The blue shell ...
... one of nature's most graceful ruthless karmically loaded creatures.
It is known by many names.
Blue justice.
The great equalizer.
Spiny's revenge.
Death and taxes jerk friend.
The liam neeson.
The five stages of grief in three seconds.
All right I'm done.
We have all found ourselves on the spiky explosive end of
one of these in our Mario Kart history. We've all shouted curses at hearing that
familiar hiss.
But the fact remains that the spiny blue shell makes Mario Kart a better game.
So why is it in there? What does it do? Well to start off, let's just be clear
about how exactly the blue shell works.
The blue shell is a homing missile. When fired, it speeds down the track smashing
through any racer in its way to the front.
Where it homes in on the player currently winning the race, and ruins
their day, causing a huge explosion that may also hit the racers and second and
third if they aren't careful.
Interestingly, the blue shell is only ever granted the players who are far
behind,
often those currently in last place. The specifics of its rules have varied a bit
from game to game since its debut in Mario Kart 64, but it's a pretty safe bet
that if you're in first or second or third place, you will not be getting any
blue shells. At least not in the way that you'd like.
So one reason for the blue shell to exist is obviously to serve as a
catch-up mechanism. If you're a racer trailing far behind the rest of the pack,
you need more powerful items if you're going to catch up, and you especially
need to keep the person and first from increasing their lead if you're even
gonna have a chance to win the race. At the end of the day, getting completely
stomped, just isn't fun.
The blue shell helps to ensure that no one gets left completely in the dust
without a chance to come back. But here's the really crazy thing.
It's actually not fun to be uncontested way out in front in Mario Kart either.
If you're just dominating, if you're far ahead of the pack there's really nothing
for you to do. You don't get to use your items,
you can't interact with any of the other players. It just turns into a mediocre
racing game at that point, instead of the wild goofy kart racer we all love.
Unfortunately the whole design of the game tells you that the goal is to get
way out in front.
It's the objective you're given as a player: Come in first. Get to the front
Stay in the front. Leave everybody in the dust. The objective you're given as a
player drives you toward a play state that's way less interesting than most of
the rest of the game, which makes the game less fun for everybody involved.
So the designers had to include something to prevent this from happening.
Hence, the blue shell: a weapon which when fired, will not stop until it has
exploded on the racer in first place.
But adding the blue shell as just another weapon in the game introduces a
new problem, because the designers are trying to build close races where the
players are constantly interacting with each other, and yet if the player in
second place gets their hands on a blue shell, they can very easily use it to
claim a huge lead for themselves, which just leaves us with the same design
problem we had before.
This is why the item only shows up for the players who are pretty far behind in
the pack.
It's not just a way to help the players in the back to catch up, but also a way
to have the arrival of a blue shell,
be just as much of a surprise to the player in second, as to the player in
first. Because the player in second doesn't control the timing of the blue
shell, ...
they can't take perfect advantage of it when it shows up. It often give them a
chance to pull ahead of the front-runner, but it rarely gives them time to zoom
ahead and disappear into the sunset.
Additionally, the blast radius on the blue shell is designed so that if the
first and second place racers are neck and neck,
it's very likely that the second place player will either get caught in the
explosion themselves, or have to swerve around it,
sacrificing speed for a few precious seconds, and giving the rest of the
racers a chance to close the gap.
So now the designers have addressed one of the biggest problems with standard
play: the fact that a close game is far more enjoyable for everybody involved, then
a game where people are way ahead or way behind.
Unfortunately in doing so they've now optimized the game for what I guess
we'll call "casual players", people just looking to have an awesome night of
Mario Kart with their friends. But in doing so, they sacrifice some of the
game's play ability for what we'll call "tournament players", people who are
totally committed to mastery of the game, and want their superior play to be
acknowledged. A group which probably makes up five to ten percent of the
playerbase. To this sort of player, the blue shell is especially frustrating,
since as we've mentioned, it's effectively random.
None of the players out in front know when it's coming, and it has a huge
impact on the game. By design, the blue shell ensures that the most skilled
player doesn't always win.
Which is actually not as big a problem as most people think, even at the
tournament level, but only if the skilled player has some way to counter the
randomness.
I mean, a bad draw can happen in poker, and it may give you a handicap, but it
doesn't guarantee a loss. But a late-game blue shell and mario kart absolutely can,
if you're not given the means to counter it.
So what did the designers do to resolve that problem? Well they gave the absolute
highest level players ways to play around the blue shell.
They made it avoidable, under certain circumstances, and gave a counter play.
But they made that counter played very difficult to execute in order to not
undo all the work they've just done to improve casual play. The ways to avoid a
blue shell vary from game to game, but they almost always require incredibly
precise timing, or preserving an item that you can only get when your way back
behind sixth place.
Amusingly, if you don't have the items you need to deal with a blue shell, and
you spot one sailing towards you,
one of the smartest high level players you can make is to slam on your brakes
at the right moment, to make sure the player behind you get hit too.
Or if you do it just right, maybe you can get the other guy to pass you in just
the right moment for the blue shell to lock on to him instead.
Sure it's still a sub optimal situation for the leading player, but at least it
gives them some agency over the situation. They feel that by being a good
player and by playing smart, they can mitigate some of the damage the blue
shell does, which is really all you have to do to make randomness more acceptable
in high level play. Before we wrap this up,
let's look at the changes made by the designers in the most recent iteration:
Mario Kart 8
What does it tell us about the vision and intent behind the series, that in the
most recent game, designer specifically put in an item that destroys the blue
shell? Truth is, it means the audience is getting more hardcore. The Super Horn
appears rarely enough so as to not negate the fact that the blue shell
creates tighter races, but it does allow tournament players a much better chance
to effectively play around this element of the game.
This sets up Mario Kart 8 to be a much more tournament friendly game,
implying that the design staff and Nintendo are starting to consider that
group of it more heavily, as they plan out Mario Kart games.
So that's it for this week, whether you hate it or you really, really hate it,
the blue shell is there because being way ahead is almost as un-fun as being
way behind, and that big blue explosion makes for tighter, more enjoyable races
for all of us,
even if it doesn't always feel like it.
*sighs* That's frustrating.
Subtitles corrected by: Itsmega