Item Rule Number 1
An item is only as powerful, as how you're using it, always remember it!

Green is the color of bouncing
Greens ricochet on walls for a small amout of time, but disappears after it have bounced enough, but throwing it backwards actually makes it slow down first before speeding up and the dodge rate for that can be pretty high, but if there is a 180 degree wall in front of you, you can fire a green forward and move just right before it hits you, the one behind you might not have much more time than it would be fired backwards so be prepared.

Lack of tracing
Basicly Red shells will instantly move towards its target and ignores everything on its way, and making it pretty useless in many situations, simple as corners.
But a few Corners in the game are wide open, so if you're firing into the middle of the open turn, the tracing might hit the target from the side, avoiding shells and bananas that are behind him/her, and gives you the opportunity of taking the lead.
Also beware that sometimes when you fire a red shell right behind your target from the side, there is a slightly chance it will hit the target from the front, and totally makes the target unable to defend itself.

Life Mushroom
Some people tends to waste all their mushrooms just to get to the next item box and leave themselves enormously open to anything while doing so, but if you know all the shortcuts on the course, you might want to try saving them for the shortcut and hope the shock wont strike down and vaporize all your mushrooms stocks, but just one mushroom could be vital enough to decide who wins, so be careful.
Also if you're timing good, you can dodge a blue shell with a mushroom in your hand, if you're lucky enough to hold a mushroom to first place, that'll give you a few extra seconds or moments to keep the lead until the next one arrives.

Suicide Bomber
Well some people does appreciate carnage (like me) and prefer to suicide with a bob-omb if they're being targeted by red shells or greens, as you might take down the leader of the race with it, and just basicly ruin the gameplay for him/her, just for the fun of it.
Also Bob-omb works aslo with the wall trick (Green shells above), but you have to ensure it will bounce on the wall and actually pass you on the way back, otherwise it's a really dumb waste of a bomb if you're not hitting anyone.
Bob-Omb can also be used to delay or block shortcuts, forcing the other racers to take a detour, so be smart or you might end up dust in your face.

Barricades are pointless business
Too many items on one place, could be trouble for anyone, if one route is blocked entirely by items, you need to actually yourself taking a detour, try mine your way on the final lap instead of the other laps, cause it's the final lap, and you won't have to deal with items dropped on the final lap, if you drop them then.

Shockdodge with... bananas?
Silly how it sounds but you can dodge shocks with bananas, especially over dangerous jumps and such, cause if you throw a banana in front of yourself before the jump, you will spinout and hopefully dodge the target shocking (If someone is that evil), this works with fake item boxes as well, but it will make you spinout really bad, and it's maybe not worth it that much, and don't you dare try using a bob-omb for this... (Laugh)
You have to ensure the banana wont make you fall off the course, but not that the banana is thrown too early, so you wont dodge the shock when you're speeding above the gap and gets shocked then.

the POW is yours!
Pow is not really helpful when everyone is actually able to dodge it, but...
If people are really crowded together, you can use the pow, as their items might hit each other and create tons of chaos and possibly more chaos for you, so be careful.
Target POWing is really not worth it sometimes so you have to time it extremely good to take someone down, or you can basicly use POW to ruin it for the leader.

Got INK?
Yippie... there is actually a strategy to use Bloopers, and it's to use it when someone else is using a POW, cause while in a POWed state, it's harder for them to dodge anything when they can't see what's exactly in front of it, and this is possibly the only good thing to use Blooper anyway, so make good use for it!

You're my shooting star!
The Star have so many functions, you'll be surprised, but the best you can do with it is to dodge shocks, as it does not have effect for people with stars.
Try using a star while you're entering a cannon or launcher, cause shocks or often tended to be used when everyone have left the cannons for easier targeting.
Also if someone behind you is chasing you with a mega, stop, use the star, and enjoy the tumbling morons misstake of underestimating you.
Best way to use a star is to use it right before the items, there you might be able to get a bullet bill or a golden shroom as best to cover it up for the next process, and it'll give you the fair chance of actually being last and still win a really open track where items plays a big role.
Memorize how long a star song is, and you can try do a star combo perfectly.

Size Matters!
Some people doesn't know, that the hit box for each vehicle is different, so the bigger they are, the bigger the targets, so remember this all heavy weight users, your days our counted by the Tiniez

Blue Shelled and run
It's really hard to hold on to a blue shell and pass the on in first place and manage to fire it on him/her, while passing and dodging it as well and trying to gain a even bigger lead, but it's fun to try, and it will be well rewarded if you're doing it right, cause you might hit more than just one of them.

Mega Thieves
A really good person may know how to mega someone correctly without him noticing it, and maybe steal items, cause if you squash someone with a star, you'll end up having the star yourself, wich is very well rewarded for a great squashing. (Not that the Star have to be in the persons hand, and not USED)
Cause if you're in Mega, some items might be inside the vehicle and character and would be given to him immediately without hitting the ground.

Do you also have more item tricks to reveal?
Post it here then So long!

Needs moar images to make it look good but great work.

That is some useful guide, good job Flammie.

If i'm going to post up pictures, then i need to actually having someone making exclusive pictures for each section wich i hardly know anyone would do...

Nice.

You can find pictures of the items in my battle guide if you want the single items.

Or google image them aswell. What's wrong with using those?

Cool

Eurgh, don't remind me. I went from 2nd to last by using a POW on SNES MC3 second last turn last lap, I hit into Phantom Toad's green shell, he was in first, and I was right next to him, I hit the green and then everyone just passed me :|

good guide Flammie!