Mario Kart: Double Dash!!

Moby ID: 11122
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Description official descriptions

Mario Kart: Double Dash is the latest version of the game that started the "kart-racing" genre. This Mario Kart is more focused on co-op play and weapons. All the features and weapons of the previous games return: Red Shells, Stars, Mushrooms, etc. together with new character-specific weapons like Chain Chomps and Giant Koopa shells. The courses also follow the tradition with each one being faithful to the Mario universe.

This time there are two racers per kart. Much of the game's challenge lies in determining when to switch places in the kart. This game supports multiple players. Therefore, one can team up with a friend on the same kart and take on the opponents cooperatively so that one player can drive the kart and the other can use power-ups. There is also a comprehensive LAN mode, allowing up to 8 GameCubes to be connected together.

Spellings

  • マリオカート ダブルダッシュ!! - Japanese spelling
  • 마리오카트 더블대시!! - Korean spelling

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Credits (GameCube version)

84 People (74 developers, 10 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 84% (based on 47 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 108 ratings with 6 reviews)

Mario Kart with two people

The Good
This game is a typical mario kart so get comfortable, firstly it's graphics are amazing completely typical of the gamecube graphics engine, next the musics and sound FX are equally good, but even better than this is all the different styles of gameplay you can play, on your own in a grand prix or time trial, race your mates in a grand prix or 1 on 1,battle each other in bomb mode, balloon mode or capture the star/shine sprite, and even both be in the same car at once, which means you can also have 2 on 2, 1 on 2 or even (1 on 1 on 2).

The Bad
The only bit that lets this game down is not having a story mode, and the AI being so simple that they pretty much let you win on 50cc and 100cc mode, but on 150cc and mirror mode its next to impossible to finish in the top 4.

The Bottom Line
Racing with either idiots or champions

GameCube · by Da-Flea (30) · 2004

Excellent Multiplayer Fun

The Good
It is very hard not to have fun with this game, the shear depth and variety of the courses and multiplayer modes is huge. You have VS or Co-Op multiplayer, with the option of having 8 Gamecubes connected together using the LAN system. Then the combinations of the racers you can have (2 per Kart, 16 to choose from, then you choose the kart ), allows for rather vast tactical selection. The characters you choose effect the weapons you can get, and the kart effects your speed and handling.

You can then pick your multplayer arena, and battle mode, or any single track race you have unlocked, or choose to do a multiplayer grandprix (co-op or vs).

Bo-bomb mode is probably the most fun "battle mode", consisting of chucking bombs at the other kart, or laying them down for the other kart to hit. Shallow fun maybe, but fun none the less.

There is also a capture the flag style mode, and the "classic" balloon pop game featured in the previous games.

The co-op race mode is the main strength though, particularly in 4 player mode. It takes awhile to get used to the advanced skid-boast technique, as it requires precise timing and co-operation from both players.

The single player, predictable, is not as fun as the multiplayer. However, the course's are interesting with lots of interactive elements, and there's plenty to unlock and discover.

For those with PC's and Broadband connections the www.warppipe.com site shows you how to play this game online.

The Bad
The multiplayer battle arenas, although fun, are too small and too bland. Bo-bomb mode deserves to have a much bigger, better arena. Or, at the very least, the ability to use any track as an arena.

I also found the music selection not as good as the last games....there should be more tunes!

The Bottom Line
An excellent action racing game, suitable for 1 to 4 players on its own, or a strong reason to get BB adapters and have upto 4 players per cube.

A mix of racing and over the top weapons, its an essential part of any social gaming session.

GameCube · by Darkflame (14) · 2003

Multiplayer fun, but not the game it could have been

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.

GameCube · by MagFram (33) · 2005

[ View all 6 player reviews ]

Trivia

Awards

  • GameSpy
    • 2003 – #7 GameCube Game of the Year
    • 2003 - GameCube Racing Game of the Year
    • 2003 - Best Party Game of the Year (GameCube)
  • Golden Joystick Awards
    • 2004 - Game Cube Game of the Year

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Darkflame.

Additional contributors: gamewarrior, Patrick Bregger, piltdown_man, Rik Hideto.

Game added November 23, 2003. Last modified March 27, 2024.