Miyamoto Shrine> Gamecube> Mario Kart: Double Dash!! Review

I don't care what anyone says, Mario Kart 64 was a fantastic game. Sure, there is plenty of reason to hate it if you put it in the same category as the SNES version but lets face it, they're both very different games. It won't come as a shock when I tell you that Mario Kart 64 required almost no skill when compared to the SNES classic and like MK64 before it Double Dash is also one big game of power-up Russian roulette. Many a time have I sped past the competition for the first 3 laps only to have been overtaken by a good five people due to someone at the back of the pack who was lucky enough to get a spiny shell. Anyone who apparently hated Mario Kart 64 and now loves Double Dash is a dirty liar, they never hated Mario Kart 64 at all. This is Mario Kart 64 plus one.

You've probably heard about the whole two-character kart thing to death by now. In previous Mario Karts you'd pick one driver but in this you have to strategically pick two guys, thinking of both their weight, driving skills and special power-up. I'm skeptical to if this actually works, most of the driving statistics are in the vehicle rather than the driver so unless you're using two drastically different characters like Wario and Baby Luigi you're not really going to notice any difference in turning or speed. Nintendo missed out on a huge opportunity to make the character swapping more important, you still get both character's special weapons no matter who's in the back dealing out the power-ups.

There's 20 characters to chose from, although I think Nintendo were a bit too desperate when they were picking out the roster (Birdo? Baby Bowser? Baby Mario and Luigi? Daisy?! Who the hell wants to drive with them?!) So which character is the best? You'll usually find my sticking with the two Koopa Troopas mostly because they get a hell of alot of shells which certainly helps a great deal at getting you in to first place and keeping the people behind you, behind you. They've also got a very good acceleration which seems to be the way to go as you'll be flying in the air from a red shell up the rear most of the time. But obviously  you're going to have to chose someone who suits your playing habits. Do you go for fast acceleration of high top speed? Donkey Kong will still knock Yoshi flying if you carelessly drive in to him as well.

Weapon power-ups are still very much a part of winning the race. Most of the Mario Kart 64 power-ups have returned; the banana, mushrooms, green and red shells, lightning bolt, fake item block etc. However groups of three green and red shells are now limited to the Koopa Troopas and the banana row has been taken out completley. The spiny shell (or 'first-place shell') has been upgraded and now flies it's victim in first place and creates a huge explosion hitting people in second and third if they're anywhere near. Special power-ups are a little more powerful than the standard weapons, you'll get them randomly just like any normal power-up and when you get them your opponents will probably know about it. DK and Diddy's big banana is much bigger than a normal banana and when hit drops three normal sized ones, Bowser's shell is ridiculously huge and bounces around with all the madness of a normal shell, Yoshi and Birdo's egg homes on to the person in front of you and after impact scatters power ups on the floor like mushrooms and bananas, where as Mario and Luigi get fires balls to shoot in front or behind their kart.

The track design in Mario Kart: Double Dash is fantastic. There's only 16 courses to speed around but it doesn't matter because they're all unique from each other and will have you completing many, many laps in time trial to perfect your records. The game starts you off on Luigi Circuit - the first track of the Mushroom Cup, one of four cups available in the game. The track has two side by side straights with 180º turns lined with speed boost on each end, it's wide, it's slow and it's got a pretty useless chain chomp in the middle that could only get you in you drove right into it. This is probably Double Dash's poorest track but it serves it's purpose in gently introducing you to the game without throwing you straight in to the deep end. Following MKDD's opening track is where it gets interesting, Peach Beach is a track based on Mario sunshine complete with a moving tide and those enemies from 'Sunshine who like to throw you ten feet in the air, Baby Park is simple 8 lap oval course which becomes absolute chaos with shells and bananas by the time the 8th lap comes around. Other favorites include Daisy Cruiser, a track which takes place on a cruise ship where you have to collect item blocks as they roll around the deck and avoid moving tables in the dining room, Waluigi Stadium is also a fantastic update of the N64 stadium track complete with lots of fireballs, jumps and piranha plants.

Double Dash uses the same structure as it's predecessors, this means that most people will rip through the first three cups fairly quickly, it took me only a few hours to finish them on 50cc, 100cc and even 150cc. But that isn't all the game has to offer, there's plenty to unlock including battle arenas, new karts and new modes. One of the unlockables is the Special Cup which you'll get access to after completing Mushroom, Flower and Star Cups on 150cc mode. Special Cup contains four tracks that are a little harder than the rest, one of these tracks is Wario Coliseum - a winding track with hardly any wall guards which wouldn't feel out of place in F-Zero GX.  Another returning Mario Kart veteran is Bowser's Castle, a fun track with lots of stuff going on like stomping whomps and a fire breathing Bowser statue. It's disappointing to see no ghost house track though.

