Mario Kart: Double Dash

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Mario Kart: Double Dash!!
Composer(s)
  • Shinobu Tanaka
  • Kenta Nagata
SeriesMario Kart
Platform(s)GameCube
Release
Genre(s)Kart racing
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Mario Kart: Double Dash!!

Nintendo GameCube Broadband Adapter
, allowing up to 16 players to compete simultaneously. There are 20 characters to select from in total, each of which with a special item, and with eleven characters being new to the series.

Double Dash!! received positive reviews from critics; it attained an aggregated score of 87 out of 100 on Metacritic. Reviewers praised the graphics, new gameplay features, character and item rosters, arcade aesthetic and track design, but elements of the voice acting were poorly received. It was commercially successful, with more than 3.8 million copies sold in the United States, and more than 802,000 copies sold in Japan. It is the second best-selling GameCube game of all-time, selling around 7 million copies worldwide, behind Super Smash Bros. Melee.

Gameplay

See also: Gameplay of the Mario Kart series
Donkey Kong and Wario racing at Luigi Circuit, the first course of the game. Two players can ride on a kart instead of one in Mario Kart: Double Dash!!

Mario Kart: Double Dash!! is a kart racing video game in which 2 players race in a kart against other 2-player teams in 16 different courses. Like in the previous installments, players pick up item boxes to receive a randomly selected item and use it to impede the opposition and gain the advantage. Some items, such as shells and bananas, allow the player to hit others to slow them down, while other items, such as the star power-up, render them temporarily invincible to attacks.

Two characters are selected to race together in the same kart, with one assigned to drive and the other to use items. They can switch their positions at any time during the race. In single player modes, one player controls both characters on a kart; and in multiplayer, two players can share a kart, each controlling a different character. 20 playable characters divided into 10 pairs are available:

King Boo. Each pair has a unique item that only its characters can acquire from item boxes. For example, only Mario and Luigi can use fireballs to shoot other players. Any two characters from 20 can be selected to create different pairs, such as Mario and Bowser, and can thus access both their unique items.[2]

The powerslide technique, an action that allows the player to drift around turns, has been improved; players can tilt the control stick while drifting to make sparks appear around their kart. If tilted enough, the sparks turn blue, and the player gains a speed boost known as a "mini-turbo".[3][4]

The "rocket start", an action that allows the player to gain a speed boost when a race begins is also improved as the Double Dash, can only be done as a team, by both players accelerating simultaneously as the race commences.

Game modes

There are four game modes in Double Dash!!: Grand Prix, Time Trial, Versus, and Battle. Most of the modes can be played

single-player
races.

Grand Prix

The

controlled by the computer
, in a series of predetermined courses.

The player can choose to race using 3 different engine size classes: 50

cc, 100cc, and 150cc. A fourth unlockable class, Mirror Mode, allows the player to race through horizontally-flipped tracks using the 150cc engine size.[5]

Since all karts go faster when using higher engine sizes, the 4 classes serve as

Rainbow Road
, but the other 14 remaining tracks all show up in random order.

Every race is three laps long except for Baby Park and Wario Colosseum, which have seven and two, respectively, being the shortest and longest courses in the series' history up to this point.

After all the human players cross the finish line, the positions of the computer-controlled teams are immediately locked in and they are given points based on those positions, ranging from zero to ten. No matter which position they finished, everyone will move on to the next race because of these new rules.

At the end of the cup, there will be an

award ceremony for the best three teams, where they will get a trophy
ranging from bronze to gold depending on how they scored overall.

Time Trial

In the

ghost
, a carbon copy of the player's performance that they can race against in later runs. Each character will receive a mushroom, which can be used at any time during the run. (1P only)

Versus

In Versus mode, players can choose any course and race against up to 3 (or 15 with LAN) human opponents with customized rules such as changing the item frequency or the number of laps in each race. (2P-16P only)

Battle

In Battle mode, the player fights against up to 3 (or up to 15 with LAN) human-controlled opponents using items scattered throughout a battle arena.

There is the traditional balloon-popping battle game, in which the player must use items to pop an opponent's three balloons while defending their own. Players can also steal items from one another by speeding towards them with a mushroom or star.

