Should Special Items return in Mario Kart 9?

[GmanSir]

Pretty simple question. I want to know your thoughts on Special Items returning to the next Mario Kart title. In what capacity would you like them? Are there any changes you would implement? Would you make pre-existing items into Special Items similar to how Double Dash handled the Triple Shells?

 

[Shyghoul]

who gets the blue shell

 

[Weasel]

metal cyan larry

 

[GBA]

give gold mario the coin as his special item that way no one else has to roll it in first place ever again

 

[Jumping Spider]

No, even the stat boosts in Mario Kart Wii were ultra-annoying because everyone always played Funky Kong, Daisy, Baby Luigi and Baby Daisy, with some rare Warios and Bowser Jr.s (because they had the best stats, the ones that increased either the speed or the Mini-Turbo of your vehicle).
You'd always see the same characters every time, hearing the same exact voice clips over and over and seeing the same animations all the time, it was really boring.

The current method based on weight classed where no character has any stat boost outside of their class' stats is great, as it allows the characters to still kinda have an impact on your stats but it won't make one character be so prominent over the others (and even if Ludwig is indeed more played by other characters for his slightly smaller model which "shrinks" the kart a bit and allows to take curves in an even higher way, he's not as broken as any of the MKWii "top tiers", Funky would literally outrun you in a straight course section if you used the same vehicle and did the same actions but used a different character! It was so dumb! I can't even fathom how they added such a thing in the first place and THE EXTRA STATS WEEN'T EVEN DISPLAYED WHEN YOU PICK A VEHICLE!)

So yeah, having bonus weapons for each character would result in a similar situation where 1-2 characters have the best items and when playing Online you'll eventually get to a point where it's just those 2-3 characters repeated over and over because they're the strongest and everyone wants to use them to not be at a disadvantage. No, thank you, I want none of that...

 

[Mcmadness]

No, but I wouldn't mind certain ones coming back as regular items to be used. Always did enjoy those giant Bowser shells.

 

[Ray Trace]

No, even the stat boosts in Mario Kart Wii were ultra-annoying because everyone always played...Baby Luigi

I am okay with this.

 

[winstein]

Character stats are kind of flawed mainly because it's difficult to properly balance, and as a previous poster has pointed out, would lead to certain characters being favoured. Although I like that Princess Daisy is favoured, I have a feeling that the top characters being favoured makes them hated, and sometimes it can be taken too far as to be hated outside that one game!

Special Items unique to each character is something I am partial on, mainly because certain characters cannot get their Specials since some of them are designed to be taken advantage of at a lower place or a higher place.

A theoretical idea that I like to see is, every group of characters have their own item pool. It's similar to Mario Kart DS's Item stat where worse performance karts have better item pools (and vice versa), but certain characters have an item pool specifically to balance out their Special Items. For example, the Metal characters have a higher Coin chance to fit their Medium-sized Heavyweight class (which puts them ahead of kart balance) and a special item for a temp speed boost (slower than Mushroom) and able to squish others. It's a rather complex idea with a slim chance of happening, but it would give each character something distinct.

Thank you for reading.