Mario Kart: Double Dash!!
Encyclopedia
Mario Kart: Double Dash!! is a racing game
developed by Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development
and published by Nintendo
for the Nintendo GameCube
in 2003. The game is the fourth installment in the Mario Kart
series, following Mario Kart: Super Circuit from 2001. It was succeeded by the handheld game Mario Kart DS
(2005) and the console game Mario Kart Wii
(2008) respectively, and the arcade games in the Mario Kart Arcade GP
series.
The game introduced a number of new gameplay features, most notably the inclusion of two riders per kart. Double Dash‼ supports LAN
play using the Nintendo GameCube Broadband Adapter, allowing 16 players to compete simultaneously. There are 20 characters to select from in total, with eleven of them being new to the series. A special item for each character has also been implemented.
Double Dash‼ was generally well-received by critics; it attained an aggregated score of 87 out of 100 on Metacritic
. Reviewers praised the graphics and the new gameplay features, but criticized the voice acting. It was also commercially successful, selling over 3.8 million copies in the United States, and over 802,000 copies in Japan.
Double Dash‼s gameplay is slightly different from other Mario Kart
games. Instead of having one player per kart, there are two: one to drive, and one to use items. Players cannot hold items behind the kart, making it more difficult to block incoming shells. It is the first game in the series where players drop their items when hit by a weapon. Players can also steal items from the opponents. The powerslide technique has been improved; if the player manages to get blue sparks, a mini-turbo is performed.
The game allows up to four players to compete in battle modes and two players in grand prix mode. As in previous installments, the battle arenas are enclosed, with varying architecture and a constant arsenal. In addition to the traditional balloon-popping battle game, two new games have been implemented: the first involves capturing a Shine Sprite and maintaining possession of it for a time period, and the other involves throwing Bob-ombs at each other. Double Dash‼ also features LAN
play using the Nintendo GameCube Broadband Adapter
. Up to eight GameCube consoles can be connected, allowing for 16-player multiplayer games, with two players controlling each kart.
Players can choose from a cast of 20 characters, eleven of which are new to the series. Characters have their own special items, like Mario and Luigi with Fireballs, Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong with Giant Bananas, and Wario and Waluigi with Bob-ombs. The character's weight class (light, middle, or heavy) determine the karts in which they can ride and their attributes in speed, acceleration, and weight. There are 16 courses, divided into four cups; a fifth cup, the all-cup tour, has the player race all the tracks. The all cup tour always starts with Luigi Circuit and ends with Rainbow Road, but the remaining fourteen tracks show up in random order. Each track is also playable in "Mirror Mode", available after winning the all-cup tour, in which the tracks are mirrored; this mode is only available for 150cc.
Double Dash‼ was first shown at the E3 in 2001 as a seven seconds long video clip. The clip featured Mario and Luigi driving their karts on a bump mapped
3D surface with no background. At the time, it was early in development, and the working title of the game was simply Mario Kart. In April 2003, Nintendo released the first pictures and details of the game, as well as revealing the title to be Mario Kart: Double Dash!!. At the E3 in 2003, a playable demo of the game was available. New features, such as having two characters drive one kart, had been implemented. An updated demo with some new additions was shown at the Games Convention
in August 2003. In September, Nintendo held a Gamers' Summit for the press, in which a nearly complete and more sped up version of Double Dash!! was displayed. The Gamers' Summit also announced the North American release date to be November 17, 2003.
The development team struggled in coming up with gameplay features that would be enjoyed by the fans of the series. One of the hardest tasks chief director Kiyoshi Mizuki was assigned to do was to attract people who had no prior experience with the series; he decided to make the gameplay as simple as possible. Producer Shigeru Miyamoto
presented the staff with a variety of opinions which they in turn would have to accommodate into the game the best way possible. Miyamoto let the team decide which graphics they wanted to use without restrictions.
An online mode for the game was omitted because online infrastructures at the time did not allow rapid-speed gaming to a satisfactory level. Connectivity to the Game Boy Advance
was discussed as an opportunity among the developers, but they eventually agreed that Double Dash‼ was not suited to any connectivity ideas and decided to exclude it. It was desirable to narrow down the gap between the ability of veteran and novice players. Therefore, gameplay features like the ability to escape the banana were removed; the staff wanted both veteran and novice players to enjoy themselves.
The game's soundtrack was composed by Shinobu Tanaka and Kenta Nagata. Many of the original voice actors from the Mario series worked on this title, with Charles Martinet
as Mario
, Luigi
, Wario
, Waluigi, Baby Mario, and Baby Luigi; Jen Taylor
as Princess Peach
, Toad
, Toadette, and Birdo; Deanna Mustard as Princess Daisy; Kazumi Totaka
as Yoshi
; Scott Burns as Bowser; and Dolores Rogers as Bowser Jr.
A special edition was also released, which included a special bonus disc containing the following:
's Game Stars in 2004. The game sold 3.8 million units in the United States, and over 802,000 units in Japan. According to the NPD Group
, Double Dash!! was the best-selling game of November 2003. It is also the third best-selling GameCube game in Australia. Joystiq
reported in February 2009 that the game had sold over seven million copies worldwide.
