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PRE-GAME

Mario and company are back for more fast paced, head to head action in Nintendo’s latest release of the Mario Kart series, Double Dash!! Play as old favorites such as Mario, Luigi, or Princess Peach, or try new characters such as the Koopa Brothers, King Boo, Petey Piranna and more. It’s double the action and fun when two characters take to the same cart in Nintendo’s shell tossing, mushroom boosting new racer.

EYE-SPY

THE HOOK:  As a huge fan of the MarioKart series dating back to the days of the SNES, I couldn’t let a new installment to the series go unnoticed, let alone un-played. Plus the new addition of two riders per cart was just too cool to pass up.

HOW IT LOOKS AND FEELS:  A huge array of vibrant colors give the characters and courses that old cartoon like feel, but the graphics are drastically improved due to the new capabilities of the Cube.

Depending on which rider you choose, your degree of handling will vary. Heavier characters tend to have lower acceleration rates and greater top speeds, while lighter characters have quick acceleration and slower top speed. Double Dash does an excellent job of really making your cart’s handling feel different depending on which characters you choose. Either side of the scale though, no matter who you pick the controlling handles like a dream. Holding down the A button accelerates your cart, while the B button acts as your brake (like you’d ever want to use it though...). Holding the side L and R buttons allows for power slides to make it through those hairpin turns. The Z button can now be used to switch between your characters since the cart now contains two, one to drive and one to hang off the back throwing items at foes using the X or Y button. Control between switching riders is smooth, and allows you to easily change characters on the fly.

HOW IT SOUNDS:  The music is so upbeat and fun, it’ll make you grin. The soundtracks are rather catchy, so don’t be surprised if you find yourself humming along during game play, or even hours after your Game Cube has been shut off. Some nice sound effects are thrown in the game at random places, like in Rainbow Road when you’re on the track in the sky with shooting stars, taking tight turns makes a twinkling noise, a subtle, but appealing touch. Plus there are the random outbursts from your drivers when you’re hit with a flying shell or other random item. It’s Nintendo in all its semi-gibberish glory.

EXTRAS:  When you first start the game, only three cups will be available to you, Mushroom, Flower, and Star cup. Earning gold in different engine classes earns you dozens of new cars, new cups (i.e. the Special cup and Mirror cup), and new characters. Toad, Toadette (a newly created character), King Boo, and Petey Piranna are all unlock-able, a difficult task but well worth the effort. 1 and 2 player can either team up against each other racing for the gold to unlock items, or go co-op mode and take to the same cart, one player to drive, and the other to carefully throw your items.

CINEMATIC EXPERIENCE:  Well...there’s ONE. At the end of a cup race, the top three drivers will cruise through Delfino Plaza (ala Mario Sunshine) and take their places at the podium to see who obtained the much sought after gold, silver, and bronze. The Delfino residents get their groove on as they boogie to the tropical music while you drive past. Adorable...if not a little scary.

BEST PLAYER:  Each character has their own special item they occasionally obtain. Mixing and matching characters so that their special powers work well with each other can be a bit of a task to find, but once you find your perfect pair, you’re likely not to switch them. Easily though two of the best players are the Koopa Brothers. Their special items are a stack of THREE green or red turtle shells. If both Koopas manage to get them, that’s the possibility of 6 red shells coming your way, and even if both your own characters hold an item apiece, you can only block two of them. Great for the person using the Koopas, bad for the people against them.

CHEAT CODE YOU NEED:  This game has an unbelievably severe lack of cheats. We’re talking NONE. There are lots of shortcuts that one can discover along the tracks, but if you’re looking for “Invincibility mode” or something of the like, you’re out of luck.

CHEAT CODE YOU WANT:  Invincibility mode. When in more difficult engine classes (especially 150 cc) once you pull into third place or higher, you become the targeted whipping boy for opponents. You'll get blasted with blue shells, lightning blots, you name it. Invincibility mode would be great so that you're protected while just trying to focus on beating the other players. It's not impossible without this code, but if I could make one, this would be it!

