Taste-Test: Mario Kart: Double Dash!!

There are a few franchises that people will immediately think of when you mention Nintendo, and Mario Kart is one of them. One of the most fun series to hit consoles in the last decade is making its way to the GameCube in the fourth quarter (October, November, or December) of this year, in the form of Mario Kart: Double Dash!! and it's shaping up to be one of the most insanely fun multiplayer games of this generation.

The game is set up almost identically to its predecessors, which have appeared on SNES, N64, and GBA, but with some obvious changes. Now, players ride with two characters in the kart, one to drive and one to toss out weapons. As expected, there are many weapons in the game, both returning classics and new ones. In addition, each character has specific special weapons; 6 regular weapons and 8 specials in total.

I still don't understand how they got an engine in the carriage

Double Dash!! controls much as you would expect it to. The A button is your gas, B is brake (which is still never, ever used), X and Y are used to launch weapons, L and R for skidding around corners, Z to switch which character is driving and which is attacking, and the control stick steers. The steering was a little loose in the version we were shown at E3. It wasn't bad enough to ruin the game, but it was noticeable in certain areas of the game. It's something that should, and probably will, be remedied before the game releases in a few months, but if it isn't fixed it would be merely an annoyance at most, not enough to fully detract from the overall quality of the game.

Perhaps it was because it was right next to the F-Zero kiosks, but the entire staff seemed to agree that this incarnation of Mario Kart seemed a little slow. The framerate was perfect, even when there were 8 human players going at it at once, but the kart speed seemed to be somewhat less than what we're used to from Mario Kart 64, and even a slight tweak of the game speed would help it tremendously.

Hey, I think that guy in the green stole your pants

Weapons use, while remaining very the same, is also very different. Gone are the days of holding shells and other weapons behind your kart to block incoming attacks. If you don't want to get hit, you're going to have to learn how to dodge weapons coming in at you (which is slightly easier than in other games), or learn to launch your weapon backwards to intercept the attack. Things like shells, especially red ones, seem to be a bit slower, but also a bit more accurate. In Super Mario Kart or Mario Kart 64, if you wanted to hit someone with a red shell, you would have had to wait for a straightaway on the course or else you'd end up throwing the shell away and crashing it in the wall. Here, the shell will do a fairly decent job of staying on the course, at the expense of a fast, unexpected ambush. Green shells, on the other hand, seem much easier to aim and shoot at people that are within range of you, either ahead or behind, making that attack easier to pull off without getting hit by your own renegade shell. Bananas, also, are changed. Where in MK64 if you hit a shell head-on you could quickly tap the brake to recover before spinning out, that option was either not present in the demo or taken out completely. Special weapons will deal heavy blows to opponents, and are easier to hit people with than the standard weapons. For a few examples, Mario and Luigi toss fireballs, Yoshi and Birdo throw eggs, and Wario and Waluigi have very big bombs to play with. One of the most intriguing additions to the game was the ability to save items for later. If one character is holding a weapon or item that you're not ready to use yet, you can stick him in the driver's seat and get a second item for your other character to use. Also, there were randomly appearing double-item boxes, which gave weapons to both characters (or one character, if the other is already holding something). As soon as one character used his weapon, they would automatically switch positions in the kart and get the other in attack position.

There were three available courses to play, each of increasing difficulty. The courses, Luigi's Raceway, DK Mountain, and Mushroom City, we're guessing were the first courses of the Mushroom, Flower, and Star Cup grand prix races, though there's no real evidence of that. Luigi's Raceway was a straightforward course with no real surprises or obstacles, while DK Mountain had a huge jump from one mountain peak to another, and a treacherous rope bridge, and Mushroom City (much like Toad's Turnpike) was littered with cars, while adding countless shortcuts (and longcuts). There will be a battle mode included in the game, but it was not present at E3. The biggest problem with the courses, it seemed, was that if you hit a fence or wall at the wrong angle, especially on DK Mountain, you'll be stuck there for a good while and it will be very hard to wiggle yourself out. This is something that absolutely must be fixed before the game is released.

Each character, Mario, Luigi, Peach, Daisy, Donkey and Diddy Kong, Wario, Waluigi, Koopa Troopa and Paratroopa, Bowser, Baby Bowser, Baby Mario, and Baby Luigi, Yoshi, and Birdo, has his own "kart" to drive (most not even resembling the classic go-kart look), and you can even choose what vehicle you want to drive, no matter who you race as. The favorite seemed to be Wario's purple Camaro, which was dubbed by just about everybody as "the pimpmobile." Other karts include baby carriages for Baby Mario/Luigi, a DK barrel, Bowser's spiked deathmobile, and Yoshi's, well, Yoshimobile, I guess, among others.

Mario isn't punching, he's actually just asking for some Grey Poupon

The game is incredibly detailed, and very, very pretty. Character models look as good as they ever have, and weapon use looks very cool. You'll watch your rear character pick up and juggle triple shells or mushrooms, and hurl things forward or backward. They'll lean over and put the mushrooms inside the engine for a speed burst. They'll lean with the kart and shuffle their feet over bumps and curves. The backgrounds are amazingly detailed, despite the speed. It is already a very graphically impressive game, and can only get better over the next few months.

So what's my E3 verdict? Despite a few obvious flaws which need to be fixed, it was still a remarkably fun game, and make no mistake, it was Mario Kart in all its glory. If you enjoy Mario Kart, (and honestly, who doesn't?), snatch this one up as soon as you can. With the ability to play with up to 8 racers using a broadband adapter and a couple Cubes and TVs, it has the potential to be the ultimate party game on next generation consoles. It may not be perfect, but it's just as much fun as any other game in the series, and could be more fun if and when the more obvious errors are fixed.

Carl DeNovio