Mario Kar: Double Dash

[Yoh Asakura]

Well I went out at 8am this morning and bought the game ((Was released today))

Oh yes, I am a true gamer. It was pouring down with rain and 70 Mph winds but still, I went out, got on a bus and bought the game.

Anyway, away from my story of purchasing the game and onto the topic!

I love it, sure I may of fully completed everything in about 3 or so hours but that's besides the point. It's a great multiplayer game ((Oh Yeah!!)) and a great single player game. King Boo and Flower Dude do indeed kick arse =D I love the fact you can hold 2 items with each character having different strengths and speeds ((The Baby's suck! but there special weapon is cool!!))

Anybody else have this game? Anybody getting It? =D

[SageofLaughter]

I got Double Dash too, and I have to say that I find the lack of imagination in the game offputting. The music is average and nothing more, and what I've played so far has been pretty easy.

It annoys me that the game doesn't save which combination of characters you use, it gets irritating having to select two characters and a car every time you try a new cup. I also suspect that it wouldn't have killed them to put AI players in battle mode so you can play by yourself.

This isn't a bad game in my opinion... just far from perfect.

[classy_cat18]

Where would the fun be in that? Anyway, I'm not complaining. The graphics are great, the gameplay is awesome, and I get to enjoy beating my brother again.

[SageofLaughter]

Originally posted by classy_cat18
Where would the fun be in that?

Practice, or a way to wind down after a cup?

Anyway, I've been playing the game all day, and it actually gets pretty fun.

[Yoh Asakura]

King Boo & Petey Plant pwn all other racers =D

[Lezta]

It's coming tomorrow.... along with my replacement Gamecube and that Zelda disc thing. Woo!

If it's half as much fun as the others I'll be happy.

[SageofLaughter]

I've been playing the game more today, and I wish to say that I HATE the person who created All Cup Tour, and I wish to murder the person who made it so that you get NOTHING for beating it on 50CC or 100CC.

[Yoh Asakura]

Um you get different Karts...

[Reality]

How many courses are there and different karts and characters?

I will definately get this game, but meanwhile don't know when. I get most classic remade games...such as Mario Tenis when it will come out for GCN. Can't wait! I love these sorts of games, Nintendo kicks arse.

[Razola]

There are 21 Karts, 20 characters, 16 race tracks, 6 and battle arenas.

Petey and Boo aren't as good as one think. It dilutes your items too much. I'd rather be assured triple shells than have a slim chance of them.

Koopa + Yoshi/Boswer Jr. = Awesome

[dratinihaunter13]

i knew this would happen =(. now i'm away from home and missing out on all the hot title releases cuz of school and my future lol. oh well, i do hope to get it soon and convert some people in the dorm to gamers. love the mario karts, but have heard about this one coming off as a quickly made game without much thought or effort put in. that's kind of a turn off.

how would y'all say this game compares to N64 kart and snes?

[Yoh Asakura]

"how would y'all say this game compares to N64 kart and snes?"

To be totally honest I really don't think it compares at all.

The SNES version is still the best with the GBA version coming in second.

[Drago]

Hmm, I get mostly mixed reactions from this game. Sure, I can sit down and play it for hours on end, but somehow I'm just not getting a sense of satisfaction. Could be due to the game's dismal musical score (although Rainbow Road is pleasant enough, borrowing from the N64's), or playing as Donkey and Diddy just makes me want Rare back. It's immature to use a link like that, but damn.

Compared to the last Mario Karts? It depends on your preferences. In my opinion, it just might be the best single-player experience that Mario Kart has offered so far. The swapping, the superpowered weapons, the improved AI all makes for a pretty satisfying solo game. It's shortlived, granted, but that's what Time Trials is for.
However, the same advantages work against it in multiplayer mode. Compared to the N64's four-player shenanigans, versus mode can be a bit irritating. Course design is alright, and the new cooperative mode is a plus, but weapons are really not well randomized. The spiny flying blue shell of death makes far too frequent an appearance, and the cheapness of things like the Bowser shell and heart shield is almost ridiculous. Weapons can be altered slightly with the options, but it's still not quite as satisfying as N64's Kart. Additionally, they've changed the 'drop formula', in that if you miss a jump, and would fall to a lower section of the track (ala N64's Wario Stadium), it immediately places you back at the jump. No more lightning bolt-altered breakthroughs, then.
Additionally, battle mode has gotten quite a change. Battlefields are a LOT smaller than they were before, and mushrooms and stars are cheapified to the point of stealing balloons. Oh, and no more bomb karts. When you're out, you're out.

It's not to say multiplayer mode is bad, exactly. You can get a lot of fun out of it, and DK Mountain and Yoshi Raceway are brilliantly designed. It's just that, on the whole, the races aren't as competitive as they used to be.
Who knows, though. Maybe I'm just playing against the wrong sort of people?

Overall, MKDD ranks between SMK and MK64 between longevity, and unfortunately doesn't borrow MKSC's concept of classic tracks. Nonetheless, it's a pleasing experience for Mario Kart fans, and one of Nintendo's better Mario offerings of late. The two-to-a-kart works nicely (especially when, as I said, cooperative mode is put into action), and means that a lot of neglected characters can come back into the limelight.

And who knows, maybe I'm just a jaded gamer, and everyone else is getting a lot more out of it than I am? In any event, it's pleasing, but not groundbreaking.