OH MAN! MOMENT: After racing and nabbing the gold cup on all tracks at all three classes (50 cc, 100 cc, 150 cc), the special mirror track will unlock, featuring all the tracks you raced on before, except mirrored, so right turns now turn left and vice versa. While the change sounds simple enough to adapt to, by the time you open it, you’ll have played through the tracks so many times, you’ll well have memorized turns and jumps. Having everything thrown at you in the opposite direction can be very confusing and difficult. The computer controlled characters drive at advanced levels of the 150 cc cup, add that to the fact that it’s easy to turn out of habit one way and finding yourself in the ocean easily earns the Oh Man Moment.

GLITCH ITCH:  In more than 100 hours of game play, I can honestly and safely say I’ve yet to find one. Kudos to Nintendo for making game play smooth as silk.

FAN SERVICE:  DoubleDash features quite a few hidden goodies to Nintendo fans that look hard enough. Trucks passing by on highway levels can be seen with “Moo Moo farms” painted on the side, a nostalgic touch to the level bearing the same name from MarioKart64. The ever popular, ever growing in length and difficulty Rainbow Road can be found in the Special Cup, always a personal favorite of the fans.

END GAME:

This game has so much to offer to both old fans of the games and those who’ve never played them before. MarioKart: Double Dash offers pick up and play value, and endless replay-ability. One player mode is enjoyable enough, but the real fun starts when you get a big round of multi-player up and running. You’ll be yelling and screaming “Who shot me with a blue winged shell?” while trying to set up a row of banana peels for your oncoming friends. Sadly, the mustachioed mascot company doesn’t yet believe in online play for it’s console, in which this game would be absolutely perfect for.

The tracks are all unique in their own different ways, ranging from frozen winter wonderlands to bustling evening highways. There are plenty of things to get in your way, no matter how experienced you are at the game. Cars, Shy Guys, Goombas, you name it, they’ll all be here in ultra subliminal Nintendo marketing (not that I’m complaining). The upgrade from having only 8 characters to choose from to 20 is greatly appreciated, now you don’t have to fight your friend to the death because you both want to choose the same racer.

Then of course there’s multi player mode, where you can race circuit style, or if you’re in a more head-to-head mood, take to the battle section. You can partake in old-school style Balloon fight, trying to pop the other player’s balloons attached to their carts (4 players at a time is a riot, complete and utter chaos). Shine battle has a “tag” feel to it, except in reverse. Grab the Shine Sprite (another cameo of Mario Sunshine) and keep it for your own until the clock runs out. Finally there’s Bomb battle, imagine if you will numerous players using bombs trying to blast the bejeepers out of each other, good times.  

There are so many different combinations of characters and cars to choose from, finding your perfect fit might take you a while. Eventually you’ll figure out what kind of strategy you want to use, do you go for blazing speed, or the power to knock lighter foes out of your way and out of bounds? Would you rather have special items that hone in on other players, or ones that boost your speed? No matter what kind of tactics you want to use, there are players and a car waiting for you to find them. Or you can just pick your favorite characters and use whatever cart looks the coolest. Either way, the game is meant for all levels of players.

A recent new move on the series’ part is that now the infamous tracking red turtle shells are a lot easier to dodge. There was once a time when a red shell coming your way meant almost certain death, and now you can maneuver with sharp turns so that they fly past you. Not completely bad...but not that great either.

All together, MarioKart: DoubleDash!! Is a complete package of single and multi-player fun for novices or experienced cart racers. Nintendo took an already great series and somehow managed to make it even better. The sound, controlling, and game play are all rock solid no matter what mode you choose to play. With the endless mixing and matching of characters and carts, intense races, and dozens of secret shortcuts to find, strap in and prepare not to go anywhere for a while, MarioKart will have you hooked. Now if we could just get our hands on some online play, THEN we’d really be getting somewhere.

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