Mario Kart: Double Dash!!
System: Gamecube   Publisher: Nintendo   Developer: Nintendo   Genre: Racing   Release Date: 11/17/03

The choice of characters and all of their special items really make this game fun to play. The voice overs for the characters are also very amusing even though there is a limited variety. The game is very repetitive and for some people may only keep them interested until they beat the levels and unlock all of the items. This game is geared more toward group play rather than solitary play which is why you can play with up to four players. The split screen can be distracting and may give some people a bit of a headache, but it is a good way to involve everyone, as long as there is no more than four in that group of everyone.

The racing levels come with sixteen different tracks plus the mirror image of all those same sixteen; that adds up to a combined number of thirty-two. That is a lot to choose from. Some of these tracks are all too familiar with the SNES tracks and the other Mario Kart games, but the others are very creative. You will not be shorted on your choices. During the racing levels you can have a friend play as your back passenger. When someone comes close enough to you the passenger can punch them away from you and directly hit them with the items that you have picked up. You can also switch off during the race taking turns with who is in the front position and who is in the back position. The novelty of this ability wears off very shortly though because the interaction as the passenger really isn’t that fun.

Double Dash is fun, but there is nothing really special happening here, it is just a new release similar to the games that came before it. When you buy this game you know exactly what your getting and how much use you will get out of it. The graphics have a cartoon look to them and the levels are brightly colored. This is a very animated game. The sound affects are decent; when you go into the mud there is a mucky wet sound. Most of this all applies to the first SNES game too though. So you can probably bet, depending on how you felt about the other versions, you will feel the same about this one. It’s a fun game, but not very original.

Miranda Stites, HeroesOfGaming.com, 07/18/05