In Co-op battles, the player in the back of the kart can perform a slide-attack on another driver, which can also steal balloons. Additionally, two new games have been implemented. The first is Shine Thief, a game where a team captures a Shine Sprite and must maintain possession of it for a certain amount of time, usually starting out with 55 to 60 seconds. Each time the Shine Sprite is lost, the counter will somewhat reset the time. For instance, if a player is able to keep possession of the Shine Sprite for only 30 seconds, the counter would reset to 40 instead of 60.

The other mode involves throwing Bob-ombs at each other to collect points in Bob-omb Blast. With two players, 3 points are needed to win, but when playing with 3 or 4, 4 points are required to win. If two or more players throw a bomb at each other in unison, no points will be awarded to anybody.

As in previous installments, the battle arenas are enclosed (the exception being Tilt-A-Kart), with a varying layout and a replenishing arsenal of items (2P-16P only).

Mario Kart: Double Dash!! is the last game in the series without the ability to battle computer-controlled opponents.

LAN play

Double Dash!! also features

Nintendo GameCube Broadband Adapter. Up to eight GameCube consoles can be connected, allowing for 16-player multiplayer races, with two players controlling each kart.[6]

Development

Shigeru Miyamoto provided a number of opinions to the development team.

Double Dash!! was first shown at

E3 2003, a playable demo of the game was available. New features, such as having two characters drive one kart, had been implemented.[9] An updated demo with some new additions was shown at the Games Convention in August 2003.[10] In September, Nintendo held a Gamers' Summit for the press, in which a nearly complete and more sped up version of Double Dash!! was displayed. The Gamers' Summit also announced the North American release date to be November 17, 2003.[11]

The development team struggled in devising gameplay features that would be enjoyed by the fans of the series. One of the hardest tasks chief director Kiyoshi Mizuki was assigned to do was to attract people who had no prior experience with the series; he decided to make the gameplay as simple as possible. Producer Shigeru Miyamoto presented the staff with a variety of opinions which they in turn would have to incorporate into the game the best way possible. Miyamoto let the team decide which graphics they wanted to use without restrictions.[12]

Connectivity to the Game Boy Advance was discussed as an opportunity among the developers, but they eventually agreed that Double Dash!! was not suited to these connectivity ideas and decided to exclude it. It was desirable to narrow down the gap between the ability of veteran and novice players. Therefore, gameplay features like the ability to escape the banana were removed; the staff wanted both veteran and novice players to enjoy themselves.[12]

A special edition of the game was also released, which included a bonus disc containing:[13]

The game's

soundtrack was composed by Super Mario Sunshine composer Shinobu Tanaka and Mario Kart 64 composer Kenta Nagata.[14]

Reception

Double Dash!! received positive reviews from critics and fans.

GamesRadar praised the game's "dual-riders idea and untouchable multiplayer".[2] Electronic Gaming Monthly said that the game's "pure, exhilarating glee will envelop your soul".[16]

Double Dash!! has also received criticism from the media. Considering the 7-year gap since

Game Revolution criticized the game's single-player mode for lacking substance and the track design for being "bland".[28]

Sales

In its first seven weeks of sales, Double Dash!! sold 1 million units, making it the fastest selling GameCube game up to that point.

NPD Group, Double Dash!! was the best-selling game of November 2003.[35] It is also the third best-selling GameCube game in Australia[36] and was later rereleased under the label of Players Choice only in that region. Joystiq reported in February 2009 that the game had sold nearly seven million copies worldwide.[37]

Awards

The game received the "Multiplayer Game" award from

Video Software Dealers Association (VSDA).[39][40] During the AIAS' 7th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, Double Dash!! received a nomination for "Console Racing Game of the Year".[41]

In 2009, the game placed 63rd in Official Nintendo Magazine's 100 greatest Nintendo games of all time.[42] In 2021, Kotaku ranked the game second best Mario Kart game, praising the two-player co-op mode and track design.[43]

Notes

  1. ^ Japanese: マリオカートダブルダッシュ!!, Hepburn: Mario Kāto: Daburu Dasshu!!

References

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External links

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