I was playing this with Blade last week. I started off well, in second only to get the coins and then I got hit by 3 red shells... dropped me down to 8th.
Fair enough, I'll see if I can make it up. I'm racing and get back to 10 coins, now I need some help with items... my next 2 item boxes give me coins yet the person in 7th, only just in front of me gets 3 red shells, twice! So now I can't risk overtaking him and I'm stuck behind him, only with us both having moved up one place after he used his shells on the guy ahead of him. The third item box I get a banana, the guy we overtook gets 3 red shells and peppers me with them... and the guy in front gets a fucking bullet bill to fly on ahead whilst I'm tumbling further down the list... I leave the race, can't be arsed with that shit.
This seems to happen far too much. I'm on 10 coins but can't stop pulling coins out of item boxes when people around me get awesome items, it's crazy.
That I can't talk to anyone adds to the frustration because if we could and people were taking the piss out of what was happening to me I could laugh with it and find it fun. Instead it's just irritating and not fun.