A Dash, a Double Dash, a Dishy-Dash

Ah, Christmas time has come and gone. In its wake, I'm left with games to play and candy to hide so no one else eats it.

Among the gems from this season was Mario Kart Double Dash, the latest (an heavily advertised) sequel in the MK series. Having spent the last couple of weeks playing it (while I wasn't gorging or sleeping), I'm ready enough to discuss my thoughts on the game.

Obviously, a rundown of the basic changes from the previous games is in order. Taking a look all the way back at the SNES MK, We can see a general evolution of the series. As items and concepts have been added and removed, upgrades were made as well. The game series doesn't strongly resemble it's SNES granddaddy. While you still run around with shells on set tracks, and while there are still courses like the Mario Circuit and Rainbow road, it's as different as most every clone out there today.

The changes that irk me the most can be summarized here. The biggest change was the removal of the hop. Used to be, you could hop around tight corners. The hop part of a grind/slide has been removed, and now your kart just digs into the road. As simple a change as this sounds, it makes the game control drastically different. The lack of a hop makes the slides a different beast, and the aforementioned corners now require braking at times, which will of course slow down the kart, and make you easier to catch.

Items have changed again as well. Most people won't be able to access the triple shells, and only the princesses has access to any shields. There is no dragging items now either. The modification make the game much harder to play, as there is very little defense in game anymore.

So, the challenge has been up-ed. That's not always a bad. In multiplayer mode it allows for much closer games, which sometimes was impossible on the N64 version. You get a driver in that game that could power-slide better, and he'd be long gone. I've lapped and won by minutes at a time in the N64 version, so it is nice to have a challenge when I'm up against friends. Grand Prix mode is a different beast. I strongly doubt I'll play it all that often once everything is unlocked. The high difficulty makes the one player mode much less addictive.

Multiplayer is of course what this game is intended for, but even here I have a couple of gripes. Looking at battle mode in particular, the big problem is with the stages. Maybe it's just me, and the couple of people I've talked to, but the stages in DD don't seem all that great. It's like the battle mode was an after thought. In the previous games (console based at least, having not played the GBA Super Circuit), the battle stages felt more expansive, and certainly more refined. The N64 in particular shines, with multi-tiered maps that are as much about strategy as they are about carnage.

DD's stages lack depth and size. They are cramped, and while this allows for fast paced gaming, it also makes the battling go by much too quickly.

As well, the all new battle mode don't really add much, and while fun for short bursts, none of the battle modes now really suck you in. The best bet for multiplayer is the racing.

If you have a LAN and a bunch of GameCubes, this is great news, as you'll be able to really enjoy multiplayer racing on the GC. For the rest of us, I do wish a bit more thought has been put into all the modes.

Although I haven't mentioned it until now, the whole two people on one kart thing is more gimmick than anything. the two people will each have one special weapon they can use, but determining how fast or heavy or so forth the kart is is determined by which kart you use, not really by the drivers anymore. It makes the drivers feel less personal now, especially when you consider that there are two drivers that function exactly the same. Both princesses use the heart shields, both koopa troopas have triple shells, etc. And while Diddy may weigh lighter than Donkey, if you aren't keen on using a giant banana peel, that whole benefit won't do much for ya.

So, if there was some great wish list I could add my input to, I'd definitely ask for the hop move back. I liked the hop. Bigger battle stages are also a must. More personalized drivers, maybe like set combos. Have Toad and Toadette always drive together, and give them different weapons. Then you could have a separate free-for-all mode where the drivers are totally customizable.

And here's one mode I've wanted to see since the game series first launched: 1 Player battle mode. In Smash Bros. you can set computers to fight against. Why not in Mario Kart. It'd make for a nice side game to play by yourself, and there could even be a specialty circuit mode for it, with unlockables and so forth.

Anyway, there ya go. I'd give it a 7.5 out of 10, since I normally just play single player mode myself. Multiplayer probably would be in the 8s, but eh, you make that call yourself.