Mario Kart Double Dash Retrospective
Revitalizing the Formula-A Mario Kart Double Dash Retrospective
Having grown up in my formative years with the Game Boy Advance and, more heavily, the DS, Mario Kart was a series I enjoyed more on the mobile Nintendo consoles than mainstays growing up. In that time, I had tried out double dash on a friend's GameCube and didn't quite enjoy it-I was somewhere around 9-12 at the time-so I wanted to return to the game years later and see what I had dismissed earlier.
In all honesty, I can't believe I had waited so long to give it a revisit.
Not only is double dash the most unique take Nintendo ever took on the franchise as a whole, it is also-in my opinion-the most enjoyable and depth filled entry they produced. It is almost astounding Nintendo failed to return to this formula, and instead has kept it safe ever since (something you don't see in series where taking chances failed them, like Paper Mario). So what exactly made this entry so enjoyable?
Depth of Driving...
The main mechanic of Double Dash is that dual character system, in which you instead select two drivers per player with the ability to mix and match with your heart's content. Each character has different weight classes, carts (whoever is heavier on your team will use their carts), and special items (each character has their own access to special items, like triple red shells for paratroopa and a large bowser shell for bowser jr) to make things different with every race. In each cup, one character will drive and the other will throw items (they also help with drifting in Co-op). This allowed for two separate items to be held as you can switch each character from driving to item throwing.
This one feature allows for so many different ideas to be realized, namely co-op in the main grand prix mode and strategies with character selection. In every Mario Kart game before and since, your character choice is literally just a weight class selection and provides no additional depth other than that. Also, in a similar fashion, there has never been a true cooperative mode in a Mario Kart game other than double dash to this day.
Double dash also introduced the style of stick rock drifting, in which you alternate directions on the control stick to do stronger drifts for mini turbos. Although lacking the hop before the drift like Mario Kart 64 and subsequent entries after Double Dash, this style of control feels a bit more punishing and forces a bit of commitment to hit that R button comparatively speaking. However, mastering this technique alongside the more floaty feel of the game was so much more satisfying than I could've imagined.
…With a Dash of Content!!
For this lookback I had so much fun I went and completed all that was available for this game 100%, which includes 4 separate cups alongside an all cup tour for each of the four CCs within this title (there are also staff time trials you can complete for each track, but these aren't required for completion unlike future titles).
In all honesty, despite being made after the introduction of retro cups in Mario Kart Super Circuit, this title has a fantastic set of visually diverse levels. It isn't going to wow many with the quantity of stages available, but it far overshines in the quality of what's present. Probably my favorite little detail of these stages is the cameos other stages make in the background, like seeing daisy cruiser in the sea around Yoshi's circuit or the distant ground of Mushroom City as you rise atop the sky in Rainbow Road (funnily enough, a feature I haven't seen in a game in this sort of way until Dark Souls released in 2011). This is the first time a Mario Kart game has felt like a cohesive world, cementing that all these stages exist alongside each other rather than just separately.
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| Double Dash's 4 main cups, as well as an unlockable All cup Tour in which you race all 16 courses back to back |
It's also clear to Nintendo how influential these tracks are, with only 3 out of the total of 16 courses not seeing remakes in newer Mario Kart games.
Double Dash is, surprisingly so, the first Mario Kart game to have unlockable characters and Karts, which has since become a staple of the series. It gives you a reason to go through each cup for something other than a simple gold trophy. However, the completion of everything this game has to offer is quite lackluster, as getting gold in all that's here will merely grant you a different title screen, similar to how Mario Sunshine rewarded 100% completion.
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| The alternate title screen for Double Dash awarded for 100% completion |
This is all to say that the diversity of content in Double Dash, even outside the revamped battle mode with all sorts of options, was far and away enough to keep me busy in this playthrough. I highly recommend getting some friends and taking a trip back in time through all that's available in this title.
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