No you can bash it as much as you like because it is timed. You theoretically have an infinite amount of powerups. However, some people, like me, believe that if you just hammer on the button you speed up, but not as much as if you were to hit it in a timed manner.

No it's on a timer from the first use but it still doesn't help spamming it, you will probably lose more then gain from spamming it instead of spreading them out.

Well I know that spammin it in mario kart 64 is actually worse as you're giving the mushrooms no time to accelerate you..

So I've always spread it out...

It depends... usually I give it about a second in between because mashing it is too much effort and doesn't make a difference.... I generally get about 6-10 boosts out of a golden mushroom.

I hit it every few seconds trying to maximize the acceleration.

I time them. Constant mashing doesnt seem to work as well.

I machine gun the hell out of them. My goal is to make Toad's throat sore yelling "yippie" (or whatever his battle cry is) from repeated mushroom use. When his voice sounds like Lars from "Bender's Big Score", then I'll finally be satisfied. Usually, some clever and talented player hits me with a lightning bolt or blue turtle shell or something, saving Toad's larynx for another day.


Off Topic: Where the Hell is the feather and the ghost power-ups from Mario Kart!? We need them now, more than ever!!

Natural, as you're near always first...

The ghost has been back since Mario Kart DS.

The feather though....?

Button mashing is the most effective technique in my opinion. An even more effective techique is to hack and have infinite amount of them. I've seen people that are really good at this.