Mario Kart: Double Dash
Mario Kart Double Dash!!
U.S. Release Date: November 17, 2003
The GameCube Archives Score: 6.5/10
Mario Kart is one of the most popular video game franchises in history. Every entry released for a Nintendo console has been a top-five best seller for that respective console. Several have been number one. However, there's a black sheep of the bunch. While Mario Kart: Double Dash is the second best selling GameCube game of all time, it's sold less copies than any other Mario Kart entry...even Mario Kart 8 for the Wii U. On top of that, this 2003 offering seems to have the lowest reputation. Back in the GameCube era, I bought essentially every marquee game for the system but Double Dash. I did play the game once, at my friend Robker's house, but I found that I hated it, disliking the mechanics and tracks.
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Double exclamation points be damned! |
However, in recent years, especially as my son and I have nearly compiled a
complete Mario Kart collection (EDITOR'S NOTE: Complete as of today), I've
wondered if I just disliked Double Dash because it felt so different
from the Mario Karts I was used to (the Nintendo 64 and Super Nintendo
iterations). I figured it was time to finally buy my own copy of
Double D, to see if I'd enjoy the game now from a more distant, less
biased perspective.
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| Get in the car, I promise I won't eat you. Also, I just called the game "Double D." That really happened, and I'm not sorry. |
Like every other entry in the series,
Mario Kart: Double Dash features bright, smooth graphics, and an
upbeat soundtrack. Sound effects are an avalanche of adrenaline-rushing
noises, engines throbbing, characters shouting, weapon noises panning back
and forth. All of the action is fast and frenetic, and the framerate stays
high, with little to no slow-down. No more music being turned off for
multiplayer to keep the game running smoothly. Everything is slick and
clean.
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Except Peach and Daisy's dresses when I run them into the dirt. |
With that said, though the game runs smoothly, the graphics aren't exactly
the most detailed in the world. Next to GameCube standout,
F-Zero GX (I miss you, F Zero!), Double Dash looks simplistic
and cartoony. Okay, all the Mario Kart games look cartoony, it's their
style, but F-Zero GX is graphically superior to what is found here by
quite a margin. Double D's tracks do have some cool details, like one
featuring a roving dinosaur, but there's nothing jaw-dropping..
Still...that's a nitpick. The graphics are fine. The gameplay is...not quite
that.
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Pictured in the background: me when I think too hard about this
game |
Double Dash is named for a quick start only possible in the game's
two-player mode. Instead of racing against each other, players can team up,
one sitting in the front, and one in the back of the car (with the option to
switch at any moment). The person in the front drives the car, while the
person in the back handles items (more on items later). The person in the
back can also help on turns, working in unison with the driver to perform a
mini-dash. ...And of course, if both players time hitting the accelerator
correctly at the start of a race, they can perform a "double dash," giving
them a nice head start. These elements of the game are actually...pretty
great. It's a shame this is the only Mario Kart game to feature this
two-people per kart gameplay. It's done very well and adds a new dimension
to the franchise. Even in single player (or multiplayer versus) mode, there
are still two characters per car. You can even play a four-player mode that
allows you to pair off (two CPU cars tag along). This cool, unique element
is not the problem.
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Should I say what the problem is, or keep driving in circles? Okay,
I'll spill it. |
The problem is the racing. Not the controls or car handling, determined by
the size of the folks in your car, and the car you're driving. The controls
are great. Skidding into a corner feels as good as in any Mario Kart game.
Breaking and accelerating, firing off an item, all are intuitive. No, the
problem is the game's overall BALANCE. As the title states,
Double Dash is a kart racer. This means the gameplay is arcade style
racing, generally incorporating item usage. Mario Kart games feature item
boxes strewn across the courses. When you drive through an item box, you're
given a randomly selected item. The farther from first you are, the greater
your chances to pick up a good item.
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I'm not gonna even mention it in the review, but each character can
also pick up their own unique "special item," which, like this big
banana for the Kongs, is generally pretty useless. |
A "bad item" isn't really bad, it's just not very useful in passing up other
drivers. An example of these types of items include bananas, which you
generally drop behind you to make the drivers on your tail spin out. This
type of item wouldn't help much if you were in, say, sixth place. A better
item for sixth...or eighth place would be an invincible star, which makes
you invulnerable to damage and gives a speed boost, or a lightning bolt,
which shrinks and slows down other drivers. Of course the game also features
missiles in the form of green, red (heat-seeking) and spiky (leader-seeking)
shells, as well as mushrooms (single or triple) which give a speed boost.
