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Mario Kart Double Dash! Review for the Nintendo Gamecube

Mario Kart Double Dash is an engaging race car game that originated from the SNES game called Super Mario Kart; other versions of this game have also been released prior to Double Dash. This is simply the next step in the evolutionary process from it's predecessors. There are not many significant changes made to Double Dash, the style and the feel are both indicative of the series. However two new battle modes have been added, the Shine Thief and Bob-omb Blast.

In order to win the Shine Thief the player must have possession of the shine when the timer goes off. The timer begins anytime a new player takes control of the shine, in order to get the shine the players must attack each other then pick up the shine once it has been dropped. Bob-omb Blast is a battle mode that involves only the use of bombs; each player can only be hit three times before they are eliminated. Every time a player is hit by a bomb they receive a point, but those points can also be removed by hitting your opponent with a bomb. If two players are equally good then it might have to end in a stale-mate.

The Balloon Battle has been around since the original SNES version, but it never gets old to play. Each opponent has three balloons on their cart, the object of the game is to pop the other player's balloons before they pop yours. Whoever is left with the most balloons wins. All three of these battle modes are very entertaining and they all come with your choice of stages.

Mario Kart Double Dash comes equipped with the characters out of the Mario Brothers video games. Each character has a certain weight that predetermines the choice of the carts that they will use. The heavier the character the bulkier and slower the cart will be and vice versa. When choosing a cart it will let you know how fast and how sturdy the cart will be on the road. Each cart will hold two characters; a driver and a passenger. The passenger will attack the other players with the different items that are picked up from the question marks. Some of the optimal items to get are the spiny shell, red shell, mushroom, star, and thunderbolt. When you choose your two characters they also have the ability to give you special items that nobody else can get when you grab a question mark. Mario gets fire balls, Baby Luigi gets the chain chomp, and Bowser gets the bowser shell, etc. When deciding your characters and your carts at the beginning of the game this is something to take into consideration.

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
Heroes of Gaming: Video Game News
"Saving Good People From Bad Games"
http://www.heroesofgaming.com/games/gamecube/m/mariodartdd/mariokart_rev.htm

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