In Mario Kart: Double Dash the Mushroom Kingdom just got a whole lot more hectic as Mario and friends double up for furious kart racing. This time around, each kart holds two racers that can switch places at any time, so choose from a huge cast of favorites and pair them up any way you see fit. The character in front handles the driving duties, while the character in the rear doles out damage with six normal items and eight special items that only specific characters can use. It’s multiplayer mayhem at its most intense.
System: GameCube
Genre: Racing, Action
Release dates: November 7th 2003 (JPN), November 14th 2003 (EUR), November 17th 2003 (USA)
Players: 1-4 simultaneous, 1-8 via LAN play (requires broadband adapter and extra game disc)
Save: 3 Blocks
Developer: Nintendo EAD
Publisher: Nintendo
Creator: Takashi Tezuka
Origin: Japan
Rating: E for Everyone with Mild Cartoon Violence
Pick a partner and race through wild courses as you compete in tough circuits or duke it out with power-ups and items in battle arenas. Double the fun! Each kart holds two racers who can switch places at any time. The character in front handles the driving duties, while the character in the rear doles out damage with six different items plus eight special items that only specific characters can use.
Mario Kart: Double Dash features Mushroom Kingdom’s finest drivers. Choose from Mario, Baby Mario, Luigi, Baby Luigi, Peach, Daisy, Toad, Toadette, Yoshi, Birdo, King Boo, Petey Piranha, Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, Bowser, Bowser Jr., Koopa Troopa, Paratroopa, Wario and Waluigi, and pair them up in any combination. As you race, use six standard items like Bob-ombs, bananas and more to disrupt other racers. As for the eight special items that can only be used by specific characters, this makes character selection a very important part of the game.
Place first in racing circuits to open up progressively more difficult circuits. Of course, you can have multiplayer races on any open courses or battle in arenas. Link the game with eight other players using a broadband adapter and race each other side-by-side using multiple game systems and multiple televisions!
Mario Kart: Double Dash is usually pure chaos. Very few multiplayer games can compete with the replay value and excitement that you’ll find in this game. Mario Kart: Double Dash attempts to take this well-established series to the next level of fun and unpredictable exhilaration.
Watch the Mario Kart: Double Dash launch trailer.
What the above comes down to that Double Dash has rather different gameplay from other Mario Kart games in the series. For example: players cannot hold items behind themselves, which makes it more difficult to block incoming shells. It is also the first game in the series that forces players to drop their items when hit by a weapon. The game also features multiplayer battle modes, and as in previous installments, the battle arenas are enclosed, with varying architecture and a constant arsenal. In addition to the traditional balloon-popping battle game, two new games have been implemented. The first game involves capturing a Shine Sprite and maintaining possession of it for a time period. The other game involves throwing bob-ombs at each other. Double Dash also allows LAN play by using the Nintendo GameCube broadband adapter. Up to eight GameCube consoles can be connected, allowing for 16 player multiplayer games, with two players controlling each kart.
Players can choose from a cast of Nintendo characters who are split into light, middle, or heavy weight classes. The player’s character choice affects which karts that can be ridden and which special items they receive. Double Dash builds and improves on its predecessors in many ways, the most prominent feature being that each kart carries two riders; a driver and an item thrower. There are sixteen courses to race on, and each cup features four tracks. Five different cup races are available, one of which is the all-cup tour, including all sixteen tracks. Each track is also playable in “Mirror Mode”, in which the tracks are mirrored. This mode is only available for 150cc.
Aside from the usual twists and turns, bumps and speed strip, the tracks contain barking Chain Chomp that makes a grab for you on Luigi Grand Prix, long Wiggler-shaped vehicles patrolling the highways of Mushroom City. Floodlit stadiums, balmy jungles with perilously undulating log bridges, and Isle Delfino-situated town-and-beach courses are just some of the sights you’ll come across.
The game includes 21 karts, which are categorized by weight. Only eight of the karts are available from the start, and the other 13 may be unlocked by successfully completing races. The lightweight karts have good acceleration and handling, and are easily able to traverse rough terrain, but they have low top speeds, can be knocked around by larger karts, and can only hold light characters. Heavyweight karts usually have high top speeds, and can knock around many smaller karts, but they have poor acceleration, steering, off-road handling, and can only be manned if there is at least one heavy character. The middleweight karts’ performance are well-balanced, but they cannot hold heavy characters.
After the traditional start line countdown from little Lakitu, you’re handed control of the kart with both its occupants – and the handling is as spot-on perfect as ever, the Control Stick and the L and R Buttons allowing you to slide and boost and dodge and bounce your way around each course with breathtaking ease. But it’s the Z Button – which makes your characters swap seats – that unlocks Mario Kart: Double Dash’s true potential.
It works like this. When you crash through a rainbow-colored item block, it’s the passenger who nabs the power-up inside (you can actually see them holding it in their hands). But because each Double Dash character has access to a unique, chaos-causing super power-up – Bowser’s colossal spiky shell, Donkey Kong’s house-sized banana skin – there’s real strategy in deciding which of your two karters is sitting in the back when you collect an item. Plus, item-holding passengers will hold onto their item if they’re swapped into the driver’s seat (big pockets, see), so storing up items and using them wisely makes for more tactical play.
Watch a Mario Kart: Double Dash race video.
What are Mario Kart: Double Dash’s main features?
* Based on Mario Kart 64, Double Dash emphasizes placing first in racing circuits opening up progressively more difficult circuits.
