Item Box

Item Box
Artwork from Mario Kart 8
First appearance	Mario Kart 64 (1996)
Latest appearance	Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit (2020)
Effect	Gives an item when broken

“Touch an Item Box to break it open!”

—Lakitu, Mario Kart Tour

Item Boxes (or item boxes) are boxes featured mainly in the Mario Kart series. They first appear in Mario Kart 64, replacing the ? Panels of Super Mario Kart, and return in all subsequent games. Item Boxes resemble ? Blocks but have a generally translucent and multicolored design, and would receive an iridescent checkerboard pattern later on. When a character passes through them, they get a random item. Item Boxes have a hazardous counterpart, Fake Item Boxes, which do not grant items but flip players over. Item Boxes always hand out items depending on racers' positions, with more effective items going to gradually lower ranked players, with players in first position usually receiving either just a Green Shell or a Banana.

By holding and not releasing the "use item" button on a controller, players can hold some items behind them, such as Bananas and shells, referred to as "dangling." This allows players to protect themselves from rear attacks or collisions with other racers and, in most of its appearances, collect another item for use after the existing one is used up or is destroyed.

History

Mario Kart series

Mario Kart 64

Screenshot from Mario Kart 64, showing their original octahedron shape

Mario Kart 64 is the first game to utilize Item Boxes, replacing ? Panels from Super Mario Kart. Instead of being flat, square, and yellow like ? Panels, they have an octahedron shape with a ? in the center, and are multicolored and translucent. Colliding with an Item Box will provide the character with a random item; the item received is determined based on the place of the character - the farther back they are, the more powerful items they will get. Unlike ? Panels, Item Boxes respawn almost immediately after being used. The items can also be held behind the karts, a feature that did not exist with ? Panels.

Two of the Item Boxes provide only Spiny Shells, and are marked with a sideways question mark. They appear hanging from the balloon in Luigi Raceway and atop a large rock on Koopa Troopa Beach.

Mario Kart: Super Circuit

Artwork from Mario Kart: Super Circuit, the first game in which Item Boxes are redesigned

Item Boxes return in Mario Kart: Super Circuit, where they have been redesigned: they are cube-shaped, have white outlines, are not translucent, and have a bolder question mark on each of their faces, which themselves have different colors. Most are found in groups of three but some boxes are isolated in uncommon locations in the track. The Item Boxes rotate on one axis, except in Single-Pak Multiplayer, where they shrink and extend slightly instead.

Mario Kart: Double Dash!!

Artwork from Mario Kart Double Dash!!, showing its second redesign

In Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, Item Boxes make a reappearance, along with a new variety named Double Item Boxes. Unlike regular Item Boxes, Double Item Boxes grant both the driver and the thrower items. Item Boxes have once again been redesigned: they are still shaped like cubes, but they have a checkerboard texture, gain beveled edges, and feature translucency with one question mark like in Mario Kart 64, though the question mark itself is bolder and wider and has a blue outline. Also like in Mario Kart 64, they rotate sideways. Items themselves can now be lost and fall on the ground, such as when the player is struck by Lightning.

Item Boxes can travel independently for the first time. In Mushroom Bridge or Mushroom City they will follow the track like the other cars, while some in Peach Beach or Sherbet Land just travel back and forth. Moving Item Boxes respawn where they were last broken, except in Mushroom Bridge and Mushroom City, where they respawn in the pipe shortcut and in alleyways, respectively. It is also the only game where items from Item Boxes cannot be dangled.

In split-screen mode except for Battle Course stages, Item Boxes are brighter checkerboard texture than the normal checkerboard texture. In Bob-omb Blast, Item Boxes and Double Item Boxes only yield Bob-ombs, with the question mark icon depicting a Bob-omb icon to reflect this.

Mario Kart Arcade GP sub-series

The hexagonal item boxes from Mario Kart Arcade GP 2

Item Boxes appear in the first three games in the Mario Kart Arcade GP sub-series, where they are designed with a honeycomb-like hexagonal structure instead.

Mario Kart DS

The Item Boxes of Mario Kart DS are based on their appearance in Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, except with the beveled edges replaced with white borders, the checkerboard pattern using rainbow and transparent squares, and the question mark made smaller and recolored to be gray with a black outline. Double Item Boxes do not return due to the lack of a two-driver mechanic. The player is usually able to dangle Item Boxes but with exceptions such as Spiny Shell and Blooper. They also do not appear physically in the racer's hands and are no longer dropped when the player is hit by shells.

In DK Pass, there is an Item Box atop a large hill that always yields either a Star, Triple Mushroom, a Mushroom, or rarely a Red Shell. Similar Item Boxes appear during missions where the player has to win a racer against an opponent.

