soupjhhs's Full Review: Mario Kart: Double Dash for GameCube
Mario Kart: Double Dash blends both new and old alike in order to create a solid, eye-appealing racing game that is sure to be enjoyed by all, despite its short length and lack of online play.
Double Dash still sticks to the heart of the Mario Kart gameplay, bringing back the Grand Prix, Time Trial and Battle Modes. New to Double Dash is the co-op race, which partners the players together. I found this mode to be rather boring compared to the intense competition of head to head racing.
Behind every Mario Kart game is a solid racing system and Mario Kart: Double Dash is no different. Double Dash features extraordinarily tight steering, which makes for smooth, pick-up-and-go racing. Also making its return from Mario Kart 64 is the power sliding. By holding the left or right shoulder buttons, racers can make wide and tight turns around the most challenging of curves with relative ease.
To distinguish itself from Nascar, Double Dash includes random item boxes to help stir up the racing. Items inside the boxes can range from projectile red and green shells to slippery banana peels to explosive fake item boxes. New to Double Dash are specialty items that are limited to and reflect the personality of the character. Bowser for instance has been spikey shells, while Donkey Kong has larger bananas. The items have a rather elastic impact, bring the race pack closer together. While this is great for those lagging behind, because they always get the better items, this in a way punishes the more skilled drivers.
The largest and most drastic addition/change to Double Dash is the distinct kart and character system based on three weights, light, medium and heavy. Characters can be combined to form countless number of racing pairs, including Peach and Bowser, Mario and Donkey Kong, and Baby Bowser and Baby Mario. The strategy behind choosing characters is the special items that each character has, ranging from giant bowser shells to giant bananas to fireballs, and the weight of the combined characters. The character pair is limited to a set number of karts, heavy, medium and light, all of which affects the acceleration and strength of the kart. While the lighter karts are faster, the heavier karts can just bump them out of the way. Although Double Dash is practically the same game as the original Mario Kart, this change adds a neat bit of flare.
Sadly, there is little change to the courses. There is still the two to three plain road courses, the bowser castle, the ice stage and the rainbow road. There are only three new courses, a cruise ship, a steep jungle mountain, and a roller coaster like steel cage. Although they add flare, its far too little to make a difference.
The main issue in Mario Kart: Double Dash is the length. With only 16 courses the single player can quickly grow old. It is common knowledge to Mario Kart fans that multiplayer is the cat's pajamas, but it can quickly grow old since with 3-4 players the options become limited to battles and vs races, races without computers. What Double Dash lacks is an online mode and although it would seem to be a perfect game for online play, Nintendo decided to ignore online competition.
Double Dash is visually appealing from the course down to the kart. All the courses are incredibly detailed and exquisitely colored, so much so that racers may sometimes get lost in the vibrant environments. From fireballs in bowser castle to the smoke rising out of a jungle mountain to the city lights in rainbow road, the courses are beautiful.
The karts and character models shine as well, even though most of the attention will be, hopefully, on the road. Although there are several karts, most are dramatically different from each other. From the six-wheeled tank with flames to a barrel train with smoke puffs to a giant Yoshi head, all are detailed right down to the difference in rims.
In general, the music is rather whimsical and light, as expected of a Mario game, but each course has its own score. The scores do fit well into each track; bower's castle is as scary as a Mario game could be, the jungle mountain features bongos, and the beach features steel drums and tropical beach. The combination of strong graphics and a well-matched score help to create strong environments.
Mario Kart: Double Dash is fun for all who play, but it does not last. It is beautiful, fun alone or with friends, but sadly it can quickly grow old.
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