* Choose two of your favorite Mario characters and hit the strip – Mario, Waluigi, Peach, Bowser, Wario, and 20 total.
* Compete in two-seater racing karts, and choose a team to drive — one handles the wheel, the other hands out damage to competing karts.
* Character-specific power-ups, means Yoshi rolls his egg, Wario can toss bombs, etc.
* Look for shortcuts and head for the finish line on amazing tracks set in fantastic Mushroom Kingdom locations.
* Race through wild courses as you compete in tough circuits and duke it out with power-ups in battle arenas.
* Compete against your friends in Grand Prix, Versus, or Battle modes. If you choose, two players can work together to control the same kart.
* Time Trials is present and allows you to save multiple ghosts per track to improve your times.
* Go into a racing frenzy in super-fast four-player action — or link up the game with other players using a broadband adapter and race each other side-by-side using multiple game systems and multiple televisions, for 8-person multiplayer action!
* Progressive scan supported (no widescreen).
* Dolby Pro Logic II surround sound supported.
* Supports Logitech steering wheel controllers, for better control and gameplay.
Watch Mario Kart: Double Dash’s multiplayer gameplay.
As a conclusion let’s rate this game on its fun-basis.
FUN FACTOR – 7.5
It took Nintendo about seven years to release a new console kart racer after Mario Kart 64, Double Dash is what they came up with. The game can best be described as addictive racing party game with the new addition this time around of being able to race in one kart with two players, where one steers and the other controls the power-ups. It’s a novel addition that you’ll either enjoy or find boring depending on if you like being in control, although you can switch around at any point during the race and the character specific power-ups can add a new element of surprise. This will of course lead to you and your friends whooping and yelling at each other in pain and joy.
It’s great to get over a dozens new racing tracks to speed on, each with their own secret short-cuts for you to uncover, there are some really original tracks like Donkey Kong’s jungle that are literally a blast to play as you get shot through the air. Two-player Grand Prix can definitely get the competition going and Versus mode is best played with at least 3-4 players, otherwise the tracks will seem overly long-stretched and boring without others picking up and shooting the various fun power-ups as you race and fight to be the first over the finishing line. I do hope the next kart game will receive some new gameplay modes, but there’s nothing wrong with what’s always been there. While the new variations (Shine Thief and Bomb-Omb) in Battle mode are welcome, the all-new battle maps themselves are horribly uninspired and dull to play (one’s just a square with nothing on it) which is a crying shame, because for a large part of the series’ fanbase it’s the main reason for playing the game.
If you’re a Wii owner looking to expand their GameCube-compatible system with this $30 game anno 2008. Then I’d have to suggest you wait for Mario Kart Wii, the addition of online multiplayer for all modes to that sequel is worth the extra $20 alone. While that might have sounded like a bit of a glum judgment on Double Dash due to the lack of option expansions by Nintendo back in 2003. The endresult is still a great GameCube-exclusive frantic multiplayer game for people of all ages to pick up and play.
Graphics – 7.5
Double Dash runs at 60 frames per second at all times during single- and multiplayer. There’s definitely a lot more animations going on in the characters and environments compared to previous games in the series. If almost every object in the game having eyes and smiles don’t make you feel happy enough already, the graphics are extremely colorful and make everything feel almost candy-coated. The far from detailed textures can be excused since the entire game looks cartoony.
Audio – 7.0
The soundtrack is ok for MIDI scores, it’s filled with cheerful happy music that might make you whistle along, but it won’t improve with the Dolby surround sound on. The game was composed by Shinobu Tanaka and Kenta Nagata. It features many of the original voice actors from the Mario series, like Charles Martinet as Mario, Luigi, Wario, Waluigi, Baby Mario, and Baby Luigi, Jen Taylor as Princess Peach, Toad, Toadette, and Birdo, Deanna Mustard as Princess Daisy, Kazumi Totaka as Yoshi, Scott Burns as Bowser, and Dolores Rogers as Bowser Jr. But in the end the gameplay makes their characters repeat the same couple of lines over and over again. Sound effects like those of the engines and weapons are your standard fare.
Ingenuity – 8.0
Double Dash can come off as a bit of a mixed bag, if you don’t like the new co-op driving you’ll feel the game is nothing more than a same-old Mario Kart 64 remake. But if you do enjoy the new tracks, power-ups, and driving on one kart with a friend or by you controlled two-character switcheroo mechanic, then you’ll be hooked on the multiplayer for a long time. In the end, all the familiar Mario Kart gameplay with steering, powersliding (around corners for speed boosts), and power-up controls are back and you’ll have to use them all to win out in a race to the finish line.
Replay Value – 7.5
The single player modes can definitely keep a racing or Mario Kart fan happy on their own with a good variety in courses, characters and modes. You’ve got a Special Cup, Mirror Mode, and secret characters to unlock. And it’ll take a few weeks before you can beat the computer players on hard mode. While you’ll be done with the battle mode in a matter of minutes, as with all Mario Kart games, the magic lies in the hectic ever-changing multiplayer racing matches that can keep you busy for more weeks, if not months. While there’s the option to play the game in multiplayer via LAN mode — to give each player their own screen — the fact that it requires another TV, GameCube, broadband adapter and copy of the game, makes this a pointless addition. By the way, going back to talking about the new tracks, am I the only one who always dreads playing every new incarnation of rainbow road? I love the music, but hate the long track.