Throwback Thursday Mario Kart Double Dash

Throwback Thursday Mario Kart Double Dash

Robert Knuckles

Drive, Drift, Speed Up, Crash, Switch!!!!

        Those are some of the words I use to describe this throwback game which is Mario Kart: Double Dash!!

        With the release of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe coming  soon I feel as though now would be the right time to talk about one of my favorite Mario kart games which is of course Double Dash!!. Mario Kart Double Dash was released on the Nintendo Gamecube on Nov. 17, 2003

        Now the Mario Kart series has been around for two decades with the first Mario Kart game called Super Mario Kart being released in 1992. Mario Kart has always been known for its crazy racing; fun courses and of course the items which pretty much make Mario Kart for what it is.

        As a fan of the series I have liked every Mario Kart but Mario Kart: Double Dash has always been one of my standout favorites which I still play to this day with my friends. Now let’s dive in and talk about this wonderful game.

        Double Dash!! Was the first of the series to feature 3D graphics and of the course the biggest one is having two drivers in one kart one driving and one using items. Double Dash was also the first Mario Kart to feature a of lot new characters to the series such as Waluigi, Daisy, Birdo, Baby Mario and Baby Luigi and many more. Players could make a team of the Mario Bros. but can also choose to have Mario work together with Bowser.

        Another feature that they used in Double Dash and future Mario Kart games are the weight classes. There are light, medium and heavy characters. Lights karts have great acceleration but their top speed is not great. The advantage light karts have is that they don’t lose a lot of speed when they go off course. Medium karts have average acceleration and top speeds so of course they share attributes from lights and heavy. Heavy karts don’t have great acceleration but their top speed is great and they can send light and medium karts away if they run into them but if heavy karts go off course they lose a lot of speed.

        Players have to be careful of what characters they pick with the new weight class. Characters cannot ride in karts that are smaller than they are. Two light characters ride a light kart, two medium characters ride a medium kart, two heavy characters ride a heavy kart but if there’s a light character mixed in with a medium character they’ll ride the medium kart or if a medium character is mixed with a heavy character they’ll ride the heavy kart. You probably get it by now.

        An interesting game play feature that Double Dash has is that characters have a certain special item. The Mario Bros. can throw fireballs, Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong can throw a giant banana. There are so many more specials players can try out. Another cool thing is that if you have two different partners you can have double the special item. Players also have to be careful because in this game they can have their item taken away if a player uses a mushroom running through another racer or by someone using the star item.

        Now Double Dash has some interesting courses. Rainbow road had to be one of the toughest rainbow roads throughout the series but the favorite course is Baby Park. The smallest course that goes around in an oval with seven laps which makes it the craziest track ever especially playing it with four players making it a crazy blue shell frenzy.

        Now of course with a Mario Kart game there’s a grand prix where players will have to play in order to unlock new karts, courses and characters. The most annoying speed in the grand prix is of course the mirror mode. Which we all know how much we can’t stand it due to annoying computers and blue shells. Oh how we love the blue shells.

        Battle mode is a lot of fun as well. Balloon is the same as in the N64 version but Double Dash features capturing the Shrine Sprite where players hold the Shrine Sprite for a certain amount of time and another new feature in battle is called Bob-ombs where players throw bob-ombs at each other to get a certain amount of points but players will lose points if they get hit by a bob-omb which make it fun and crazy.

Another great addition is the ability to play co-op where players can work together and have one person driving and the other person using the items

        In the end Mario Kart Double Dash!! Is one of my favorite Mario Kart games to this day. I loved the roster the game play especially with the ability to drift and get a little speed but the multiplayer is where it’s at. Playing with four people it’s anyone’s game unlike the Wii version where people can crush the competition easily.  For anyone that has a GameCube I would definitely recommend Mario Kart: Double Dash.