Lightning (and Lightning Cloud)

[Toomai]

I'm not sure this is a "technology", but most items could be considered as such, so it's in here.

Lightning is the most powerful item in the Mario Kart series. Unleashing it causes all opposing drivers (or fighters, in a Smash Bros. battle) to shrink. So, the questions here are:

1. How does the shrinking happen? My first theory was that the lightning strike either tore away electrons or added excessive electrons to the target, but both of those would cause material to expand, not contract.

2. How is it used? MK:DD!! showed characters throwing the bolt downwards with the same animation as using a Mushroom or Star, and Smashers just have to touch it in battle.

3. Why are racers going through an automatic travel point safe? (I suppose this isn't strictly Lightning-related, but it could be, since most items can't get through the pipe/cannon to start with.)

4. How does the Lightning Cloud give racers a speed boost when it's clearly floating over their head, having no connection to the vehicle? Plus, why does it change targets when there's a collision?

5. In SSBB, Lightning can goof up and cause you to shrink or opponents to grow. The mistaken shrinking is understandable, but how can it cause growing?

[Meta Black Yoshi]

Maybe it's a actualy a magic spell. Also some of your description of it sounds strange to me, must be from the Mario Kart Wii, can't wait to get it.

[PDoogan]

First let me star off by saying I think the Mario kart lightning and the thunder rage item from Paper Mario are the same thing.

1. I think the shrinking thing is just a way of showing that you're temporally weaker (slower, easy to hurt)

2. Throwing it down probably give the lightning a ground so the electricity can be released.

3. They're probably not, but it would would be a pain in the but to make all the surrounding area of a travel point be able to have a kart fall through it.

4. I don't have MKWii so I'm not 100% sure what you mean

5. Again, I think the size thing is more metaphorical for how much power you have rather then your actual size.

[Toomai]

May 5, 2008 16:59:32 GMT -5 PDoogan said:

I think the shrinking thing is just a way of showing that you're temporally weaker (slower, easy to hurt)

That would work fine in most 2D Mario platformers. However, when Lightning is used in MK and SSBB, the affected characters' collision boxes/bubbles shrink correspondingly. They physically take up less room and are harder to hit.

[thedude3445]

Maybe the lighting item causes some lighting blast in a circle around the user in some radius.... The spectators aren't affected because of something....

I don't want to give up and go to magic spell, but it's already pretty hard.

As for the cloud, it might cause some electrical field to circle around the receiver.