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Review : Mario Kart : Double Dash for Gamecube
For the past twenty years I have been a happy Nintendo addict. The big N has treated me well and I have forgiven them for trying to sell me the Virtual Boy and never releasing that Super NES Sony CD-ROM.
Nintendo now offering Mario Kart : Double Dash for Gamecube. It is a follow up to the innovative Super Nintendo, Gameboy Advance and N-64 games.
Since the first Mario Kart on the Super Nintendo the game has been blatantly ripped off by almost a hundred mediocre games with a surreal cornucopia of cartoon licenses. Probably the most absurd of them is Smurf Racer on Playstation. In fact the name for the mini genera "Kart Racing" is just a simple rip off of the Mario Kart games. If I were Nintendo's lawyers I would cause a bit of a stink over this but it is a very accessible, fun and easily jacked concept.
There are a couple updates and changes to the gameplay over the previous games but it remains pretty much the same gameplay of the Nintendo64 games. You have two Mario characters on a kart each with slightly different traits and you can switch between a driver an riding shot gun. You then pick up power ups and race around the cartoon Mario inspired tracks. There are no coins in this game and the gameplay is a bit more simplistic than the N-64 game.
The graphics and animation is pretty good and is about what I had expected but it did not blow me away like F-Zero GX but it is unquestionable Mario and fits like an old glove. The sound effects were cute and I love to hear Wario gloat when he wins. The inclusion of Baby Mario and Baby Luigi was spiffy as was paring Yoshi with Birdo from Super Mario 2.
Nintendo packed in a sampler demo disc full of movies and demos for this winter's choice Gamecube games. Kiwi will be ecstatic to get his hands on the Sonic Heroes demo contained within.
There is slick two player cooperative and competitive games as well as split screen for player racing and cart battles.
You can use two Nintendo Broadband adapters to network two different Gamecubes and if you had a LAN router, eight Gamecubes, eight TVs and eight copies of the game you could have a Mario Kart LAN party. I don't really see this game take over LAN parties anytime soon but you will find me playing this much more than Halo. I think it is a cop-out that Nintendo still has yet to pull off any non-Sega online games and this game would be freaking perfect to play online.
Nintendo needs to attract and produce innovative and creative game for their systems but at the same time create games that are so essentially Nintendo games. Mario Kart : Double Dash is hands down the best "Kart Racer" one that and is a proud selection for any Nintendo fan.
This is a pure family game and that does not mean that it is accessible only to kids and contains no offensive content. It is easily accessible and had an learning curve that any kid can learn but it is pure racing fun that will keep kids entertained well into their forties.
Jake at November 18, 2003 
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Comments
So it's good huh?
I'm telling you man, I don't regret the day I finally picked up a Gamecube last month. Looking forward to trying out the latest iteration of Mario Kart.
I'm assuming you've heard of Warp Pipe; I'm probably going to try it out once I pick up this fine game.
Posted by: gatmog at November 18, 2003 6:33 AM
I love super mario kart, its my favorite game! Well, that and Dr. Mario, but who doesn't like tetris?
Posted by: Angela the Dragon at November 18, 2003 6:58 AM
Pickin this baby up tonight after work! Been a while since jammin on some kart racing, so I'm hyped! Planning on bringing this bad boy with me to thanksgiving and womp my sisters! hehe
Posted by: wuji at November 18, 2003 7:10 AM
"Nintendo packed in a sampler demo disc full of movies and demos for this winter's choice Gamecube games. Kiwi will be ecstatic to get his hands on the Sonic Heroes demo contained within."
One problem - the Double Dash Bonus Disc is USA-only, so nobody outside the US will be able to sample what's on it. ;)
Posted by: Fortissimo Wily at November 18, 2003 7:58 AM
Well you can use a boot disk to play imported US and Japanese games on a Gamecube if if you have a NTSC TV I think but I think that Nintendo should include the bonus disc in other regions.
Posted by: Jake at November 18, 2003 9:41 AM
Thanks for the review, as always. I have been looking forward to getting this game for months. I wish I would have preordered it, because it's been difficult to find here so far (though I haven't looked very hard). I'll probably have to wait until Santa can bring it to me anyway.
Posted by: Jeff at November 18, 2003 11:25 AM
The bonus disc is available in Europe with the Mario Double Dash Gamecube bundle, but what I'd like to know is: Jake, have you played Sonic Adventure on the Dreamcast and how does Sonic Heroes compare to that!?
Posted by: Berklee at November 19, 2003 6:15 AM
The European Double Dash GC Bundle comes with a Legend of Zelda bonus disc (the 4-game pack), not the demo disc that comes with the US version of DD. ;)
Posted by: Fortissimo Wily at November 19, 2003 7:54 AM
Sonic Heroes is pretty cool. It is all of the action parts of Sonic Adventure 2 with none of the searching for hidden jewels. I am very optimistic about it and think it can be the best 3d sonic game ever made.
The demo disk is nice but I would rather have the Zelda bonus disk. The demo disk is exactly what they are showing in the in-store demo machines.
Posted by: Jake at November 19, 2003 9:57 AM
Thanks Jake, but I thought Sonic Adventure 2 was less fun than 1, so how is it compared to the first one? ;o)
Posted by: Berklee at November 19, 2003 2:48 PM
There are only two levels on the demo but they were totally fun and action packed.
Posted by: Jake at November 19, 2003 2:58 PM
there is online gameplay. www.warppipe.com i think has the tunnel for the game cube. similar to game spys xbox tunnel. neat concept.
Posted by: henry at November 19, 2003 4:30 PM
I absolutely had to have the Zelda Bonus disk, so I actually subscribed to Nintendo Power to get it. I felt 19.95 was worth paying to get my hands on that sucker.
Posted by: Bob at November 20, 2003 12:43 PM
Hey jake you know that if you register this game and either Mario Party 5, the new 1080 snowboarding, or Mario and Luigi RPG for GBA and Nintendo will ship you a Zelda Bonus Disc right? Just a heads up.
Posted by: Gavin at November 22, 2003 11:08 PM
I love this game it's sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good. I play it every day at home on my game cube, I could never get tired of it. Nintendo I hope you make better gamees like this. Cause this is the best game you've ever made.
Posted by: DD at April 3, 2007 7:52 AM
I just loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooove mario kart!!!!!!!!!! WOW! this is like the best agme ever it's soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo koooooooooooo and the best part is..... well actually the best aprt is ............ EVERYTHING ! Nintendo you guys really put done your selves this time, go ahead and make a much better game, but I doubt there can be a better game than this! This sis the best game of the top 5 best games in my list of games, I know I don't want to seem like I'm obsessed with this game but hey!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 Who wouldn't be?! can you blame me lol you can't can you?
Posted by: lady D at April 3, 2007 7:59 AM
