Mario Kart: Double Dash

[Hobbes]

Just picked this up and played for like 45 minutes. Its kickin rad. Racing seems a lot crazier than in the previous karts, and the battlemode courses are seem a bit smaller than the Kart 64 ones, keeps things pretty hectic. There's no true multi-level battlemode course (wah I miss block fort :() but there are supposed to be to extra arenas you have to unlock. Maybe those will be bigger/multi-leveled.
Also in addition to regular battlemode ("ballon match"), there's a game called Shine Thief where the object is to be the one holding the shine when time runs out. I'm not a fan of this mode right now since I keep getting the shine taken from me with only seconds to spare. :P
There's another battle game called bomb blast where all item blocks give you bombs, and every time you blow someone up you get a point, everytime you get blowed up you lose a point. First to 3 points wins. This is crazy since the bombs have pretty big explosions and the arenas are small. Insane with 4 people.
No more hopping, no more dragging items behind you (would have been hard to do with the lack of a finger trigger on the gamecube controller anyway), but the reds work more like they did in the original.
Definetley seems awesome so far. The real test comes tomorrow night though, when we make MK:DD stand for Mario Kart: Drunk Driving. :drink: :thumbs:

[MR. SLiK]

i got it to, it pwns.

[Dark Reign]

It looked good, one quick question though:
What was up with the two to a kart deal? Does that have a purpose? I truly do wonder...

[Hobbes]

Each character (or each pair of characters, i.e. Mario/Luigi, Peach/Daisy, etc.) has their own special item they can get. So you can pick characters based on which specials you prefer. You can also pick different karts depending on what combination of light/medium/heavy characters you have. Different karts have differents acceleration/speed/weight. During the race you can switch the characters positions to make sure they both pick up items, or to choose which item you want to use if both characters have one.
The main reason for 2 characters on a kart though is for a co-op mode where two people race together as seperate characters on the same kart. This seems like it would suck for whoever is on the back, but there are some additional tricks you can do that you can't while only playing by yourself. The character in back can attack to either side and steal items from other racers, focus on aiming their weapons, and help with power sliding (I think). The character driving can pass their item back so the gunner can use it, or you can switch places.
Haven't decided if its a worthwhile gimmick or not, since I've only done one race like that so far. It seems like a nice option though to play on the same team rather than against someone. It was always a problem in 64 when I'd try to play with people who weren't as obsessed with the game as I was and the skill disparity made it not so fun. You can play like this in battlemode too which could be pretty interesting, but haven't tried that yet either.

[Burn the Witch]

I got the game last week, I'm gonna be reviewing it for GM, gotta say I am a little dissapointed, every Mario Kart follows the same rules, same courses, different names, same characters. The two in a kart thing is good, and multiplayer options are really good, but the courses are just TOO short.

Courses like DK Mountain and Rainbow Road are lots of fun, but those multiplayer courses are a big dissapointment.

The most fun I have got so far was inviting 3 friends round, and 4 of us getting into two karts on GP mode.......with me driving + one friend in the back, and same for my other 2 mates....good fun. :devil:

[EXEcution]

What about that LAN feature?

[Burn the Witch]

I don't have enough friends for that! Damn lol, I have about 10 close friends, and not all of them are into games (heresy!) And I very much doubt many people can set up 8 gamecubes with 8 copies of MKDD over 8 TV's.

[MR. SLiK]

Originally posted by Burn the Witch@Nov 19 2003, 05:35 AM
Courses like DK Mountain and Rainbow Road are lots of fun, but those multiplayer courses are a big dissapointment.
you can unlock more, luigi's manson looks to be fun in multiplayer (i unlocked it today). I like pipeland and the gamecube level to, but block land and cookie land are questionable, but i have yet to see in a real battle game.

[Hobbes]

The battle courses seem a little lacking at first, but I think they go along better with the way the karts handle now. And they're real good for the two new battle modes. I think they're trying to keep the games shorter and more intense than they were in MK64. Especially in Bob-omb Blast.

[Gun Element]

I wish I had the Gamecube. Im always a fan of Mario Kart. It was there when I had the chicken pox *sniff*


hmmm maybe Dark Reign can buy it... :shifty:

[Burn the Witch]

MKDD is kinda over for me quickly, just picked up Tony Hawks Underground and Ratchet and Clank 2 :)

[SALvation]

I also picked up Rachet and Clank 2 along with FFX-2.

[MR. SLiK]

Originally posted by Burn the Witch@Nov 21 2003, 09:14 PM
MKDD is kinda over for me quickly, just picked up Tony Hawks Underground and Ratchet and Clank 2 :)
single player is short, albeit hard (all cup mode on 150cc)

[Rivers]

Yeah that all cup mode on 150cc can be quite the hastle. :unsure:

[Hobbes]

Originally posted by Hobbes@Nov 18 2003, 08:33 PM
Haven't decided if its a worthwhile gimmick or not, since I've only done one race like that so far.
After some practice, its definitely not a fair to call co-op a gimmick. It takes a while to get the teamwork down, but once you do... holy **** you can really tear the game (and other players) a new one. There's actually a lot for the gunner to do; his L and R buttons cause the kart to juke left or right in an attack move that steals items from other karts it hits. But more importantly, the gunner if he's paying attention can use this to dodge around bananas and fakes the driver couldn't avoid, or to hit an item block that the driver is about to barely miss. With this juke move you can even dodge red and spike shells. Also the gunner has to watch and anticipate slide turns so that he can do the stick wiggile to get the boost. Once the driver and gunner have a good sense of the course and each other, they can powerslide through almost every turn, often getting multiple boosts on each one.
And the key to the 150 All Track Cup is being able to block incoming reds really well. ;) Favoring acceleration over speed isn't a bad idea either...

I love this game, even my housemates who never touch video games have started playing it.

[MR. SLiK]

yeah tis a great game. i played around 60 battle games with a friend last night, real fun. I eventually beat 150cc all cup mode, and i got all gold on mirror mode except all cup mode. Tilt-a-kart is such a cool battle level. Luigi's mansion is fun, but its definately made for more than two people to play on, it has three different levels.

[Twin])I2agon]

Only for Gamecube i guess :bawling: This was my favo game for a long time (on SNES) :wootrock:

[Burn the Witch]

GM should have a review up soon :P

[MR. SLiK]

i now have officially beaten mario kart completely (excluding course ghosts). I have all the unlockables (the gold kart rocks!) and gold on every single race so my credits changed and the title screen as well.

[Gun Element]

I played it at the store, its pretty good. :thumbs: