You can Mushroom dodge Blue Shells in Mario Kart 8! <(^_^<)

[hsrob]

famousringo said:

Ninricken said:
That's a good thing, not so unfair^^
But I want to be honest: A Mario Kart without blue shells wouldn't be the same. They shouldn't be used for rankings or so but you only have the true Mario Kart experience if there are blue shells.

Blue shells need to be unfair, because being in first place is so unfair.

First place only has to worry about attacks from second place, while somebody in say, sixth place needs to worry about attacks from several players.

First place will rarely get crushed by a giant mushroom, star, or bullet bill, and instead mostly faces easily defended green and red koopa shells.

First place doesn't have to worry about being rammed off the road, and so is always free to race the cleanest lines and get maximum boosts.

First place always gets a question block, while players farther back often find none left to take or need to drive out of their way to get one.

It seems the reason so many players find the blue shell objectionable is that it's one of very few things not stacked in the leader's favour.

All of the above.  Driving mid-pack in any Mario Kart is a hectic experience, you take it from all sides and you often can't drive an optimum line, limiting your chances of catching the front runners.  Getting into first place early is by far the easiest and most reliable way of winning, assuming you actually have driving skill to back it up.

Blue shells keep you in touch with the rest of the pack or at least give those in the first few places (who rarely have good enough weapons to take out first place themselves) a fighting chance to the finish.  Otherwise Mario Kart would devolve into a hundred metre dash to get into first place with the weapons, for the most part, only impacting the lower placings.