap score but can spoil yours, so that doesn’t really change how they feel about their performance. If it’s an NPC it’s just random bullshit from the game telling you to stop doing well at the game.
I think it’s purpose is to give you a further challenge when your running away with the race. Can it be a little bullshit? Sure, but Mario Kart has always been about overcoming the bullshit and winning anyway. Like in the original the CPUs had access to special items that you just couldn’t get and could use them without hitting item boxes. That’s bullshit, but it’s still in my top 3 best Mario Kart games.
Since you haven’t played since 64, I’d say give Double Dash or 8 a shot, there’s significantly less rubberbanding (there are catch-up items instead) and they change the way blue shells work. They’re still bullshit but they have a blast radius so they can potentially take out a few racers at once so you can fight your way back to 1st a little more easily.