Review #255: Mario Kart Double Dash!!

 Two Racers, one Kart.

 Mario Kart, the most famous, and arguably the best, mascot racer around. Y'know the deal, when it comes to mascot racers it ain't just about being the best driver, but using the many, many weapons and power-ups in order to ruin your opponents' day. Double Dash is arguably the black sheep of the franchise, those that like it, love it, and those that don't, hate it. Me? Well, this is the only MK(Besides 8) that I haven't played, so that's my mindset: What does this game do differently? Why would I want to play this entry over the others?

 As with any other Mario Kart, there's 4 different 'classes', 50 CC, 100 CC, 150 CC and Mirror Mode, these act as both the difficulty setting and the speed at which the karts run. The Single Player modes are simply Time Trial and Grand Prix, in which you must play through five cups, four of these housing four tracks each, while the last one, the 'All Cup' is made up of all 16 tracks! As for Multiplayer, you can race up to three other players, either VS or Co-Op(More on this later), as well as Battle Mode, which is made up three modes: Balloon Battle, Bob-Omb Blast and Shine Thief. And here's my first issue with the game: You can't just play specific tracks against the CPU in Single Player, you have to play entire cups, which for someone like me who likes to just pick-up and play games every now and then, is a huge bummer. Then there's the fact that there's only 16 courses, Mario Kart games since the GBA entry(sans this one) have spoiled us with the 16 bonus 'retro courses', so having only 16 tracks is disappointing, what's more, for someone who has played most other entries in the series, keep in mind that most of the best tracks this game has to offer have already been remade, between Mario Kart DS, WII, 7 and 8, so if you are someone like me who, for whatever reason, skipped this one... there's not a huge incentive to go back.

 But what makes this game so divisive? That, fellow reader, is the 'two racers in one kart' mechanic. This time around you pick two different racers, as well as a kart, and play as both of them at the same time! It's an interesting idea, but I'm not sure if the execution was so good. For instance, your 'weight' is determined by the heaviest character you pick, which also locks you out of certain kart choices. I think that 'merging' both characters' weights together would've been a better idea, but that's just me. The way items work got slightly overhauled as well, to make up for both racers. Now you can't just hold banana peels or Koopa shells behind you as protection, which in some ways is a bit more interesting and requires more skill, since blocking incoming attacks is now a matter of reflexes. However, each racer can hold a different item, not that hauling them is a good idea since most hits will make you lose both items. One thing I did like, however, is the unique special weapons. Each pair of characters share special moves, for example Mario and Luigi have useless wide-area fireballs, while either Bowser or Bowser Jr. gets a huge Bowser shell. This makes for interesting builds, since you could pick two characters with different specials in order to cover your bases. It does come at a cost though, some special items are undeniably better than others, so playing with 3 or 4 players could turn into a race to pick the best characters.

 As for the gameplay, 50 CC is as boring as ever, but I think that 150 CC in this game is much faster than in the other iterations. Drifting and Boosting works just like it did in Mario Kart DS, hold drift and mash left-to-right on the analog stick three times to charge your turbo, and if you are good enough, you can snake your way to victory. Going through Single Player is a bit tough this time around, on 150 CC and Mirror Mode, the AI is relentless, but what's worse is that there's no 'retry' option. Get boned by a blue shell on the last race? Too bad, you are gonna have to replay the entire cup again if you want Gold. Major props for how the unlocks work, every time you get a Gold Cup, you unlock something. It might be a new Kart, a couple of new Racers, maybe a new battle stage, but you get something, rewarding the player like this feels really good, and it's a good incentive to keep playing. That said, it would've been nice if clearing a cup on, say 150 CC, unlocked the 100 and 50 CC rewards as well, since 50 CC is really, really boring.

 The game looks just as good as the Wii iteration of the series, and in some fronts, even better, namely, this is a much more colorful game, which makes it a bit more appealing, and characters don't have that weird glint they had on the Wii version. As with any first party Nintendo game, the music is absolutely fantastic, so no complaints there.

 So, if you have played every other Mario Kart game out there, why would you want to come back? You don't. The couple of really good tracks that haven't returned aren't really a huge selling point, having only 16 tracks is a bit disappointing, although I kinda like the excessively long 'All Cup' challenge. As for the two racers system, while I'm not a huge fan, it's good enough as to not feel like a gimmick, even if it could've been implemented a bit better. At the end of the day, this is Mario Kart, so there's fun to be had... even if you are probably better of playing any of the newer installments.
 6.0 out of 10