Nintendo Power
gave the game a perfect score, and said the graphics were of "3-D perfection" and the controls and game mechanics "rival those of any GCN racing game". Double Dash!! also received a perfect score from GamePro
, who commented that the gameplay remains "fast and furious". The feature of having two riders per kart was praised by Justin Leeper and Andy McNamara of Game Informer
; McNamara stated: "Giving the player control of two different characters is pretty cool in single-player, but add a friend on the back of your kart in multiplayer and it opens the game up like never before." GameSpy
called Double Dash!! a "great-looking, great-playing game that most gamers will instantly warm to." Eurogamer
thought the game was one of the "finest pieces of electronic entertainment ever developed." GameZone
's Louis Bedigian felt that none of the racing games he had played for the GameCube were as "spectacular" as Double Dash!!. GMR
s Andrew Pfister said, "Mario Kart: Double Dash is the most fun you'll have with a game this year. And probably next year. And maybe even the year after that".
Double Dash‼ has also received criticism from the media. Considering the seven-year gap since Nintendo 64
's Mario Kart 64
, GameSpot
's Ryan Davis stated that he was "a little disappointed with the limited scope of the game." He also said that the repetition of the voice acting was "unrelenting". IGN
was also critical towards Double Dash‼ for not progressing beyond its predecessor, calling the game a "mediocre effort". The UK
-based publication Edge
accused the game of "not being a racing game anymore." Game Revolution
criticized the game's single-player mode for lacking substance and the track design for being "bland". The game placed 63rd in Official Nintendo Magazine's 100 greatest Nintendo games of all time.
Racing game
A racing video game is a genre of video games, either in the first-person or third-person perspective, in which the player partakes in a racing competition with any type of land, air, or sea vehicles. They may be based on anything from real-world racing leagues to entirely fantastical settings...
developed by Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development
Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development
, commonly abbreviated as EAD, is the largest division inside Nintendo. It was preceded by the , a team of designers with an art background responsible for many different tasks, which Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka originally belonged to...
and published by Nintendo
Nintendo
is a multinational corporation located in Kyoto, Japan. Founded on September 23, 1889 by Fusajiro Yamauchi, it produced handmade hanafuda cards. By 1963, the company had tried several small niche businesses, such as a cab company and a love hotel....
for the Nintendo GameCube
Nintendo GameCube
The , officially abbreviated to NGC in Japan and GCN in other regions, is a sixth generation video game console released by Nintendo on September 15, 2001 in Japan, November 18, 2001 in North America, May 3, 2002 in Europe, and May 17, 2002 in Australia...
in 2003. The game is the fourth installment in the Mario Kart
Mario Kart
is a series of go-kart-style racing video games developed by Nintendo as a series of spin-offs from its trademark Mario series of platformer adventure-style video games...
series, following Mario Kart: Super Circuit from 2001. It was succeeded by the handheld game Mario Kart DS
Mario Kart DS
is a racing game developed and published by Nintendo. It was released for the Nintendo DS handheld game console in North America, Australia, and Europe on November 14, 2005, and in Japan on December 8, 2005. The game is the fifth installment in the Mario Kart series of video games, and the first to...
(2005) and the console game Mario Kart Wii
Mario Kart Wii
is a racing video game developed by Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development and published by Nintendo for the Wii video game console. It is the sixth installment in the Mario Kart series and the second Mario Kart title to use the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. The game was released worldwide...
(2008) respectively, and the arcade games in the Mario Kart Arcade GP
Mario Kart Arcade GP
Mario Kart Arcade GP is an arcade-only iteration of Nintendo's Mario Kart series, developed by both Namco and Nintendo. Designed for the Triforce arcade board , players can race as one of eleven characters in twenty-four tracks...
series.
The game introduced a number of new gameplay features, most notably the inclusion of two riders per kart. Double Dash‼ supports LAN
Local area network
A local area network is a computer network that interconnects computers in a limited area such as a home, school, computer laboratory, or office building...
play using the Nintendo GameCube Broadband Adapter, allowing 16 players to compete simultaneously. There are 20 characters to select from in total, with eleven of them being new to the series. A special item for each character has also been implemented.
Double Dash‼ was generally well-received by critics; it attained an aggregated score of 87 out of 100 on Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
. Reviewers praised the graphics and the new gameplay features, but criticized the voice acting. It was also commercially successful, selling over 3.8 million copies in the United States, and over 802,000 copies in Japan.
Gameplay
Mario Kart
is a series of go-kart-style racing video games developed by Nintendo as a series of spin-offs from its trademark Mario series of platformer adventure-style video games...
games. Instead of having one player per kart, there are two: one to drive, and one to use items. Players cannot hold items behind the kart, making it more difficult to block incoming shells. It is the first game in the series where players drop their items when hit by a weapon. Players can also steal items from the opponents. The powerslide technique has been improved; if the player manages to get blue sparks, a mini-turbo is performed.