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I hear these guys are mushroom fanatics. |
Double Dash's item system, track design, and CPU AI all work together
to create an experience that's quite frankly far more frustrating than the
Mario Kart experiences featured on other consoles. Double Dash, like
all Mario Kart's before 8, features three difficulty levels: 50cc,
100cc, and 150cc. The higher the cc, the faster the karts (including yours),
and the more difficult the racing. 50cc, as in most Mario Kart games, is
easy for even novice gamers to win. However, once you get up to 100cc, the
gameplay can become downright irritating.
Say you've worked your way up to first place in a race.
Then you get hit by an item.
There's no way to avoid it.
It's out of your control.
You get hit by an item and either run off the track, or flip over a couple
times and stop moving. In Double Dash, when you get hit by an item,
you generally get hit by another item. This game has particular ire for
someone who isn't moving--talk about kicking you when you're down! It's even
worse if you've been knocked off the track (these tracks all seem to have
railing gaps in the most annoying of places). Then you not only have to be
placed back on the track (costing valuable time), but you're placed on the
track completely still, easy prey for item-shooting CPU's. You were in first
before? Well, say hello to fifth or sixth place. Naturally, this would be a
good time to get a good item. After all, items launched by other characters,
which were completely out of your control, put you in this situation. It's
only fitting that another item get you back in the race. Only, that rarely
ever happens.
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An invincible star for the folks in second place? That makes a lot of
sense. |
The "good" items in Double Dash just aren't good enough to help you
gain much headway. The later introduced to the franchise Bullet Bill item
would be perfect here, but Nintendo hadn't thought of it yet. Plus, to add
insult to injury, anytime you go off the side of the course, or get hit by
items, you lose whatever items you were holding. Again, items take you out
of the race, but the game doesn't allow them to get you back into it.
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To make matters worse...oh, wait, this is the caption |
To make matters worse, the game seems to pick one CPU pair to either win, or
finish in second, if the player finishes first, for the entirety of each
grand prix. The leaves essentially no room for error, chance, or chaos.
If you get first in the first race, you can bet whoever came in second
will be your only competition for the rest of the grand prix. I've even
noticed, after purposely shell bombarding whoever the game seems to have
randomly chosen as the favorite, that the game magically shoots them forward
ahead of everyone else immediately after I'd attacked them. The problem is
magnified when two players are racing in a grand prix. If one is in say,
third place, and the other is in say, fifth, the person in fifth has little
chance to catch up. The CPU AI is geared toward beating the third place
player, and leaves the fifth place player in the dust.
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At least these donuts look delicious. |
One might hear this and then say "well, get good," but the fact of the
matter is, if
Double Dash allows so many things that are out of the player's
control to negatively effect them, it should put measures in place to
counteract those negative random events. Most other Mario Kart games have
mastered that balance, creating gameplay that feels fun, spontaneous, yet
mostly fair. Double Dash's higher difficulties just feel like cold,
antagonistic chaos. And speaking of other Mario Kart games,
Double Dash's immediate predecessor, Mario Kart 64, featuring
four four-course grand prix, for a grand total of 16 tracks.
Double Dash features...16 tracks. This is disappointing, especially
considering Double Dash's tracks feel just a bit less
well-designed than those found in other Mario Kart games. My son, used to
the track logic of the other games, often said, "Why doesn't this part of
the track have this?" or "Why is that there?" The tracks just don't
feel as polished as those in the other games, though at least the types of
environments are diverse.
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It would be cooler if the GameCube holographically projected this
arena on top of your actual GameCube |
In addition to grand prix modes, Double Dash features time trial, and
some additional multiplayer battle modes. The battle modes are pretty fun,
overall, featuring a mode similar to capture the flag, a mode where players
battle with bombs, and another one where players try to pop each other's
balloons.While more environments would be appreciated, these modes are all
pretty fun.
Thankfully, Double Dash also features unlockable characters and cars
to stretch out the game's lasting value, though anything involving having to
win a grand prix above 50cc is almost more trouble than it's worth. I will
most likely come back to this Mario Kart less than any of the others.
Looks like my instincts from all those years ago were correct. The irony is,
it's not the new gameplay elements Double Dash introduces that bring
it down. It's the game's failure at satisfyingly executing the series' basic
racing concepts.
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