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Nintendo Boss Finally Confirms the Absolute Worst Item in Mario Kart

We spoke with Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aimé about the highly-anticipated Zelda: Breath of the Wild

By Jenna Mullins Jun 17, 2016 5:02 PMTags
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There are two very important things to remember about the Mario Kart series:

1. People who use the cheat jump in Wario Stadium are pieces of garbage who should just play the track! And no, we're not bitter just because we can only make that jump 50 percent of the time.
2. The worst item to have comin' at you while you race is a divisive topic that can cause long-standing friendships to crumble in minutes. Is it the blue shell? A red shell? Or a well-thrown green shell, which is one of the worst things ever since they have to aim to hit you?

Well, we thought we'd answer that question by going to one of the few people who could probably help out the most in this debate: Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aimé.

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We spoke with Reggie exclusively right in the middle of all the E3 2016 action at Nintendo's booth on the convention floor. Before we got to chatting about the biggest game to come out of E3 this year, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, we had to set some things straight in Nintendo land.

"I hate getting inked," Reggie complains when we asked him what he thought was the absolute worst item to get hit with in Mario Kart. He is, of course, talking about the Blooper item, which actually didn't come around until Mario Kart DS. Perhaps before it came around, the blue shell hitting you while in first place was the most hated scenario. But now, Reggie has spoken. The ink is the worst. And in case you were wondering, Reggie prefers to play as Yoshi.

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Nintendo finally gave fans a good, long look at the next installment in the beloved Zelda franchise at E3, and if the hype before the trailer and game footage wasn't at volcanic levels, it certainly is now. Especially when everyone saw just how vast and open the world was, which was a very important concept for the Zelda team to get right. 

"As [Eiji] Aonuma and the team were thinking about what to do next with Zelda, this thought of exploration, open air, the ability for you, if you want, to go try and take on the big bad boss right at the get go...it won't go so well, but you can!" Reggie tells us. "You have all of that freedom. That's what they wanted. … The game is a masterpiece."

You heard him, guys. You can try and take on Ganon as soon as the game starts. It's a bold strategy, let's see how it pays off for us when the game comes out.

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The idea of a non-linear progression through the game is a departure from the series, but Reggie promises there will still be many old-school Zelda aspects to BotW.

"There still is puzzle solving. You still are questing to find better and better weapons, to beat tougher and tougher enemies out there," he says. "Over the next couple of months we'll share more and more about what's the same and what's different. There still are elements that are traditional to a Zelda game. We believe it's the best of both worlds."

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We were able to play a demo of the game while at E3 and Reggie is right. It truly is a masterpiece. It looks gorgeous and we know we'll spend hours and hours not paying attention to the quest and just hunting rogue bokoblins throughout the world. What's amazing about BotW is that no two players will have the same gaming experience, since there's so many different ways to explore the world. So much to do, so much to see…so much time between now and the release of the game!

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Unfortunately, Zelda fans will have wait until next year to get their hands on Breath of the Wild. In the meantime, we'll just be sitting in the corner, rocking back and forth and mumbling to ourselves until we finally get to experience Link's next big adventure.

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