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Kart racing gets the GCA Review

Mario KartDouble Dash Review
By Richard Horne

Introduction:

Mario Japans favorite son. The epitome of all that is Nintendo. Bright, colourful, cheery, non offensive well ok maybe non offensive to everyone not of Italian origin. The moustached mascot has been synonymous with Nintendo since the great Shigeru Miyamoto accidentally came up with his design, due to pixel and colour limitations when designing the original Donkey Kong arcade game. Mario has been at the fore front of more genres of games than any other character has and most likely ever will. The jolly round plumber has tried his hand at platforming, puzzling, golfing, tennis, fighting and this, his third attempt at Karting. Nintendos saviour returns with the imaginatively titled Mario Kart - - Double Dash. So, how did it turn out?

Before I go on, its important to establish one thing - Ill be reviewing this game on its own individual merits. Ive read other reviews of MK - - DD, and the biggest criticism Ive read is that theres not a lot new from the previous N64 and SNES incarnations of the game. Personally I didnt think this fair. The same thing has happened a lot lately with reviews of other games, i.e. Mario Sunshine was criticised for not offering much new from Mario 64, as was Zelda The Wind Waker compared with Zelda The Ocarina of Time. Im sorry but the N64 versions were so good, Im not sure theyll ever be bettered. Therefore to mark a game down just because it doesnt quite reach above the level set by probably the 2 best games in the world ever is a little harsh to say the least. The biggest complaint I have with comparing games is that there is no consistency. If were following the rule which says a game must be slated for being anything like a previous game but with not a lot else new added then surely for example Viewtiful Joe should be panned for being a glorified version of Final Fight? Well of course it shouldnt, Viewtiful Joe is fantastic. The same can be applied to Mario Kart - - Double Dash, in a word, its great.
Whilst its obviously impossible to review this game without drawing comparisons to the prequels, I will attempt to keep this review focused and spoiler free, although I cant help but feel its already lost some of its focus! Ok rant over.

So, whats new?

Well Im sure youve all read about the new, two drivers per kart system. And for the benefit of those who havent, its straight forward enough. Select your driver, followed by co-pilot then choose a kart for them both to drive. One character drives the kart, whilst the second driver deals out the wide and varied collection of typical Nintendo powerups. You know the likes, red shells, green shell, banana skins etc etc. Its also possible to switch between drivers by pressing the much maligned Z button. This new feature adds a whole new element of strategy to gameplay, as its now possible for both drivers to hold weapons and power-ups. Also, each different kart has its own set of attributes for handling, acceleration and speed, therefore if you selected Bowser and Baby Mario as your drivers, your Kart would have to be one of the larger sized Karts to accommodate the great lump that is Bowser. In true Mario Kart Fashion, the larger characters have slow acceleration but great top speeds, whereas the smaller characters have great acceleration but slow top speeds. And then as always, therere the average sized racers such as Mario and Luigi who have ordinary acceleration and a moderate top speed.

Also new, are character specific power ups. Mario ala Super Mario Bros 1 fires bouncing orange fireballs. Bowser lets loose a massive spiked green shell and perhaps the best and most lethal is Baby Marios unleashing of a giant chomp chomp on a chain which drags his little nappy/diaper wearing arse along eating anything in its path as well as providing the little nipper with a much needed speed boost.

The power slide system is also sort of new. Its a cross between the techniques used in both the SNES and N64 versions. Mario Kart 64 allowed you to wiggle the joystick left and right whilst sliding around a corner to give you a small boost upon releasing the power slide button. Well this feature remains but the hop that pre empted said slide is no longer there. You can now accelerate directly into a slide without having to time your hops before the corner like in the SNES version.

Other new additions include 2 new multiplayer modes, Shine Thief and Bob-omb Blast, which when added to the familiar and much played in the past Battle Mode make for a good showing. And, for the first time, Mario Kart is now LAN compatible, meaning its possible for up to 16 people to participate in the various multiplayer modes. Ok, perhaps 16 players is slightly misleading. It is possible for 16 people to play simultaneously but thats 2 people per kart meaning its really only 8 karts actually racing. A new and interesting feature of MK - - DD is that its possible to race with two people controlling one kart. One person drives and the second players utilises the power ups, the fun part is that both players have to press the Z button simultaneously to switch.

Graphics

Theres no arguing that MK - - DD is gorgeous to look at. For those who can see past the vivid imagery and Mario Sunshine-esque bright colour palette, the game is undoubtedly a visual treat. The characters are, as always with Nintendo, fantastically animated. It never ceases to bring a smile to my face, when I see Mario hanging off the back of his kart, stumpy legs scrambling in the dirt as he tries to keep a hold of the kart as Koopa Trooper batters it around a corner. Its little touches like this that people appreciate Nintendo games for. Other exquisite touches include the heat blurring effects on levels such as Dry Dry Desert, or the dust kicking up on Waluigi Stadium. Very often these are things that go un-noticed or are taken for granted, but all add to overall experience and help reinforce that Nintendo magic.

The race tracks themselves whilst in the main not entirely unpredictable are still well modelled and textured. As is often the case with many games these days though, some textures dont quite hold up so well when viewed extremely close-up but this is a game where youre meant to be racing not stopping to search for low res textures. The early race tracks serve more as an introduction or re-introduction to the game and are fairly unspectacular but the game really shows its true colours when you get to the Star and Special Cups. Yoshis Race Course and DK Mountain are absolutely fantastic and easily my favourites so far. I wont spoil the surprise of the Special cup for you, but the tracks are a real treat and you wont be disappointed.

Sound

Unusually for Nintendo, the music tracks on MK- - DD are all new tunes rather than re-hashes of Nintendo classics, I guess they finally realised that theres only so long they can continue to remix the Super Mario Bros theme tune and therefore decided to start afresh. The music tracks are typical Nintendo jolly, chirpy and appropriate to whatever style track youre racing on. Whilst not quite as infectious as previous Nintendo classic tracks, they do of course, true to form, stick in your head after a few plays. Oddly enough the whistled title track at first really annoyed me, but now I find myself whistling the damn thing all the time and its really grown on me!

The actual sound effects, as youd expect from Nintendo are all top notch. The unmistakable Charles Martinet again voices many of the characters in the game! And, as is to be expected, each character has their own individual sets of taunts, comments and general interjections which all add to the overall experience.

Multiplayer

As always with Mario Kart, the multiplayer modes are the meat of the game. Whilst the single player mode is fun for a while, its the multiplayer competitions and battles modes that always keep you and your friends coming back for more. In typical Mario Kart fashion its this just one more game syndrome that will endear you to the game. Best of three soon becomes best of 5 becomes best of 10 and so on and so forth.

As described previously there are various new multiplayer modes in addition to the classic battle mode which we all know and love. The premise being simple, you have three balloons, try and last as long as possible, bursting your opponents balloons whilst trying to avoid your own balloons being popped.

My own personal favourite mode however is and always has been the simple multiplayer races. Due to the well integrated A.I. of the game, being in last place on the final lap does not automatically mean youre without a chance of winning! Races are often so close that a better racing line around the final corner than your opponent is so often the difference between first and second place. Mario Kart is for me, without doubt the quintessential multiplayer game.

As far as flaws go, there is one minor negative with the LAN connectivity in that the console takes away the character and kart choices from you and assigns them randomly. Not so bad a negative for me personally as Im sure that if 16 people had to fight over who got to race as Wario this would cause some conflict! But as the GameCube does this automatically, there can be no arguing!