Blue Shell Song

Mario Kart 8 does a lot right, including the fact that the blue / spiny shell moves along the ground to take out others en-route to the race leader, but the mere presence of that item is enough to irritate some. It likely annoys stronger players the most, as their reward for being rather good at the game is that they may be ruthlessly punished and dragged back to scrap it out with everyone else.

It's an item that's come to represent being hard-done-by, unfairly penalised at the last moment or, if you're particularly frustrated by it, cheated. Musical act The Brett Domino Trio has written a song about how being "blue shelled" can mean any number of trials and unfair happenings in real life; Nintendo UK likes it enough to have published the video itself, and wants you to tweet with #blueshelled to share your pain.

It's a pretty fun and true video, it must be said. Let us know what you think, while below is a Mario Kart TV highlight uploaded by our own Ken Barnes, occasional contributor to Nintendo Life and editor over at sister-site Pure Xbox. You could try a million times and struggle to have a race ending as close as this...