Game Preview: Mario Kart (Double Dash)

Credited to: www.GameBiz.com.au

Are you ready to dash? Are you ready to DOUBLE dash? Pick your favourite Nintendo character, and join your 2nd favourite Nintendo character on a kart to compete against 14 other eager characters in one of Nintendo’s biggest titles of 2003, Mario Kart: Double Dash. This must be one of the first games where you can team Mario up with Bowser, and what a vigilant team they make. Pity all the Pizza from Mario and the fact that Bowser is a Dinosaur slows down their kart immensely, or they would be the perfect team. It’s all about speed and persistence in Mario Kart: Double Dash, so hold on because you’re going to experience the most ambitious ride of your life.
Gameplay

Mario Kart Double Dash is a very different game to the rest in the series. Now that consoles have reached a level where the 3D environment is a simple achievement, developers can work closer on the gameplay details. Although the environment from afar in Mario Kart: Double Dash is very bland, as you’re racing through the tracks you’ll be overwhelmed by how involving the up-close environment is with you. There’s all sorts of “bad guys” trying to make you crash, and that’s not even including the other karts on the track.

Actually getting to control a kart at first is very different to the other games. It takes a little while to get used to, and seems almost a little unconnected at first. This doesn’t mean that Double Dash has completely different controls, although the R and L buttons are both used for slide turns, and the learning curve on that is pretty steep too. Having 2 characters on the same kart may seem like a confusing concept at first, but you soon find out that it’s helpful as the kart can now hold 2 items. The traditional question marks are in Double Dash, and now you can find Double Question marks which pick up an item for both you and your partner. This works out great when you get a combination of 4 or even 6 mushrooms!

A nice little extra in Double Dash is that each character has their unique special item, kind of like a special move in the Wrestling games or a fatality in the Mortal Kombat series. I won’t ruin what these special items are, but I must add that it took Ben and I about 4 hours to work out what Peach’s special item actually does. When you jump on a kart with a mate, you take control of the wheel as player 1 with your mate controlling the items. They can also help with the steering by leaning their weight to the left or right, but only for a split second which bumps the cart over about half a meter. It can help you get out of sticky situations, but if your mate doesn’t like you, you’re in a bit of strife. Unfortunately Ben and I couldn't work out how to switch drivers, but there may be a unique button combination such as both players pushing Z at the same time which changes it. This didn't really matter however, because if you pick up one of the double question marks which I spoke about earlier, you can pass the item over to the person sitting at the back, where they can then use that weapon. All actions between each character are performed in perfect 3D animation, and it almost makes the game feel realistic if it wasn’t for the graphics.

If you’ve been checking out any of the Mario Kart trailers, then you’ve probably seen the track where there is a massive barrel that shoots you high into a mountain. Ben and I were lucky enough to give this track a go, and boy is it fun. The barrel shoots you up to the top of the mountain, from where you slowly work your way back down to the bottom. Yes, this means you never have to go uphill! This is Donkey Kong’s track, and reminds us a lot like his track in Mario Kart 64. Nintendo seem to have done this more than once in Double Dash as Waluigi Stadium looks a great deal like Wario Stadium too, except it’s more like a dirt-bike track.

Unfortunately you are going to experience some massive catch-up in Double Dash. The blue shell is a real killer, and can turn the whole match around unfortunately. In the competition at VMAX on the 19th of October 2003, if you were coming 4th and you got a blue shell near the end, you’d most likely win. Another mania to take notice of in Double Dash and to expect when the game is released is new battle modes. Shine Thief and Bomb Mode are 2 new multiplayer modes to join alongside the traditional Balloon mode. Shine Thief involves you holding on to a star for as long as possible. If you’re holding it when the time runs out, you win. Bomb mode is much more fun however. Each player can pick up a few bombs, and from there you have to throw them at your enemy. They explode as soon as they hit the kart or the ground, and send off a blast with a radius of about 3 – 4 metres. Fortunately, you can’t hit yourself with these bombs... So line up the enemy, and go straight for them!

Graphics

Graphics are a big plus on the up-close front, but once you get a track where you can see afar, Double Dash lacks much in the way of detail. A wall about 50 metres away in-game can look blurry which is a bit disappointing, but you learn to live with it, and it lets the game run at a much higher frame rate. The atmosphere will keep you entertained for many, many hours so graphics don’t need to be at their best. Possibly the best illustrated part of the game are the karts themselves. Instead of just having the standard karts that we’ve seen in previous Mario Kart games, we now get to pick out of 3 or 4 karts. Each player has their individual kart, however Nintendo allow you to use some of the other characters karts depending on what character you pick. Wario definitely has the best kart, being a nice purple low-rider.

Sound

Double Dash has the same sort of music as we’ve seen in every Mario Kart game in the series. It’s fairly ordinary, but it’s not boring generic music that you get in Wrestling games. The days of generic music have nearly faded now that custom soundtracks are popping up on the Xbox, and developers are looking in to getting real music for their games. Ignoring the music, the environment in Double Dash is full of life and therefore is full of noise. Each item you use will make its mark, and each character has their little slogans they fire out every now and then. There’s nothing too spectacular on the sound front, but there’s no evident downers.

Overall

Mario Kart: Double Dash in my opinion is Nintendo’s biggest and best release since Wind Waker. Some may disagree, but once Double Dash comes out, you’ll all see this game slowly crawl into your mind and make you crave it. After playing it for 2 hours, and watching it for about 6 hours, Ben and I can’t wait to get our hands on our very own copies of Double Dash. So mark off November 14th on your calendar because Double Dash will change your daily agenda. With the “super-slick” look (thanks to forum member nshady), you can guarantee that Double Dash will give you a good 40 – 60 hours of gameplay goodness, especially if you have friends.

Note: In a poll on our forums, we asked gamers what preview they would most like to see. Winning the poll with a majority vote was Mario Kart: Double Dash. Would you like to see your most anticipated game previewed at GameBiz? Check out our General Discussion forum to see if your game has made it to the latest volume.

It's coming out on November 19th, not the 14th.

Was it changed recently? Sorry for not updating.