Topic: Blue Spiney targets 2nd Place!

I'm playing the Lightning Cup on Grand Prix 150cc. I had previously placed 1st, 1st, 3rd, on the first three tracks. I'm on the 3rd lap of SNES Rainbow road, currently in 2nd place, with the finish line in plain sight. My point ranking placed me three points in the lead, so a second place finish on this track will be sufficient to earn me a gold trophy. I'm also dragging triple bananas behind me, so no need to worry about rouge red shells, and I just fired off my last mini-turbo. Thing looking pretty good ATM.

Out of nowhere, a Blue Spiny shell hovers over my head and blasts me to smithereens. HELLO, I'M IN SECOND-FRIKKING PLACE - NOT FIRST! I try to recover, but the damage is done, and I end up crosing the finish line in 5th place, netting a bronze trophy on the Lightning cup. No Likatu for me to unlock tonight...

I was under the assumption that the infamous blue shell only attcked first place. In the Wii version of Mario Kart as well as every other prior version since MK64, the Blue Spiney would still target 1st place, even after the player had already crossed the finish line. What gives? Totally unfair!

Anybody else had a similar experience?

I think that the blue shell went towards you because the person that was in 1st place has already finished the race before anyone else, so it can't target him.

Yes, about 10 minutes ago I had the same experience. I was playing online, and I was in 2nd place. The finish line was RIGHT THERE and I was almost there. Suddenly, about a few inches away from the finish line, a blue shell swoops in and hits me, like I was in 1st place or something... :/

So I ended up finishing in 6th place?!?

Yeah in my experiences the Blue shell goes after the first place car unless the first place car crosses the line and is done with the race if thats the case than it hits the next highest place that still has yet to cross the line.

Also in MK Wii if you play the team modes of Grand Prix than if a player on the red team uses it it goes after the highest place person on the blue team. Like if a red team member is in both first and second and a blue member is third it will hit the blue member in third place.

@Tasuki: Yeah.. exactly what I said. It's not that hard to figure out lol. I still think the blue shell needs a little more balancing, but you feel so awesome when you grab one out of a mystery box.

Sorry, but you're actually completely incorrect here. In all the games since Double Dash, after 1st place had finished, any blue shells would target 2nd place (or 3rd if 2nd had finished, etc.) unless they had already locked on to their target, in which case they would hit their original target (who had already finished by then) with no effect on anyone else. Sometimes it's even possible that a blue shell which passed you while you were in 2nd turns around and comes back to hit you if 1st place finished before the shell got within targetting range of them. In general, any player who finished becomes invisible to the blue shell unless the shell had already locked onto them right before they finished. However, once the shell has locked on to its target it will not change its target even if the target player finished before they get hit.
Incidentally, this can also lead to you getting hit in 2nd even if 1st is still in the race. This only happens if you are in 1st, a blue shell comes, and then you fall into 2nd after the shell has already gotten within targetting range of you. Because the shell already locked onto you, it will hit you even if you aren't in 1st anymore. In fact even if you fell into 8th the shell would still hit you because you were already targetted and the shell won't change its target once it locks on to 1st...
So yeah, that's my little lecture on how blue shells decide who to hit. Hope this helps!
@ryanthehedgehog I agree that blue shells could use a little more balancing but they're already much better than the flying piece of s**t that was in Double Dash, DS, and especially MKW. However they are more dangerous in MK7 because they are absolutely indestructible against anything (except explosions), including players with stars, bullet bills, track obstacles, and even walls!! That's right folks, blue shells can now go through walls as if they never existed. They can even go through the ground in some cases! Plus, blue shells are also way too smart to fall into any sort of bottomless pit...they just glide across them like you do, except they don't even need a glider of any kind!!!
_{you know, I would love to be able to drive in a huge, invincible blue-colored shell with spikes that can knock any- and everything out of its way and fly as if it were on normal, solid, ground}

As everyone else has already said, as soon as the first-place car crosses the finish line, second place becomes the new 'first' in the eyes of the blue shell.

That said, if you have any further MK7 questions or comments, please feel free to take them to the main MK7 discussion thread. Thank you! :3