The chirsmas season of 2003 was not exactly a great time to be a game cube owner. Not a lot of stellar hits, we where one year from
Metroid Prime, and another year till Metroid Prime 2. Zelda Wind Waker had come and went, but the one thing Nintendo wasn't short on was racing games. 3 Nintendo character racing games came out, Kirby,
F-Zero, and of course it isn't a Nintendo console without a Mario Kart.
I of course waited till last year till I could find it use before I bought the game. And while I bought F-Zero a littlie while after it I kept coming back whenever I felt like a good kart racer. I finally decided to sit down and write a review of the game.
Story.
No real story here, just like the other one Nintendo gathers up it's famous Mario characters and sticks them in go karts. Except this time there not just go karts you can pick from Bowsers tanks, a baby buggy, and Wario's low rider.
Graphics.
Mario Karts always had good graphics the SNES mock 3d on a 2d console. Mario Kart 64 gave us huge fields each with it's wacky traps, it did feature pre-render characters that where a bit stiff but you where to busy looking at the stuff on the field to really notice that. Now Mario Kart Double Dash is here and the characters are no longer stiff pre-render but now fully animated. You can see hair flying and moving as the cars go, characters fall off, and even have there own taunts. The character models themselves are also done pretty well and are a bit above that of a typical Mario Sports game.
The stadiums are also no less impressive the city that stretches below Rainbow Road is quite impressive. As well has Dinosaurs that inhabit Dinosaur park. And of course there are also a few like Peach Beach that take there theme out of Mario Sunshine.
Sound.
Music is also pretty good with each track having its own individual racing theme and all of them fit and are good to listen to. I also like the new remix of the rainbow road theme.
The VA's from the previous Mario Sports game have come back so don't expect anything to surprising from the VA's.
Gameplay.
Ok for those who have never played a Kart racer before here are the specifics. Basically it's like any other racer; get your guy to the finish line first. Except your not going on just speed alone, you're able to screw the other guys up. With banana peels, koopa shells, and mushroom like nitro rockets keep the game from becoming to predictable. If the weapons don't get you then the courses will, there are pits that can be thrown into, chain chomps to avoid, and one course even dinosaurs.
Nintendo threw in a few twists with this one though and those are rather then just pick one character with his individual talents you get to pick two people. And then select a car. Which car you can select though depends on what the weight class of your people is. It's always the heaviest character in other a heavy class Bowser is teamed up with light weight Diddy Kong the car will ultimately become a heavy class.
The natural teams that you can pick are always top and bottom (Mario and Luigi, Wario and Waluigi, Peach and Daisy) on the character selection screen. These teams have the same talents and usually the same weight class. Of course while it's easiest for a beginner to choose two people from the same team, if you want to mix and match you can come up with interesting results.
What are the benefits well most of them come with the special each team has there own special, Mario and Luigi have split fire balls, Peach and Daisy have a barrier that can not only deflect shells but also add them to there items list, Wario and Waluigi have bombs, and the baby Mario brothers have a chain chomp that not only increases there speed but knocks anybody else in front of them out of there way. Mixing and matching can give you the best of the worlds when it comes to special and that can make all the difference.
Modes.
Ok the 1p modes as the standard GP where you race 4 races and whoever as the most points wins, nothing new here except Nintendo has eliminated the 4th or higher rule. Winning in this mode also unlocks new karts and a few new characters as well. And of course time trail where you compete for the fastest times.
The 1p mode doesn't have the blazing speed and the challenge that the arcade mode of F-Zero mode as but it's a solid racing game that should be picked up by any Mario Kart fan or fans of racing game, but where the game excels is the party game genre. While the game can play 16 players on a LAN network, lets face it not many people have there gamecubes hooked up to a LAN network. But a 4 player party mode the game does just fine, you can either team up and have two players controlling the same kart, or all go at each other individually.
You have the GP modes where you race for points like you do on 1p. There is also match mode where you choose a course and then race without any AI interference. And finally there is battle mode. Battle mode is the mode that really steals the show and there is more then the typical pop the balloon that the other games have, while balloon bursting is still there, there are two other ways to play battle mode. One is where you have to keep the shine in your possession for a certain time, but while holding a shine you can't get any items and are a bit slower. You get hit you drop shine and another character can grab it. It's pretty fun. And the other one as you running around trying to feel your score card up by throwing bombs at each other, also pretty fun.
Final Recommendation.
Mario Kart Double Dash is a great kart racer from Nintendo and it's definitely a good game to pick up if you haven't all ready. If you're short on cash and wonder which one to choose from F-Zero or Mario Kart Double Dash by advice F-Zero if your looking for a 1-player game, Mario Kart if your looking for a good party game.