[Heald]

Originally posted by YAMI YUGI
"how would y'all say this game compares to N64 kart and snes?"

To be totally honest I really don't think it compares at all.

The SNES version is still the best with the GBA version coming in second.

The SNES version was good for its time but not anymore. The N64 is the best (I haven't played Double Dash yet though...) I've played. The GBA version was quite annoying. The coin system was impressively crap. If you got knocked, you lost a coin, even if you were Bowser and were knocked by Peach. Weight has nothing to do with it.

[Lezta]

It's fun, but it's just not right....

For some, obscure reason, they've made the weapons do practically no damage and somehow that just makes it lose it's edge. *sigh*

[PNT510]

My brother got the game the day it came out, I must say the single player bores me to tears. The game is awesome multiplayer. The Co-op mode is a blast and Shine Thief is wonderful. I wish there were more and larger arenas though.

[SageofLaughter]

Originally posted by Venusaur99
For some, obscure reason, they've made the weapons do practically no damage

I just love how the CPU is able to almost instantly recover from attacks.

Anyway, I tried to play the game again today, and played about four tracks before I got bored and turned off the Gamecube.

I think my final verdict of the game is that, while it manages to employ some fantastic concepts effectively, the track design is so insipid and the AI so questionable (and you have no idea how foolish I feel saying that about a game nowadays) that I find the game nearly unplayable.

[Little_Pikachu]

I got the game a couple of weeks ago, I've loved Mario Kart since the SNES, so I was sure I was going to enjoy this, and I did!

50cc and 100cc GP modes were a breeze, 150cc gave me a bit of trouble (and continues to in the All Cup Tour mode >_<), but I'm trying :)

Multiplayer is really where it's at though. With all those different battle multiplayer modes it's going to be a great party game! In particular the bomb game is very fun (maybe I just like to make things explode). Although you only have 4 choices of arnea to start with, more are unlocked as you progress through GP mode, some are very interesting and tricky!

Multiplayer co-op GP's are possibly the funnest things I've ever done on a Mario Kart game. I played with my brother, me taking care of the driving with Yoshi, him watching my items with Diddy Kong. I think the most fun comes from the arguements which occur when team mates screw up though, like my brother frequently, for no reason at all, deciding to make his character attack, thus messing up my steering for a split second and sending me down a hole.
"Fine then, you drive!"
"Ok..." *Falls off the track 3 seconds later*
"Just... Let me drive, Ok?"

The special items for each character are a nice touch, though it's quite annoying how rare they come when you're using a character who actually has a good item (I never have any trouble getting banana peels when I'm Donkey or Diddy Kong, but keep a count of how often you get baby Mario/Luigi's chain chomp, it wont be as often, I can tell ya!).

Another really annoying habit with the items is the lack of good items you get while you're up the front. Get into first place, and you're gaurenteed nothing better than a green shell for the duration of your stay there. Drop back into 8th and it's lightning bolts and invincibility stars a-plenty! While I do understand this is so it's fair and the people at the back have a chance to catch up, I don't see why I should be discriminated for not being a retard. A "?" should be exactly that, a mystery item which is totally random and isn't determined by where you are in the pack.

The choice of cars is another nice idea, rather than having the one set car for each character, all the dudes and cars are ranked according to weight (Light, medium and heavy). If you hae a heavy character you must have a heavy car, no matter who your team mate is, you can't put a big dude in a smaller car. Anyway, all the cars are given rankings for speed, acceleration and weight (this determines how easy it is for you to bash other cars out the way!). As you play through the GP mode you unlock more cars to use and once you've found your perfect team, you can decide on your perfect kart and become unstoppable up at the front with your... Banana peel -_-; Stupid biased items...

So that's my review... I can't even remember why I came in VG now, I think it was an accident, so congrats to everyone who saw this very rare VG post by me, and goodbye!

[Razola]

The game is great, and co-op with siblings does indeed lead to situations such as a stated above. Though normally me and my brother will stop racing seriously halfway through a cup and start racing screwy (hint: when in back, press L & R to throw off your friend's driving).

Going to be seeing some LAN action this week. We got the required materials, and all that's left is people ready to play.

And LP, items have been balanced for each position. Same with special items. That's why the awesome chain chomp is so danged rare, you have to practically be last to get it. Diddy and Donkey's banana is common in first place, and thus I go for a character that has a common first place special and a character with a last place special. You can adjust item frequency a bit in options, though.

[Andrew]

I hate you Nintendo for this uninspired, boring, piece of Crap I spent 7 dollars renting.

*Yawn* Its basically now 2 players per kart. More annoying characters. Same items with new "Special" items. Better graphics and some pretty boring tracks.

You know, I really don't like this game. After 20 minutes I was sick of hearing "Hi! I'm DAISY" throttled into my head every 10 seconds. The battle mode is horrible and not fun. Shine Capture is crap. So is balloon battle and so is that other one.

The only bit of fun I found in this game was the co-operative playing. Myself as Junior Bowser and my sister as Baby Mario, we had some fun, but 3/4 tracks, we never saw anyone else after the first lap. And we won with ease, but it was fun.

But this really was uninspired, and makes me feel ill that the Mario Kart label is now tarnished, as is a lot of the Franchises Nintendo has. The only good ones were Metroid and SSBM atm. :\