TheMario Kartseries is well known for its chaotic gameplay that is fast, frantic and fun. What makes it so iconic is the various items that you may get randomly fromItem Boxesto destroy your competition and take the glory home in first place at the cost of your own vehicle.
These items range from turtle shells to actual explosives and while in the fantasy world of the game, drivers and karts come out fine, real-world cars would not fair the same. Mario Kart items could cost you a fortune in repairs in the real world, but which would do the most to your precious vehicle?
Any items that only appeared in spin-off titles or a single game have been left off this list to prioritize the core items.
The Best Case Scenario
Estimated Cost In Damages From A Blooper / Boo: $0
First appearance in the series: Boo - Super Mario Kart, Blooper - Mario Kart DS
Latest appearance in the series:Mario Kart World
These two items are the least of your concerns in the real world, as they both do not harm the car itself. The Blooper may be dangerous as a hazard blocking your view with ink, but if you simply remain calm and stop on the side of the road to clean off the ink, you will be fine.
With Boo, it would likely just steal a random object from inside your car, such as any food or perhaps even your phone. Depending on what Boo takes, it could end up being pretty costly, but at least your car will survive interacting with a Mario Kart item in one piece.
14Coin / ? Block (Coin Box)
Free Money!
Estimated Cost In Damages From A Coin / ? Block: $50 - $200 (If Thrown)
First appearance in the series: Coin - Super Mario Kart, ? Block - Mario Kart Tour
Latest appearance in the series: Mario Kart World
Looking to earn some extra money on the road, then the Coin and ? Block items will be your get-rich-quick scheme. In the games, these two items give you a set amount of glimmering coins to help increase your speed, but in the real world, they would just join the pile of change you already have all over random crevasses of your vehicle.
Even if we assume that the Coins are being thrown like rocks at your car, since they are not all too big, they would likely only scuff and scratch up the paint. Who knows why someone would throw money at another car, but road rage can lead to the most random of occurrences.
13Boomerang Flower
Right Back At You
Estimated Cost In Damages From A Boomerang Flower: $150 - $600
First appearance in the series:Mario Kart 8
This item works just like a boomerang does in real life, but it travels in a straight line before coming back to you no matter where you are. The Boomerang Flower is able to launch a boomerang that flies quickly forward with immense speed and force.
The damage this item could do entirely depends on its size, as in-game it is quite large, but is the size of a regular boomerang when held. The average boomerang would just leave a small dent in the paneling, even when thrown at high speed. A larger one, like those seen in the games, could cause heavier damage, potentially even breaking the paneling on impact.
First appearance in the series: Super Mario Kart
The Banana is an item that all Mario Kart players can recognize. With an innocent yet evil smile, these are thrown onto the track and wait for you to accidentally drive straight into them. In real life, if they have the same powers they do in Mario Kart, they are not ordinary bananas.
In the games, the Bananas will cause any kart to completely spin out from slipping on the peel. If this were to happen on a real road, your car would likely get into an awful accident due to how uncontrollable and sudden the spin-out is.
11Green Shell / Red Shell / Coin Shell
Turtle Power
Estimated Cost In Damages From A Green/Red/Coin Shell: $300 - $600
First appearance in the series: Red / Green Shell - Super Mario Kart, Coin Shell - Mario Kart World
Without the Shell items, Mario Kart would be nothing, and they are asiconic to the seriesas Mario himself. These common items are shells taken from Koopas and turned into throwable weapons that either bounce all around, home in on cars in front, or stick to the middle of the road to collide with karts and take out racers.
The one issue with Shell items is the fact that they travel across the ground; if they were to collide with your car, they would just hit the lower parts. If the Shells were thrown directly at the body of the car, then they would likely leave a more damaging dent, especially with their size and the fact that they shatter upon impact despite being solid turtle shells.
This moderately useless item in the games is a strange one to rank in terms of damage, as all it does is launch your kart up into the air with a jump. Now in a race with items flying everywhere, that is great, but in real life, this would likely cause some issues with suspension, and worse if used at a bad time.
The high jump you receive could be fine, but most modern cars are not made for randomly being flung up into the air. At best, only your suspension would be damaged, but at worst, the Feather could cause you to land on something and damage your car’s underbody frame, which is not cheap.
9Fire Flower / Ice Flower
Freezing Flaming Flowers
Estimated Cost In Damages From A Fire Flower / Ice Flower: $500 - $3,000
First appearance in the series: Fire Flower - Mario Kart 7, Ice Flower -Mario Kart Tour
Latest appearance in the Series: Mario Kart World
Harnessing elemental powers is as simple as picking a flower in the Mario world, and even when kart racing, Mario and friends make sure to pack plenty of heat and chill with the Fire and Ice Flowers. These items are able to rain the track with hot fireballs and chilled ice balls, respectively, and we aren’t talking simple snowballs and flames.
Both of these can cause some serious damage depending on how intense each elemental ball is. For the Fire Flower, it could leave major burns or even melt certain plastic parts of the car, requiring them to be replaced. With the Ice Flower, it could leave massive dents from the density and hardness of the ice balls, potentially even breaking panels.
8Super Horn
Glass Shattering Honking
Estimated Cost In Damages From A Super Horn: $1,200 - $3,000
First appearance in the series: Mario Kart 8
The Super Horn sends an extremely loud sound around the driver, which, despite being just sound waves, is loud enough to destroy any basic item with its reverberations and high pitch. This even includes the tough turtle shells of the Green, Red, and Spiny Shells.
The high-pitched sound of the Super Horn is definitely strong enough to shatter all the windows on your car and this alone will set you back thousands. Surprisingly, this is actually one of the least concerning items, but we would still be careful about honking your horn in traffic, just in case someone has a Super Horn at the ready to shatter any glass.
7Mushroom / Dash Food / Golden Mushroom
Speed Not Suited For The Roads
Estimated Cost In Damages From A Mushroom / Dash Food / Golden Mushroom: $2,000 - $10,000
First appearance in the series: Mushroom - Super Mario Kart, Dash Food - Mario Kart World, Golden Mushroom - Mario Kart 64
These delicious food items are some of the most useful in the series, giving you access to shortcuts found all overevery track.While in the games, the Mushrooms and Dash Food cannot cause any damage, only bumping karts, on the real road, they would cause horrible accidents due to the wild speed boost they give.
If someone was to collide with your car using a Mushroom boost, it would likely leave the back end of the car in shambles, even if the boost was capped at your car’s top speed. On the flip side, if you were to use these items, you would struggle to control your car as the sudden speed would be uncontrollable in the average car, leading to, once again, a collision.
6Lightning
Lightning Strikes Back
Estimated Cost In Damages From Lightning: $7,000 - $30,000 (Potentially A Total Loss For Electric Cars)
This dangerous item is known for its destructive potential to hit everyone in front of the player using it (as of MKW) with a bolt of lightning, shocking them and shrinking them down. Even without the shrinking property, this item would deal serious damage to any car, just as a real lightning strike would.
For the unfortunate few in the real world to have had their vehicles struck by lightning, they have seen any electrical components of the vehicle end up fried and needing to be replaced. The danger of this item depends on how electronic your car is and, for electric-powered cars, especially, it would destroy core components.
