Mario Kart has blessed the world for 25 years now. Since its first game released in 1992, Mario Kart has become immensely popular and helped make Mario the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:highest grossing video game franchise. There are 8 games now make up the Mario Kart franchise with a list of iconic items. Whether they appear throughout the franchise or only in a single game, these items make Mario Kart a chaotic but fun raciꦗng franchiseဣ that won’t be leaving the gaming world anytime soon.

Most of the items on this list are usable by all players, although your position in a race influences what items you receive. Some of the items below are Special Items from Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, a game where characters are split into pairs. Each pair has its own Speciaꦿl Item: Mario and Luigi unleash dangerous Fireballs while Peach and Daisy wield defensive Hearts.

This list covers items from the 8 Mario Kart games released on Nintendo consoles. We did not include the Arcade GP spin-off games. After all, not even Nintendo treats the Arcade GP games as real Mario Kart titles: if they did, Mario Kart 7 and 8 would be 9 and 11 respectively. With a massive number of bizarre items, the Arcade GP trilogy doesn’t fit into the Mario Kart universe.

Since Mario Kart revolves around victory and defeat, players love the best items in the franchise and hate the worst. After racing through 8 games with dozens of items at our disposal, we’ve determined these are the 10 best and 10 most useless items in Mario Kart.

20 𓃲 ꦏ Best: Mega Mushroom

The Mega Mushroom is 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:one of the best power-ups in Super Mario, and it’s just as useful in Mario Kart. Once you’ve grown to enormous proportions with the Mega Mushroom, you can drive over any terrain, plow through almost any item, and crush your enemies. You drive much faster while slowing any players you hit, mak✤ing the Mega Mushroom one of the most powerful items in the franchise.

A few items can still harm you: anyone using a Star or Bullet Bill will harm players with a Mega Mushroom and end the item’s effects. Lightning will shr♈ink you back to regular size but will not harm you. Since so few items can affect you, you’ll likely make your way to first place with a Mega Mushroom.

19 Useless: Spiny Sh🌠ell (aka Blue Shell)

While the Spiny Shell (known by fans as the Blue Shell) terrifies racers in first p💮lace, the item is absolutely useless for the people who use it. Only players in the middle or back of the pack receive Spiny Shells. Instead of helping you move forward, the Spiny Shell attacks a player far ahead of you. The front player is slightly hindered while you remain exactly where you were before.

The Spiny Shell is, fortunately, more useful in its first games, Mario Kart 64 and Mario Kart: Super Circuit. Instead of flying ahead to only hit the first-place player,🎶 the Spiny Shell rolls acros🍎s the ground, hitting anybody in its path. Still, the Spiny Shell is unlikely to harm many players due to its small size.

18 💝 𝔍 Best: Giant Banana

Bananas would have made this list if we didn’t have the Giant Banana. As one of the most common items in the game, Bananas are wonderfully strategic weapons. Leading players try to find great places to put Bananas, and their followers avoid the Bananas. A fun challenge f🔥or all players, Bananas are great obstacles—but their size makes them far less effective than the Giant Banana.

The Giant Banana is exclusive to Double Dash!! as Donkey Kong’s🥀 and Diddy Kong’s Special Item. If you’re a defensive player who wants to stay in first place once you get there, you should play as the Kongs. In addition to taking up a large amount of space, the Giant Banana splits into three Bananas once hit. You could hinder up to four players with a single item.

17 Useless: Thu꧂nder Cloud

Few items are more disappointing than the Thunder Cloud. Successfully grabbing an Item Box is satisfying, and awaiting a new item is exciting — unless you end up with a Thunder Cloud. After a few seconds, the Thunder Cloud strikes its user with light⛦ning and shrinks them. You ca🃏n pass the Thunder Cloud to other players by hitting them, but other players know when someone with a Thunder Cloud is approaching them.

You use most items at your own pace, but the Thunder Cloud activates as soon as you pick it up. Even though you drive faster with the Thunder Cloud, you need to get rid of it as soon as possible. The Thunder Cloud wonderfully adds to the chaos that makes Mario Kart so fun, but players who receive a Thဣunder Cloud will probably fa𓂃ll behind.

