Miyamoto Shrine> Nintendo Gamecube> Mario Kart: Double Dash!! Impressions

I'm not easy to impress but I left playing Mario Kart Double Dash completely satisfied today. Fans of the Super Nintendo version might be disappointed to hear that the game is very much Mario Kart 64 plus one, and again it's based more on power-ups than skillful driving.  

I found that the new two character per kart system adds a lot of strategy, it brings a fresh feel to the tired kart racing genre. One character drives the kart while the other deals with the power-ups, with a press of the Z button you can swap your drivers to use either one's unique power-up or driving skills. Because of this, you can now pick up two power-ups at once which are used with the Y button, if you press it twice your characters will automatically swap so that both power-ups are used. Each character has a unique power-up that only they can use, Mario shoots a horizontal line of fire balls in front of the kart, Bowser shoots a larger version of the Bowser shell from Mario Kart 64, the Koopa Troppas shoot advanced versions of green shells, Donkey and Diddy Kong drop larger bananas, Yoshi shoots a rolling egg and Luigi releases a Chain Chomp that drags the cart forward annihilating all opponents in the way.

In the ECTS demo there was only one cup available; the Mushroom Cup which included Luigi's track, DK's track, the city track and Waluigi Stadium. Luigi's track was similar to his track from Mario Kart 64, notable changes include a chain chomp to avoid and a line of boosts around a winding corner. DK's track was also similar to his N64 track, with a huge barrel that shoots you to the top of a mountain, a big hole in the ground and a swaying rope bridge, this track also has a lot of bumpy surfaces on the track - something the N64 version couldn't do. The city track was basically Toad's Turnpike from Mario Kart 64 with lots of turns. Waluigi Stadium was very cool, it's based on Wario Stadium from, of course, Mario Kart 64. This track was similar to a motorcross track with rings of fireballs above the jumps with item blocks inside them for you to collect, and the coolest part was a line of Piranha Plants extending across the track for you to dodge.

Although I didn't get to play it, Battle Mode looked cool. The tracks are a lot more detailed than Mario Kart 64's empty field arenas, one new Battle Mode arena takes place in the Mushroom Kingdom with lots of pipes for you to drive through.

The graphics were varied. The game now has a very cartoony look and the courses are certainly very bright and colorful. However the models are not quite up to par, some of them (Wario) are a complete disgrace for a Gamecube game, especially with companies like Factor Five pulling off Rogue Leader with little to no load times. The models were however brilliantly animated, characters will now juggle and throw shells and other power-ups very fluidly.

The music was your usual Mario Kart 64 stuff, some of the tracks I did find very annoying though almost to the point of wanting to leave. I was very pleased with the sound effects, Nintendo much to my pleasure have re-used many of the sounds from Mario Kart 64 which, for me at least, adds a lot of nostalgic charm to the game.

Many of Nintendo's recent N64 updates have failed to live up to their N64 counterparts but I can honestly say right off the bat that Mario Kart: Double Dash is going to be brilliant. Look forward to it.

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