Mario Kart: Double Dash!!

The Good
1. Multiplayer races are interesting with the double-dash feature.

1. More weapons in races than previous Mario Karts make multiplayer more fun.

2. To me, the game moves exactly the way a karter should. That is, the "speed" of the game is just right at 150cc: not too slow to bore you, not too fast to make you feel like your finish is ultimately left to chance.

3. The graphics, music, FX, animations around different tracks, etc are especially nice. I feel like most, if not all, of the tracks belong in the so-called Mario universe. Nothing seems forced, too "cartoony," or "kiddy," whatever that means.

4. I'm not sure how necessary it is, but the volume of racers and karts available to select is a nice touch, especially for younger gamers (who most times are just interested in driving the kart that looks like Yoshi's head).

5. This game is friendly for all ages. This compliment doesn't hold much water with those in the "core" gamer demographic, but it's worth mentioning. Little kids can have as much fun with this as adults, so it's good for family multiplayer fun.
   
   The Bad
   I don't know about the "behind the scenes" info on the game, but I feel like this game was either produced too quickly or was cut short in the middle of development to get it to market. Here are some reasons for this perspective, some subtle, others more noticeable. But I think they're all valid points that indicate the game could (and may have been planned to) be much more:

6. 16 tracks aren't enough. Don't ask why. You know it's true. You give me a bajillion karts and racers (including hidden karts galore), which out-number those of previous MKs by many, many times, but you give me the same number of tracks as MK64? You don't even hide a single track? That's inconsistent--meaningfully inconsistent, I think.

7. From the main menu, I can't start a "quick race" like I can in many other kart/racers out on other platforms. It's not really much more work for the developer to make this a possibility.

8. Similarly, from the pause menu, my options are limited to continue or quit. Where's the restart option from earlier MKs?

9. Some karts with certain drivers (Petey) are hard to see over. Why am I not allowed to change the camera angle, or even look behind me, as I could in previous MKs? Again, this lack of basic functionality is telling.

10. I also don't care for the fact that if you want 4P in a grand prix race, you've got to do it with 2P to a kart. I know this is expecting too much, and maybe doing 4P in individual karts during a GP isn't physically possible for the Cube. That's okay. But I would have liked to have seen improvements in the 4-on-4 race mode. As it is, it is exactly the same mode it was in MK64.

11. I don't want to write any more reasons--though there are more--because I don't want to give the impression the negatives outweigh the positives. They don't. With many other companies, this is par for the course, but with Nintendo... Well, let's just say I expect better of them. Not in an unfair way, I just hold them to the standard they set with other amazing games, especially many of those in the Mario platform and karting series.
    
    The Bottom Line
    I'm very disappointed in the game as a critical gamer, but as a karting addict, I play this game more than any other on my GameCube. From the perspective of replay value and multiplayer fun, this game should be in any GameCube library.

Critical gamers should also check this game out for the sake of imagining what could have been. To me, this game is a great lesson in being able to see what isn't there. It's pretty obvious that somebody, somewhere in Nintendo had larger designs for Double Dash that, for whatever reason, weren't allowed to come to be. C'est la vie.

The Good
Graphics: The graphics have changed allot since Mario kart 64. In double dash the environment actually looks like it is part of the race instead of just a picture behind the barriers. Its good to see the characters expression change to different evens in the game as well, compared to in Mario kart 64 where no matter what happened the character still had a cheesy grin on his face through out the whole race.

Sound:There not much to say about the sound in the game. Its still pretty much got the same joyous music in all of the races which was liked by me in the 64 version anyway. So even though there may be a few new sounds, or a few changes to some of the songs it is still pretty much the same type of soundtrack.

Gameplay:The only thing that I complained about after ripping up the track in the first Mario kart was the fact that the game was way to easy and after a while of coming first with no effort it got a bit boring. But in Double dash they have obviously decided that they were not going to make beating the game a drive through the park. The AI of the computer players is 10 times better than it was in the other game. For example the players actually use the special drift method and also I have been pushed off a few bridges by an angry bower or princess peach. In battle mode they have got 2 new and exciting games for people who don't want to race but just blow each others brains out. One is you and your friends just throwing bob-ombs at each other trying to blow each other up, and the other being a kind of capture the flag type game which all multi-player games seem to be getting into these days. But the original is the best and the good old balloon bursting battle is still the best. The greatest improvement in double dash would have to be all the new weapons that the characters can have. Such as, a giant spiked turtle shell, giant banana peel that when someone slips on it changes into three normal size banana peels, and so on.

The Bad
Graphics:This is just something that annoys me and that is the cartoony graphics of the game. I always like a little bit of a realistic look. Then again it is a game where a toadstool can drive a car.

Gameplay:I said before that Double dash was a good game because of the challenge factor, but the thing is they made it a bit to hard. If an eight year old kid wanted to have some fun racing with Mario and Luigi then he would probably be throwing the control after the first few races.

The Bottom Line
Even though the characters Mario and Luigi were aimed at little kids, this is not a kids game. But on the other hand if there are any teenage players who think this is below them, then just give it a try and you will realize that toad isn't just a little wimp after all.

The Good
I liked that they released this game for a new system with better graphics than the original.

The Bad
This game is virtually a copy of Mario Kart 64 with different levels and new characters. The sound is the same and most of the levels are the same. The story is also the same. Nothing has really changed from Mario Kart 64.

The Bottom Line
Mario Kart Double Dash is a failed attempt at making a better Mario Kart game than Mario Kart 64. Unless your a die-hard Mario Kart fan, I wouldn't buy this game. You can get it for cheaper on Nintendo 64 with equal if not better gameplay.