Item of the Week #6

[Dark Seraphim]

Thunderbolt



First Appearance: Super Mario Kart (SNES, 1992)
Latest Appearance: Mario Kart Wii (Wii, 2008)

Here's the first of the non main franchise items to be reviewed, the Thunderbolt, primarily featured in the Mario Kart series. Its a useful item, known for being in the same ranks as the Bullet Bill, Super Star, and Blue Turtleshell for being able to turn the tide of battle in an instant.

Featured first in Super Mario Kart, the Thunderbolt has remained unchanged throughout the Kart franchise. When used, all players, except for its user, shrink down to miniscule size, severely limiting their speed. In addition, while shrunk, if the character is run over by a full-sized character, they will be flattened, leaving them forced to recover and allowing speedier characters the chance to get ahead. Limited only to races (and not usable in battle mode), simply coming across a Thunderbolt was often limited (as many of the stronger power-ups are) to those near last place, in dire need to a boost to give them a chance to turn things around.

Beyond the Mario Kart series, the Thunderbolt has appeared in a handful of other titles, in Paper Mario, the Thunderbolt's effect changed drastically. It no longer caused shrinking, but instead simply hit a target for 5 HP damage, the only real similiarity between the items being the name and design itself. In Super Smash Bros. Brawl the Thunderbolt's effect was more connected to its previous appearences, causing all enemies to shrink down to miniature size, cutting all their attacks and movement, and making them light enough to throw off the screen easily. However, in Super Smash Bros. Brawl the Thunderbolt also came at a risk of backfiring, although never seen in the Mario Kart games itself, it could accidently cause the user to shrink, instead of the enemies on the screen, making use of the item risky.

Last thing I will mention, is the Thunderbolt in its later Mario Kart incarnations came with a spin-off item of similiar power, the Thunder Cloud. An interesting take on the original effect, the Thunder Cloud starts by hovering over the user's head, giving them a speed boost in battle. However, after a certain amount of time has passed, the Thunder Cloud will turn on its current user and shrink them, the same effect the basic Thunderbolt carries, albeit on only a single target. The only way to avoid this effect is to bump into an opponent while the Thunder Cloud hovers above you, basically passing it off onto them, again making the use of his item risky and can take some time to master.


(The Thunder Cloud, as featured in Mario Kart Wii)

Item of the week #1: Hammer
Item of the week #2: Boo Mushroom
Item of the week #3: Metal Cap
Item of the week #4: Tanooki Suit
Item of the week #5: Ice Flower

[Luigiman7]

The Thunderbolt in Brawl can also make everyone else bigger.

[Dark Seraphim]

^Ah right, forgot it also did that as well. Its a real tricky item, kinda like the Hammer in Smash, everyone rushes for it, but it's always risky on who its actually going to help.

[Valigarmander]

"All right, my last lap and I'm in first place! Just a little more!"

*get hit by a lightning bolt while you're jumping over a pit, causing you to drop straight down into it*

FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUU-

[PK FIRE!]

Ah Mario Kart where would you be without a blatently cheating AI?

The Thunderbolt was rather usefull on the shorter tracks as it allowed you to gain position much more quickly.

- You stupid dog.

[Dark Seraphim]

Originally Posted by PK FIRE!

The Thunderbolt was rather usefull on the shorter tracks as it allowed you to gain position much more quickly.

The way I see it, the rare itesm were most useful at certain times.

The Lightning Bolt seems useles when you could skate forward to maybe 6th or 5th place, if you were too far back it really wouldn't do much. Plus although the Lightningbolt was strong in getting out ahead, it didn't effect your character at all, you could still fall off, get crushed, or get stuck on things in the way.

Still it was useful, and definately satisfying hearing the characters your friends would play crying out in those funny little voices.

[PK FIRE!]

That's true, though I still say that the AI cheats horribly at times most notebly on the final lap of a race especily on higher difficulty settings. It's not really a game of Mario Kart untill you've been smashed with at least two diffrent colored shells, a starman and had whatever item you were holding swiped by a passing AI racer.

- You stupid dog.

[Luigiman7]

I noticed in Mario Kart Wii, the AI cheats terribly. You get hit with a POW Block, then a Lightning immediately after. It's always two items together, but that combo alot.

[Dark Seraphim]

Well the problem with the AI, and its something I guess they really did have to do, is that each of the characters get "free items", each AI gets access to items anytime even though they didn't hit an item block, however I suppose this can cause a problem because they can also get regular items I think, so its not rare that there can be a sudden barrage of item uses I suppose . . .

I wouldn't say the AI cheats, but it is a little buggy where some races can be super easy, and others can be much more difficult based on who you're racing and when they decide to use their items.

The Lightningbolt was still fun though when you're the one using it though.

[PK FIRE!]

Another odd thing about the AI in the first Mario Kart is that it will ALWAYS jump a banana peel/dropped shell, this made the final track of Mushroom cup rather fun because of the speed boost jump you could always screw with the guy right behind you by dropping one of said items on the double arrows.

Also when I refer to the AI in Mario Kart I mean across the franchise the computer could be quite the jerkass in Double Dash as well.

- You stupid dog.

[Metal Mario]

Also, in every Mario Kart game, your computer opponents will never fall far behind you, no matter what place you're in or how many speed boosts you use. If you're in first place and you get too far ahead, the second and third place opponents will get fired at you like a Deku Seed from a Slingshot. You can zap them with a Thunderbolt and nail them with a Red Shell and then ink up their vision with a Blooper just for good measure, but they'll be right back on your ass inside of five seconds anyway.

[Dark Seraphim]

Originally Posted by Metal Mario

and then ink up their vision with a Blooper just for good measure, but they'll be right back on your ass inside of five seconds anyway.

Does the Blooper even do anything to AI opponents? I thought it was like the Nintendog in SUper SMash Bros. Brawl, it hurts the actual players, the AI can still move and attack as if there was nothing wrong at all.

[Metal Mario]

The Blooper is supposed to make AI characters swerve around on the road as if their vision has been obstructed. To what degree this actually handicaps the AI, I don't know.