16 𒁃 Best: Golden Mushroom

The Golden Mushroom is one of the most thrilling items in Mario Kart. Once you activate the Golden Mushroom, you have infinite boosts for a short period of time. Whether you use those boos🅠ts strategically or as quickly as possible, the Golden Mushroom will launc⛎h you from the back of the pack to the front.

Appearing in almost every Mario Kart game, the Golden Mushroom is essential to the franchise and to any players who fall behind in a race. Only Toad and Toadette may use the Golden Mushroom in Double Dash!!, soꦏ you should play as the Toads if you want to move to the front quickly. Unfortunately, you can lose the Golden Mushroom in certain circumstances, so it isn’t quite as valuable as invincible items.

15 𝓡 ꦬ Useless: POW Block

Theౠ POW Block initially seemed useful. Targeting anyone in front of the user, the POW Block seemed like a more balanced version of Lightning. The POW Block only affects you if you’re on the ground, forcing players to strategically time jumps. Unfortunately, Nintendo include🐟d another escape from the POW Block  —an escape that makes the POW Block almost completely useless. If you perform a wheelie at the right time, you’ll lose your items but continue moving as if nothing happened.

The POW Block could have been a powerful, interesting item, but it became useless when players figured out how to avoid it. Fortunately, the POW Block only appears in Mario Kart Wii a🍃s the gꦺame’s rarest item, so we don’t have to endure the item very often.

14 💜 🦂 Best: Super Horn

When it comes to defense, the Super Horn is the greatest item in Mario Kart 8. The Super Horn unleashes a circle o🅺f sound that harms players and destroys items in range—including Spiny Shells! Few items defend players from Spiny Shells, and most of them are acquired at the rear of the pack. You can🔯 acquire the Super Horn in any position. The Super Horn is useful in all ranks but particularly in first place, where the Super Horn guarantees protection from all projectiles.

Nintendo perfectly balanced the Super Horn with a short duration. After a single, short blast, the Super Horn disappears. The Super Horn is extremely useful—but only i💮f you use it at t🔜he right time.

13 🔯 𝓡 Useless: Bob-omb

While the Bob-omb can be extremely useful, it’s extremely difficult to aim and can easily backfire. You may either drop 𒁃the Bob-omb behind you or chuck it ahead. If the Bob-omb doesn’t touch anything, it’ll bounce for a second before blowing up; if it touches an item or enemy, the Bob-omb immediately explodes🍌.

With precisio🦂n and patience, you can harm multiple players at once. However, you may hit nothing with the Bob-omb, or you could accidentally hurt yourself. Since the Bob-omb blows up as soon as it touches something, you might be part of a “protective” explosion that blocks an item behind you. A misplaced throw will cause the Bob-omb to bounce back at you. If somebody knocks out your items, the Bob-omb ticks besꦇide you and explodes before you can drive away. Though it occasionally helps, the Bob-omb is usually more harmful than helpful.

12 Best💜: Red Shell

The Red Shell may not seem powerful compared to the other entries on this list, but well-timed Red Shells are often the key to victory. When in the front of the pack, you usually only receive Bananas, Green Shells, or Red Shells, and Red Shells are the most powerful of the three items. If used offensively, Red Shells act as homing missiles that target the player in front of you. Though avoidable in some early games, Red Shells are lethally accurate in current Mario Kart games.

Red Shells also serve as a defensive shield, particularly when you 🦄get Triple Red Shells. They protect you but can be used offensively at any time, making Red Shells one of the most vꦉersatile weapons in the series.

11 🐟 Useless: Green Shell 🐬

While Red Shells always benefit you, Green Shells rarely help. Green Shells perfectly represent the chaos of Mario Kart: if they don’t hit the target you were aiming for, Green Shells bounce around the map until they hit something — including you. Although they disappear after a little ♉while, Green Shells move so quickly that they usually end up hitting someone or falling off the map.

Like Red Shells, Green Shells are extremely common. They function well as shields but are pretty useless as🅺 offensive weapons. Only Triple Green Shells are somewhat effective; since Green Shells endlessly spin around you, you can destroy enemies by simply driving next to them. If you’re stuck with only one Green She𒀰ll, however, the item won’t do you much good.