Mario Kart: Double Dash!!

Written by Matt Swider  on December 01, 2003

Second View: Kart Konspiracy #382: In Mario Kart 64, it always sounded as if our Italian plumber in red was saying УI got t'itФ when crossing the finish line. Now, in Double Dash!!, it sounds like he's says УI'm the wiener!Ф

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Mario and his mushroom kingdom crew have either spearheaded or contributed to almost every genre throughout Nintendo's digital lifetime, many of these game types having already appeared on the GameCube at least once. The latest to join the ranks of Mario's platform, party and melee games is kart racing, a subgenre created in 1992 when Super Mario Kart released on Super Nintendo. Though this game spawned a Nintendo 64 sequel five years later, a handheld edition during the first year of Game Boy Advance and several other imitations in between, the concept behind kart racing remains relatively the same today as it did nearly a decade ago and it stays successful so long as the cast includes Nintendo characters. Mario Kart Doube Dash!! continues that trend with slight alterations to the main idea and upgrades to the overall look, providing some more out-of-control kart racing no GameCube owner should be without.

Mario Kart Double Dash!! drives farthest from its kart racing roots through the addition of a second passenger that's along for more than just the ride. It allows for dual character cooperation with one mascot steering in the front while the other sits in back managing the power-ups. Though this adds a lot to the game when sharing these two responsibilities with another human player in co-op mode, it can seem like a mere decoration when taking them both on yourself. Nevertheless, in selecting your two-member team and using on-the-fly switching as a technique to hold two power-ups items, new strategies still emerge from the newest addition.

Each of the sixteen characters in this game come with varying attributes in handling, acceleration, speed and weight. Likewise, their kart models offer a range of these same characteristics, causing the overall package to perform differently depending on team and kart configuration. Furthering the assortment of karts on the road are special weapons that can be picked up from the item boxes. Mario and Luigi shoot a series of orange or green fireballs, the Kong's drop a giant banana, and Bowser and his son send forth an oversized shell that ricochets off the walls. Everyone still receives mushrooms for a boost of speed and turtle shells to shoot at opponents, but it's these character-specific weapons that can do the most damage, especially to human players unaware of their effects.

One change to the way weapons work in Mario Kart: Double Dash!! comes with their inability to double as a means of protection. No longer can you hold onto the fire button so that a shell trails your kart like a bumper, nor can you possess three shells at once and have them spin around like some kind of forcefield. This drop-off may seem like a drawback initially, but it ends up allowing the game to be much more offensive in terms of attacks. Still, it's not entirely impossible to avoid incoming attacks from weapons such as green and red shells, only much more difficult. It just requires a lot better timing to drop something else on your own, say a banana or shell that can be fired back, and hope that it crosses paths with the weapon instead of you.

Since weapons no longer rotate around the body of your kart, shells, bananas and all the other items in the game are now clearly held in the hands of the backseat passenger for a nice visual touch. However, if you're careless, rivals karts can swipe your items by taking advantage of the new bump-and-steal technique that can follow with your own weapon being used against you. The best way to combat this is to always carry a spare by hitting the double item boxes or, if you're a pro, hit a single item box, perform a character switch to store that item, and then hit another box nearby to own a second weapon in no time. While the former technique is a sure-fire way of winding up with two items, the latter comes through when double boxes are out of reach or unable to be found.

Karts that come in contact with harmful weapons usually incite a whine from one of two characters onboard while both, especially the prominently shown backseat mascot, tend to show a lot of reaction to what's happening on the road. These audio and animation bits are what you might expect from a Mario Kart game with bumped-up quality coming from the GameCube. The same could be said about the most-times cute and always colorful visuals throughout the various tracks, however, their design seems to offer fewer shortcuts to take advantage of and no routes to explore like the now closed-off castle of Mario Circuit. There's still a good deal of obstacles to avoid though, such as ice-skating penguins and vehicular traffic, which can spice up the feel of the game not to mention places in the racing positions.

Causing an even more chaotic scene with weapons in possession is the fact that fewer shortcuts mean players are forced to ride along the same path as all seven other karts. Many of these roadways are filled with tight corners and winding turns, so getting ahead of the volatile pack usually means being able to powerslide past the competition. It seems easier to perform this time around unless in co-op mode, which involves the driver holding the shoulder button while the rear thrower must move the joystick. It's not the easiest thing to pull off, but powersliding remains the only way to win sometimes. The remaining aspects of cooperative play won't throw you for many curves, allowing players to stick to their respective duties now divided in half and double the fun.

Besides racing areas of Grand Prix, Versus and Time Trials, Battle Mode makes a return in Double Dash!! and like it's Nintendo 64 predecessor, it's best when more players can participate in the action. In this case, up to eight players can hook into the game via a LAN connection using two GameCubes each with a hi-speed modem and two televisions sets or, even better, eight GameCubes each with hi-speed modems and eight TVs for full screen karting. It's a shame the GameCube randomly picks the characters and kart for each player, but the whole idea will leaves you anxious to actually try out and envious of anyone who can really do it. Also increasing in size is the number of battle stages and modes. This time, there are a total of six stages instead of four and three different ways to play, the first being balloon battle which was the only type to appear in Mario Kart 64. Shine Thief plays like a game of keep away where you're either in possession of the sought after star or in pursuit of the person that's trying to clock 60 seconds with it. The other battle type, Bomb-omb Blast, is a less complex form of balloon battle in which you're basically limited to carrying bombs and earning kills instead of avoiding them.

There may plenty of battle stages and modes of play this time around, but several of the immediately available ones lack inspiring level design, which quickly causes them to become stale. For example, Nintendo GameCube is a flat square-shaped surface enclosed by clear walls. While it can turn into a madhouse when shells start ricocheting off of these walls, it's can be too plain to want to keep playing and a real pain knowing the cube never rotates and no trigger pops the lid open for interactive excitement. Even worse is Block City, which doesn't come close to comparing to the Block Fort battle stage from Mario Kart 64. Oh, it still contains four structures in each quarter of the square enclosure, but none of them are connected and they're not even possible to scale for an added floor. Basically, it ends up being a stripped down version of what we got over six years ago. Cookie Land and Pizza Place are alright battle arenas, however, it's the hidden stages tend be provide the greatest fun since they involve the most strategy rather than random shelling.