A blue shell alone isn't so bad. A blue shell followed by two red shells and a bullet bill is what really pisses people off. Not to mention I've been knocked from 2nd to 8th by a blue shell.

Personally I think the blue shell is more inconvenient to the person who gets it that to the person hit by it. If they race is spread out a bit you've just been handed a useless item.

You're not getting hit by a bomb if you are in first.  People in second don't have them.  The outcome of the race doesn't involve nearly as much luck as you think.  For someone to get a 9999 VR, which many of the people that I have listed have, you have to win a ridiculous amount of races in a row.  How could someone achieve this through luck?  They can't.  They beat all the people that consider the game to be a crapshoot about 50 times in a row.

You're contradicting yourself here. If you have been knocked from 2nd to 8th, the person who fired it (6th or 7th place) did get something good out of it.

Whenever I see a post complaining about blue shells it just comes accross as the writer proclaiming "I suck!" That this has becoming the such a common complaint on the internet just confirms that the game is harder than some people give it credit for.

Blue shells don't come up often, they give you decent warning of when they are coming, and there are some very simple strategies for mitigating their effects.  But I guess its so much easier to proclaim the game broken than figure out how to win.

That's somewhat debatable. If the 6th, 7th and 8th place all gets items, there's a ~ 13% chance of one of them getting a blue shell. As some will miss, say 10% for each time you pass an item box.

That means that there's a ~ 35-41% chance for each round of someone getting a blue shell. In other words, there will be at least one blue shell in 75% of all races.

Those numbers sound about right. I guess what I'm saying is I don't consider that to be very much, and really only a minor impediment to winning.

Any game that rewards last place drivers over and over with ridiculous powerups is a game that takes no skill. You can talk about 9999 vr or whatever you want but when I can sit my controller on the couch for the first 10 seconds of the races so I can turn into a ridiculously overpowered bomb that turns on a dime at 10x the speed of everyone racing and win proves it takes no skill. If you want a racing game that takes skill go play a racing simulator. Or at that play the original Mario Kart, not this uber casual uber easy version.

There is only 1 track where you will get a proper, almost reliable advantage from having a slow start (Peach Gardens DS... you need to pass the items in about 4th or 5th as you are likely to get a mushroom) and that doesn't involve being in last.

And the bullet bill is first of all quite rare so early in the race, but also gives only minimal advantage in speed (it's about 10-15% faster... same as the mushrooms... as such golden mushrooms are often far better items as you can drive a much better line or take shortcuts with it.

In addition, the bullet bill goes for a different amount of time depending on how far behind you are.... generally dropping you in the middle of the pack, if everyone is close together like at the start then it may catapult you to first.... but only just, and tragically you will bejust in front of a pack of racers tooled up with items to take you right to the back again.

Good to see you read the thread.  If one bullet bill allows you to win a race your opposition sucks. As Amp said, race against the guys in the OP, with or without powerups and they will destroy you again and again.

losers always think its a matter of luck.And BAD REVIEWERS.
BTW i do have a 9999 acc.And im a freaking KOOPA.Koopa.koopa.koopa...koopa.Not Funk,days or seudofunks.