Anime Forum Games Links Movies Music Profiles Survivor TV Shows Mario Kart is a key game in Nintendo's line up. Since the debut of the series on the SNES, a sequel has appeared on each console afterwards, including the Gameboy Advance. And with many Nintendo series, it's steadily gotten weaker and weaker. Double Dash is the latest game in the series and it's been redefined but is it for better or worse? As with most racing games, there isn't a story. So basicly you have a bunch of Nintendo characters racing in karts for no good reason. The graphics are a very mixed bag. The characters look good but the levels look so bland and uninteresting and don't have very good graphics. Kind of odd since the game is coming rather late in the life of the Gamecube. The biggest complaint I've been hearing about this game is the sound and I have to agree, it's horrible. The sound effects arre alright, nothing special. The voices are decent, nothing special yet again. The music is horrible. There is only one track that is half way decent and the rest just flat out suck! Seriously, Nintendo needs to get some better music in their games as it adds a lot to a game. The control is simple and I don't see why they didn't use the L button for brake and the R button for gs but whatever it works as it is. It's easy to switch characters and use weapons. The gameplay is a tad bit different from all of the other Mario Kart games. Now you have two racers per kart and you can choose their kart. That's cool I guess but in the end it's entirly pointless to have two characters. Sure it makes a bit more sense at times with the weapons since you can throw them in front or behind you but still it isn't that big of a change and it wasn't needed. The game basicly features two modes. Race and Time Attack... What is up with that? Sure there is multiplayer but it has the same three modes from past games. There is 16 tracks I believe, that's just a small amount compaired to other racing games these days. Through in the fact that most are bland and boring, one is an oval for crying out loud! There are plety of things to unlock but you just need to get first in all of the races and the AI doesn't give much of a challenge, even on the harder cups. The replay value is high if A) You have friends who will come over and play the game with you and B) don't own any of the better versions. Seriously, this is a step back for the series and it's a shame because a lot more could have been done to make this a better game all around. The multiplayer games are fun but there isn't a large selection of stages or games. Overall I was very disappointed with Double Dash. It's by far the worst game in the series. Is it a horrible game? No but it isn't worth the money either. Huge fans may want to still check itn out but I wouldn't recommend this game for casual gamers unless they use their Gamecube for multiplayer a lot. Control: 9 Game play: 7 Graphics: 7 Replay Value: 7 Sound: 6 Story: 0 Final Score: 55/100 Reviewed by Americanpieflute Reviewed on November 25 2003