In multiplayer battle mode, defeated players can deploy unlimited Item Boxes in the manner of Bananas, but with a short pause between each one deployed.

The Item Box roulette sound effect of Waluigi Pinball has arcade-like noises, fitting the theme.

Mario Kart Wii

Item Boxes return in Mario Kart Wii, where they lose their checkerboard textures and white outlines and have with dot textures and more rounded corners. They also now change colors, and the question mark is slightly wider and white with a blue outline as in Mario Kart: Double Dash!! They act in a similar manner as in the previous games and nothing has been changed relating to function when an item is received. However, they do reappear at a slower rate than its precedents. Item Boxes are shown to be produced from Brick Blocks in Toad's Factory.

In Chain Chomp Wheel, some Item Boxes are in the center of a large star-shaped ring, and such Item Boxes often yield a Star or the occasional Mushroom.

In multiplayer modes, Item Boxes have spinning question marks inside them as opposed to being static in single-player mode.

Mario Kart 7

Item Boxes in Mario Kart 7

Item Boxes return in Mario Kart 7 with mostly the same design as Mario Kart Wii, except they do not change colors, the blue outline of the question mark is more pronounced, and the question mark itself is flat and floats up and down. Dangled items are no longer uncontrollably flung when the player is hit from the front, and items such as the Bob-omb and Spiny Shell no longer cause items in reserve to dissipate. Unlike in Mario Kart DS, they do not appear on the bottom screen's map.

While the "super Item Box" of DS DK Pass remains intact, the Spiny Shell-only Item Boxes from N64 Luigi Raceway and N64 Koopa Troopa Beach have been replaced with a regular Item Box and a Coin respectively. DS Waluigi Pinball also retains its unique item roulette sound.

Mario Kart 8 / Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

Item Boxes reappear in Mario Kart 8 with the same function as in previous games. The appearance remains about the same from Mario Kart 7, except it is a crystalline gray instead of a rainbow color, and the question mark is slightly larger, features a beveled outline, and now pulsates. This time, dangling no longer results in a freed item slot, while items also appear in the drivers' hands, a detail returning from Mario Kart: Double Dash!!. Some items, such as the Triple Bananas and Crazy Eight, activate automatically. Items are no longer lost when the player falls off the track, and when they are lost, they do not fall on the ground. The box has a new sound effect, for both the Item Box itself and the item roulette. In Mario Kart 8, the items players can receive are solely determined by their distance behind the leader, rather than position. In Animal Crossing, there are Item Boxes after the glider segment that are held up by balloons, which can be obtained by either gliding through the Item Box or by breaking the balloon. The Item Boxes in certain stages have special sound effects from their respective games, as opposed to the normal sound; Animal Crossing's play a variant of the music when a profile is loaded or saved, Hyrule Circuit's play the chest opening jingle from The Legend of Zelda games.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe retains not only Item Boxes but also Double Item Boxes, though without the two-driver mechanic. The player can only use one item at a time and receive a second item from a standard Item Box if there is a slot available. Additionally, Double Item Boxes are no longer randomly generated; rather, they appear in the same spot every time. There are two courses that do not have Double Item Boxes: GCN Baby Park and DS Shroom Ridge. In this game, the item given is now determined by both distance and position. Urchin Underpass' play the stat slot sound from Splatoon. DS Waluigi Pinball also retains its unique item roulette sound. The time for an Item Box to regenerate was shortened slightly in version 2.0, and furthered in version 2.1.0 to the point of regenerating near instantaneously.

Mario Kart Tour

A Frenzy Item Box found in a Mario Kart Tour Goomba Takedown challenge, giving the player a Bob-omb Frenzy

Item Boxes return once again in Mario Kart Tour with the same design as Mario Kart 8. They reappear much faster than in previous games. Replacing the Double Item Box is a feature allowing each character to hold two or three items on certain courses. When the racer drives through an Item Box, an item will be rolled in all empty item slots; if the Auto-Item feature is turned on, the remaining items will be used and all slots will be rolled. When all three item slots (if available) show the same item, Frenzy mode is activated, granting the player invincibility and allowing infinite uses of that item for a short time.

In general, if a racer drives through a spot where an Item Box that was broken by another driver is supposed to be, they will still obtain items even if the Item Box has not respawned yet; this is contrary to previous appearances, where racers would miss getting an item from an Item Box in the time it took to respawn. A Mario Kart Tour feature on the App Store stated that players can miss an Item Box if it has not physically reappeared after breaking; this is only true for Item Boxes found within Clampies, which do not reappear until a Clampy closes and reopens its valves to produce another Item Box, or when traffic breaks the Item Boxes.

Some bonus challenges contain Item Boxes with the question mark replaced by the image of an item, such as a Bob-omb. These will immediately give the player one of that item, regardless of how many item slots the driver has. The player also cannot activate a Frenzy with such Item Boxes, even if three are collected. Another special type of Item Box introduced in the Valentine's Tour has a pink appearance with a rainbow outline on the question mark, and immediately activates a Frenzy of a given item. This special Item Box appears in the Goomba Takedown bonus challenges held at SNES Mario Circuit 2, SNES Vanilla Lake 1 and Wii Mushroom Gorge, as well as the Take them out quick! bonus challenge held at N64 Frappe Snowland.

Like in previous appearances, DS Waluigi Pinball retains its unique item roulette sound.

Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit

Item Boxes appear once again in Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit, where they act identically to Mario Kart 8. Here, they act as a gate customization option. Any racer who drives through the customized gate will trigger an item roulette.

Mario Kart World

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This notice should be removed after a month has passed since the game was first released.

Item Boxes and Double Item Boxes return once again in Mario Kart World.

Mario & Sonic series

An Item Box in Dream Race, a Dream Event in the Wii version of Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games

In the Mario & Sonic series, Item Boxes appear in various Dream Events, functioning identically as in the Mario Kart games, but the items that they give vary, depending on the event or even position of the player. In the Wii version of Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, Item Boxes only appear in the Dream Race and Dream Platform events. In the Nintendo DS version of Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games, Item Boxes appear in the Dream Race, Dream Canoe, Dream Shooting and Dream Long Jump events. The items that can be obtained from these boxes vary depending on the event being played and in some events, the position of the player when they collect the Item Box. In the Nintendo DS version of Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games, Item Boxes appear in Ski Cross Racing, Rocket Ski Jumping, Extreme Snowboarding and Ski Shooting. In the game's Wii version, Item Boxes appear in both the Individual and Team versions of Dream Alpine, the Individual and Team versions of Dream Ski Cross, the Individual and Team versions of Dream Snowboard Cross, Dream Short Track, Dream Bobsleigh, Dream Ice Hockey, Dream Curling and Dream Snowball Fight. Additionally, in Dream Ice Hockey, one of the events that may occur when collecting a Wild Ball is a large number of Item Boxes appearing on the rink.

Mario Party: Star Rush

Item Boxes in Bowser's Shocking Slipup, a minigame in Mario Party: Star Rush

Item Boxes make an appearance in the minigame, Bowser's Shocking Slipup in Mario Party: Star Rush. Here, depending on the timing hit, they can deliver Lightning Bolts to Bowser or cause Banana Peels to spawn, which can stun players. Double Item Boxes appear and give out twice the number of items. During the second phase of the battle, Item Boxes spin faster.

Profiles and statistics

Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Sticker Item Box
	Artwork from: Mario Kart Double Dash!!
	Effects in The Subspace Emissary: [Freezing] - Attack +8
	Usable by: Anyone

Mario Kart Wii

Trading card information: Usually found strung out in a single line across the track, Item Boxes contain all of the Power-Ups, offensive and defensive items that make the Mario Kart series so interesting and enjoyable. From Bananas to Bob-ombs, don't miss your chance to hit an Item Box because you're definitely going to want what's inside. And if you use the Items to your advantage, they'll help you win!

• Game Tip!
  Item Boxes aren't always found in obvious locations. On some tracks you'll find them being pulled behind moving objects. Grab them anywhere you can!

Gallery

For this subject's image gallery, see Gallery:Item Box.

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  Mario Kart DS model

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  Mario Kart Wii artwork

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  Mario Kart 8 LINE sticker

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  Mario Kart Tour badge

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  Mario Kart Tour screenshot

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning	Notes
Japanese	アイテムボックス[?] Aitemu Bokkusu	Item Box
Chinese	道具箱[?] Dàojù Xiāng	Item Box
	问号方块 Wènhào Fāngkuài	Question Block	Chinese release of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
Dutch	Voorwerpdoos[?]	Item Box
	Voorwerpkist[?]		Mario Kart 8 electronic manual
French	Boîte à objets[?]	Item box
	Boîte à bonus[?]	Bonus box	Mario Kart 64 instruction booklet
German	Itembox[?]	Item Box
Italian	Cubo oggetto[?]	Item cube
	Riquadro Oggetti[?]	Item Square	Mario Kart 64 instruction booklet
	Blocco "?"[?]	"?" block	Mario Kart: Double Dash!! website
	Scatola[?]	Box	Mario Kart DS website
	Scatola oggetto[?]	Item box	Mario Kart Wii and Mario Kart 7 websites
Korean	아이템박스[?] Aitem Bakseu	Item Box
Portuguese	Caixa de itens[?]	Item box
Spanish	Caja de objetos[?]	Item box
Swedish	Objektlåda[?]	Item box