Awesome multiplayer for the Nintendo Gamecube.
When the Nintendo 64 released, another Mario Kart, Mario Kart 64, soon followed. Thanks to the technological upgrade afforded by the hardware, this Kart featured enormous 3D landscapes, lots more items, and "rotating" sprite characters. Power-sliding became important in this game and would become a staple of the series. The course design was interesting and unique. Everything from a desert to a beach to Princess Peach's castle was fully rendered. Shortcuts were abound, although the loss of the Feather was a disappointment to fans who to this day long for its return. Mario Kart 64 was an immediate success and is still fun to play to this day.
The Game Boy Advance almost released with another Kart game, Mario Kart Super Circuit. Combining both previous entries into one, SC featured modeled characters driving along all-new Mode-7 maps. The game is incredibly expansive, as new courses give way to unlockables of all the classic SNES maps. The items were taken directly from Mario Kart 64, as were the characters. Power sliding was less important, but that was because of the GBA's control scheme. Overall, Super Circuit is a supremely enjoyable little kart racer and still the best racing game in the GBA's library.
All of these games relied on the same formula, however. Even the battle modes of the different games (in which karts went after each other in an arena-type setting) were surprisingly similar. The series was clearly in need of a change. With Mario Kart: Double Dash, Nintendo tried to switch things up a bit.
Besides the obvious graphical upgrade, Double Dash gives players the ability to control two characters in one kart. Choosing which characters you want affects the kart you can select, and all three factors determine things like speed, turn radius, acceleration, etc. While this gives players more choices in the gameplay department, the biggest change comes from the ability to hold two items at once. Let's say that you choose Baby Luigi and Birdo. If Birdo is driving, Baby Luigi can pick up an item. The player can then hit Z to switch the characters. Baby Luigi will drive with one hand and hold his item in the other while Birdo is free to pick up her own item. While this can make for some wicked item combos (hit everyone with a Lightning Bolt, then grab a Super Mushroom to storm ahead), this new feature can feel underused, mainly because items are scattered around so often that you're never far enough away to really need that second item (no use storing them up, that is).
More entertaining are the special items available to each character. Koopa and Paratroopa can snag three shells, Toad has access to Super Mushrooms, and the Baby Mario Bros. have one nasty pet Chomp. The special items are always more fun to use than the regular items, but are much rarer than, say, bannana peels. Since each "pair" of characters shares the same special item (Mario & Luigi both get fireballs, for example), it's often best to mix up your kart-goers so you can access different special items.
Course design is a mixed bag. All of the courses, while new, feel surprisingly familiar. The game's first course seems like a direct port of Mario Kart 64's first course, although more busywork has been added like a Chomp and Zoom Strips. The usual Kart fare is here: a beach course, an ice course, Bowser's castle, Rainbow Road, a desert, a highway. The brand-new courses (like DK Mountain) are unique and fitting of the genre, but I wish there had been more of them instead of homages to previous games.
The graphics and sound are just about flawless, although the character models look surprisingly blocky at times (I'm lookin' at you, Yoshi). The courses are colorful and the textures are brilliant (just check out the deck on Daisy's yacht!). The music can get annoying due to the skimpiness of different tracks, and the characters have a nasty habit of saying the same thing 100 times during a race (It's-a Mario time!). Still, you'll learn to tune out the character voices and concentrate on the racing.
The game seems easy as pie for anyone who has ever played a Kart game before, at least until you hit the 150 cc races, at which point the difficulty skyrockets. Your ability to manage a power-slide on every possible turn will be tested, and you may lose many a race before you finally learn every twist and turn on the courses. Don't worry, though: it's a rewarding experience as every gold trophy won unlocks something like new courses, new karts, and even new characters!
Multiplayer is noticably downplayed. The Battle maps are generally flat but surprisingly large, and there are new Battle modes. One gives you basically unlimited bombs to toss at your opponent while the other is a sort of "King of the Hill" mode. The last mode is what you'll default to: classic deathmatch. You can unlock new Battle stages in the main game. Luigi's Mansion is kind of fun. Still, the maps aren't as diverse as those in Mario Kart 64 (remember the Block Fort? Nothing like that). Perhaps to make up for this, Nintendo implimented a unique multiplayer Grand Prix mode, where two players control one cart. More often than not, this mode is cumbersome because both players must hit Z at the same time to switch controls. It's better to decide who's driving and who's tossing items, and leave it at that. Still, it feels too much like single-player mode, and unless both players are at roughly the same skill level, it can get frustrating.
Nintendo tried to break new ground with the franchise, but I felt like the rest of the game was too much of a nod to previous entries. Basically, Nintendo didn't want to take any risks with Mario Kart: Double Dash. Adding a second characters changes up the strategy, sure, but overall I was underwhelmed by Double Dash. Certainly a worthy purchase (especially now--it's $20), but don't go in expecting something entirely new. By the end of an hour, any previous Kart recordholder will be well on his or her way to beating this new entry.