A carefully designed game that is fun for as long as it lasts, but suffers from a lack of content.
New installments in a series often need to have a gimmick to keep the game from feeling like a mere graphical update of its predecessor. Double Dash is no exception. In this Mario Kart incarnation, two characters occupy each kart, with one driving and the other one taking care of the items. As a player, you can either control both characters, or let your friend take control of the other character. While this co-operative element alone justifies the existance of the concept of 2 characters in 1 kart, it fails to add anything to the single player experience, which is rather shameful.
What hurts the single player experience even more, is the lack of options. There is no possibility to do single races, nor to make custom tournaments, features which have been in some of Mario Kart's worthwhile competitors (Diddy Kong Racing, Crash Team Racing) long before Double Dash hit the market. The only activity basically is Grand Prix, which is fun enough until the inevitable boredom strikes, due to a lack of variation. The racing itself is fun and chaotic enough. No race is the same, and no race ceases to be exciting right until the very end. The controls are surprisingly realistic: the karts react like you would expect them to if, say, Mario Kart was a reallife event. If only. The weapon system is a bit unfair, and item rape will occur occasionally, but all in all it does make the races more interesting. In Diddy Kong Racing you could reach a point where you consistently beat all your opponents by half a lap, but that will never happen in Double Dash.
The chaotic nature of the racing does have a price, though. Seeing as the gameplay focuses so much on creating a hectic racing experience, the time trial mode feels a bit dull. It's just not as fun as trying to cut off that extra second off your time.
Unlike in its successors on the DS and the Wii, the battle mode in Double Dash cannot be played against bots, which is quite a shame. It must be noted, though, that this was not customary in any kart games that preceeded it, and it's still pretty rare. Still, being able to enjoy the battle mode when there aren't any friends around would've been a welcome means of breaking the lack of variation in the rest of the single player modes. This is not the case, however, and after a few months of gameplay, single players will only come back for an occasional playthrough, such as going through the exciting All-Cup Tour one more time.
The technical aspects of Double Dash are still impressive. The graphics would even look good on the Wii, with a kind of cell-shaded approach that perfectly underlines the chaotic, cartoonesque nature of the gameplay. The music and sound are what you would expect from a Mario Kart game, with lots of happy tunes and crazy battle cries livening up the entire experience.
At the end of the day, Mario Kart: Double Dash holds up reasonably well, especially from a technical points of view. The incredible cartoonish graphics are still pure eye candy today, and the creative track design truly managed to take Mario Kart to a higher level. Perhaps more importantly, the controls proved to be incredibly slick, as opposed to the clunkiness that characterised Mario Kart 64. The lack of things to do, however, keeps Double Dash from being a true classic. I dare say that with Mario Kart Wii, Crash Nitro Kart, and Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, there are better, more durable karting games out there, but that doesn't mean that Double Dash is a bad choice by any means. Especially if you have some friends willing to play, it is a satisfying and intriguing experience that will keep you busy for a while.