The Mario Kart series is something to be admired. No offense to all of those who like the other types of racing games, but before Super Mario Kart came out in 1992, a lot of them seemed rather boring a too realistic. Mario Kart changed that with wacky weapons galore, more emphasis on the racer and not the car and just simply the fun that comes with Mario, it wasn’t long before it not only took off as a series, but was also getting copied left and right. Mario Kart 64 took all of that and ironed out what the Super Nintendo couldn’t quite do, but today, I’m talking about Mario Kart: Double Dash for the Nintendo GameCube. Why? Cause it takes it a step beyond. Also, because it’s the only one I own…
The controls are pretty much the typical ones for the Mario Kart games: A accelerates B brakes or backs up, L and R drift and X and Y use your items. But wait, doesn’t the GameCube controller also have a Z button it can use. Well, that’s where the Double Dash comes in. In this game, you play as two characters at once; one drives the vehicle and the other uses the items. Z switches both characters’ positions, and since each character can only hold one item as a time, it makes it so you can have two, or if you already do have two, you can just switch to the one you want. I found this skill easy to master and crucial for the more difficult settings. The one down side is that this gives people new to the game a huge disadvantage in most modes, unlike previous games, which were pretty easily mastered from the get go.
As mentioned before, you play as two characters, and this gives the game most of its personality (the rest is contributed to the Mario Kart series in general). As you’re picking your characters, keep two things mind: each character has different weight class and special items. The special items are something new to the series and are pretty much self-explanatory: every time you hit an item box, you have a chance to get said item, whether it is Mario’s fireballs, Yoshi’s homing egg or DK’s giant banana peel. The weight class is nothing new to the series, but affects the game in a new way since you not only chose what characters you want, but also which kart you’ll use. Weight limits your choice and to put it simply, you pick a kart in the weight category of the heavier character (i.e. if you have a light character and a heavy character, you will need to pick a kart to suit the heavy character). This means the only way to get the lightest karts is to pick two light weight characters. Beyond that, each kart has its own unique states in the categories of top speed, acceleration and weight. I’m really glad to say that unlike other games with similar differences, it’s really noticeable in this one, and you’re selection of kart can make or break your victory.
Now, I could talk about the graphics or the music right now, but neither are all that special. Graphically speaking, it’s not the worst game, but probably not the best. It’s smooth in a way, but has its obvious polygon corners. I will say though, that I am impressed by the how well the characters hanging off the back looks and sways when you move left and right. The music is pretty much par for the course for the Mario Kart series, which means it’s fun, energetic and suiting while not distracting or over powering. What I do want to mention though is the secrets in this game. This is really the first Mario Kart game with a noticeable amount of unlockables, and that’s because almost every circuit on almost every difficult will unlock something. What you can get includes new characters, new cars, new circuits and new arenas for the 2 player mode. I really like that, because it gives incentive to play the game all the way through, and not just attack the more difficult modes and call it a day.
This game was a great addition to the Mario Kart series. The ability to mix and match your racer was great: there’s just something about taking Birdo and Wario to race in DK’s car on Luigi’s track. The courses are also really fun, each unique with interesting elements to them. But of course the main reason to get this game is the doubling up of the characters, a great game play element. The only down side is that it limits the ability to play two players, since you’ll need to give other players a chance to learn the controls before playing. This is a minor detail, but in a series like Mario Kart, it’s a big deal. None the less, this game is worth finding and playing through and through, even if you’ll only do the 1 player mode. I give Mario Kart: Double Dash for the Nintendo GameCube 8.5 Levels out of 10.
No comments:
Post a Comment