I'd guess that the number one question over the single player game will be "Does the AI still cheat?" Well, I'm not quite sure. The terrible catch-up of Mario Kart 64 is gone for certain, but the other characters on the track seem to get a questionable amount of decent power-ups and I can think of more than one occasion where I've been immediately overtaken by someone I've just hit with a shell. Whether the AI cheats or not 150cc is quite challenging. In 50cc and 100cc your opponents are the basic teams; Mario and Luigi, Bowser and Baby Bowser, Wario and Waluigi etc, but on 150cc the AI mixes up and you get combinations like Peach and Bowser, DK and Waluigi, Luigi and Yoshi which can be a lot more challenging because you have to deal with more than just the one special weapon from your opponents.  As I've already said weapons have taken an even higher role in Double Dash, the ability to break and avoid the effects of a banana has been removed along with the hop and the ability to drag a shell behind your cart. It's not impossible to avoid incoming shells though, an icon will appear behind your cart warning you of any incoming projectiles so that you can shoot a shell or banana back to defend yourself. It's certainly added another level of skill to the game, avoiding bananas on the track is very important if you want to win the race.

It still doesn't end at the special cup either. There's an "All Cup Tour" which will have you battling through all the tracks in the game, in this mode it will become more and more apparent that every time you start a cup one AI character is made better than the others and will place first or second every time depending on how well you do. There's also the standard time trial as well. Time Trial is now complete bliss thanks to MKDD's wonderful track design. I've wasted more than a few hours perfecting my lap times and cursing at the screen as I get beaten by my own course ghost for the 10th consecutive time. But Time Trial isn't for everyone, and that leave you with just Multiplayer the mess around with, and that's quite a statement.

Lets discuss battle mode first. Battle mode was by far my favorite part of Mario Kart 64, many any hour of my life has been wasted camping at the top of the block fort with three red shells. Sadly, I can say that Double Dash disappoints me in this area. I know this won't be the same for most people as my complaint is quite niche - I loved the gigantic sprawling battle arenas of Mario Kart 64, I enjoyed hunting out my enemies before blasting a red shell into the back of them, this would've suited MKDD so much that it's actually quite tragic they've decided to make battle arenas the size of an average back garden. 8 player LAN mode in one of MK64's battle arenas would be pure bliss, but now we're going to have to make do with 'Block City', 'Pipe Plaza' and 'Cookie Land', arena's so small that all we have to do is but turn around a fire a red shell to hit our opponent. There's also an arena which takes place on top of a nicely rendered Gamecube, unfortunately it's just a square with item blocks in the middle. Great. There are other battle modes like 'Bo-Bomb Battle' in which the players fire an unlimited supply of bombs and 'Shine thief' a game mode in which the player who has the shine for 60 seconds wins, but I can see these getting very old very fast.

Racing through MKDD's various tracks is where the fun is to be had. Chaos, pure chaos. Double Dash is now the Gamecube multiplayer game. There's plenty of fantastic tracks I haven't mentioned that you'll never get bored of racing through again and again, and if you do get bored you can always play the mirrored versions which I guarantee will have you blatantly turning corners the wrong way. You haven't lived until you've had people screaming the house down because you've just come in first place after taking everyone in front of you out with a spiny shell. On the finish line.

I'm sure the LAN mode will have a lot of people going out and buying Broadband Adaptors and perhaps even second Gamecubes now they're dirt cheap. The only problem with 8-player Mario Kart is there'll be so many power-ups flying around that you'll be lucky to finish the race let alone win it. I say problem, but you'll be having too much fun to care where you come in. Nintendo have done the LAN mode really well, there's a whole library of options, you can play with random characters and random courses and play all night until you get bored. There's even a mode where one player can control the character on the back of the kart and the other controls the driver.

If there's one complaint I have about this iteration of Mario Kart it's the god, god, god awful music. Not many people know there's a realm below terrible music - it's extremely irritating music. I consider killing myself every time I hear that stupid cheerful theme tune with the whistle in the background, it's not catchy it's just annoying. Most of the music is bland and boring with a few exceptions - the desert, credits and Bowser tracks have some pretty cool music. The graphics are also nothing to write home about, I used to excuse Nintendo's less than amazing graphics due to their hate of loading times, but if games like F-Zero GX and Rebel Strike can look stunning and still have no loading times Nintendo have absolutely no excuse for these blocky characters. The poor attempt at Peach's Castle on Mario's track is very disappointing.

Overall
Andy Robinson: Music aside, This is a great game. Better than Mario Kart 64? Yes. Mario Kart's trademark multiplayer makes this the party game of the year, if not the generation. I'd tell you to go and get it now, but I assume you've already pre-ordered it.

Review written by Andy Robinson

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