The game allows up to four players to compete in battle modes and two players in grand prix mode. As in previous installments, the battle arenas are enclosed, with varying architecture and a constant arsenal. In addition to the traditional balloon-popping battle game, two new games have been implemented: the first involves capturing a Shine Sprite and maintaining possession of it for a time period, and the other involves throwing Bob-ombs at each other. Double Dash‼ also features LAN
Local area network
A local area network is a computer network that interconnects computers in a limited area such as a home, school, computer laboratory, or office building...
play using the Nintendo GameCube Broadband Adapter
Nintendo GameCube Broadband Adapter
The Nintendo GameCube Broadband Adapter and Modem Adapter are a network adapter and 56k dial-up modem, respectively, for the Nintendo GameCube. They were produced by Conexant and made in the Philippines...
. Up to eight GameCube consoles can be connected, allowing for 16-player multiplayer games, with two players controlling each kart.
Players can choose from a cast of 20 characters, eleven of which are new to the series. Characters have their own special items, like Mario and Luigi with Fireballs, Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong with Giant Bananas, and Wario and Waluigi with Bob-ombs. The character's weight class (light, middle, or heavy) determine the karts in which they can ride and their attributes in speed, acceleration, and weight. There are 16 courses, divided into four cups; a fifth cup, the all-cup tour, has the player race all the tracks. The all cup tour always starts with Luigi Circuit and ends with Rainbow Road, but the remaining fourteen tracks show up in random order. Each track is also playable in "Mirror Mode", available after winning the all-cup tour, in which the tracks are mirrored; this mode is only available for 150cc.
Development
Bump mapping
Bump mapping is a technique in computer graphics for simulating bumps and wrinkles on the surface of an object. This is achieved by perturbing the surface normals of the object and using the perturbed normal during lighting calculations. The result is an apparently bumpy surface rather than a...
3D surface with no background. At the time, it was early in development, and the working title of the game was simply Mario Kart. In April 2003, Nintendo released the first pictures and details of the game, as well as revealing the title to be Mario Kart: Double Dash!!. At the E3 in 2003, a playable demo of the game was available. New features, such as having two characters drive one kart, had been implemented. An updated demo with some new additions was shown at the Games Convention
Games Convention
The Games Convention, sometimes called the Leipzig Games Convention and abbreviated as GC, was an annual video game event held in Leipzig, Germany, first held in 2002. Besides video games, the event also covers Infotainment, Hardware, and Edutainment...
in August 2003. In September, Nintendo held a Gamers' Summit for the press, in which a nearly complete and more sped up version of Double Dash!! was displayed. The Gamers' Summit also announced the North American release date to be November 17, 2003.
The development team struggled in coming up with gameplay features that would be enjoyed by the fans of the series. One of the hardest tasks chief director Kiyoshi Mizuki was assigned to do was to attract people who had no prior experience with the series; he decided to make the gameplay as simple as possible. Producer Shigeru Miyamoto
Shigeru Miyamoto
is a Japanese video game designer and producer. Miyamoto was born and raised in Kyoto Prefecture; the natural surroundings of Kyoto inspired much of Miyamoto's later work....
presented the staff with a variety of opinions which they in turn would have to accommodate into the game the best way possible. Miyamoto let the team decide which graphics they wanted to use without restrictions.
An online mode for the game was omitted because online infrastructures at the time did not allow rapid-speed gaming to a satisfactory level. Connectivity to the Game Boy Advance
Game Boy Advance
The is a 32-bit handheld video game console developed, manufactured, and marketed by Nintendo. It is the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001; in North America on June 11, 2001; in Australia and Europe on June 22, 2001; and in the People's Republic of China...
was discussed as an opportunity among the developers, but they eventually agreed that Double Dash‼ was not suited to any connectivity ideas and decided to exclude it. It was desirable to narrow down the gap between the ability of veteran and novice players. Therefore, gameplay features like the ability to escape the banana were removed; the staff wanted both veteran and novice players to enjoy themselves.
The game's soundtrack was composed by Shinobu Tanaka and Kenta Nagata. Many of the original voice actors from the Mario series worked on this title, with Charles Martinet
Charles Martinet
Charles Martinet is an American actor and voice actor, best known for providing the voice of Mario, the titular character in Nintendo's flagship video game franchise. He has held this role since 1994, longer than any other actor. He also voices Luigi, Wario, Waluigi, Toadsworth, and a select few...
as Mario
Mario
is a fictional character in his video game series, created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. Serving as Nintendo's mascot and the main protagonist of the series, Mario has appeared in over 200 video games since his creation...
, Luigi
Luigi
is a fictional character, featured in video games and related media released by Nintendo. Created by prominent game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, Luigi is portrayed as the slightly younger fraternal twin brother of Nintendo's mascot Mario, and appears in many games throughout the Mario series,...
, Wario
Wario
is a fictional character in Nintendo's Mario series. The character was designed as another antagonist to Mario , and first appeared in the 1992 Game Boy title Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins as the main antagonist and final boss...
, Waluigi, