5 / 10
26 May 2006 at 18:20
Review by: edhall33
Ok, i can tell im going to upset a lot of readers with this one, but like i said in my nintendogs review, listen to the against sides review. I think the main thing that hyped everybody up about this game is, oh, theres two people riding at once! Im not sure if anybody, like me, has seen racing games with two people on one car before, as i have played plenty. Most of the Road rash games(brilliant games) have a side car option with the other person a computer or human player. I think that mode is a lot funner than the whole of double dash.
For those who dont know, its the first gamecube release of mario kart, previous games on the N64 and gameboy advance. Theres a new one on the nintendo ds which is good. With this game though, there are two drivers, one steering and accelerating and braking and one using items. Both players holding Z at the same time results in a switch. When playing in one player, Z automatically switches and you control both players at the same time by just using Y to use an item. The game play is....slow...These cars have absolutly no top speed and craw along so slowly compared to other mario kart and other racing games. The controls are stiff and sometimes non responsive, and tracks are boring and unimaginative. Steering can be a nightmare sometimes. Items are the same as in original games, except each natural pair has their own specials. As in other mario games, you can only ever get the half decent items when in last place or second last, which really does suck. There is less skill involved. Baby mario and baby luigis specials are the chain chomp, which you only get if your last place and it basically takes you to second or first. it drags you around at faster speeds than the other karts and smashes other karts out of the way. This can be very frustrating as holding your lead can be difficult. When racing computer teams are practically always their natural pairs unless you make your own team, it affects a few of theirs. Sometimes they have jumbled up teams though. The characters in the game(in natural pairs order and special items) are:
Mario and Luigi-Fireball, multiple fireballs bounce forward
Peach and daisy-love heart, steals items used against them
Wario and waluigi-bob-omb, you lay it and it explodes
yoshi and birdo-egg, same as red shell, but when it cracks open it leaves and item on the floor. hitting into the item activates it as if its been used against you.
baby mario and baby luigi-chain chomp, bounds forward
bowser and bowser junior-big shell-big spiky shell bounces off walls
donkey kong and diddy kong-big banana, big banana skin
special characters are:
king boo and petey pirahna-all specials
toad and toadette-super mushroom, alows a lot of boost in a time limit.
Some characters are heavy, some light some medium. I find light the best, and heavy really rubbish. Heavy tend to have lower acceleration and higer max speed, with light with lower max speed and faster acceleration. medium are in the middle. a heavy character(such as donkey kong or bowser) cannot go on a light kart and medium cant go on light etc. the different karts have other differences in the instruction manual, but they make no difference, just acceleration and max speed, and a bit of turning. Each pair has their own kart, although after completing the four different grand-prixs on various CCs, you unlock more karts, one per person and an extra special one. There is also time attacks, where you can unlock the character Boo(normal one).
There are about sixteen tracks in the game, and they can also be unlocked for mirror play.
The battle mode is quite good, with balloon battle, shine racers where you find a shine sprite and have to keep it for a time limit, and bob-omb blast that i personally think is the best. you get item boxes that give you bob-ombs, you can hold about eight at a time, and you just have to hit your opponent three times. getting hit deducts a point. The graphics in Double Dash!! are above average, and impressive at some points, and there are shortcuts for a lot of the tracks. The sound is of good quality with various songs but the characters are mentally retarded, saying 'waluigi time', or something gay along the lines of that each time they switch places. I think this game is better for youngish kids, although it has repeatedly be seen that all ages enjoy it.
Its just not my kind of game, i got bored of it very quickly. There is a lot to unlock for those willing to unlock it, and a bit of replay value for those who love the game. Another good point though, some times you can get it in a red case!!!
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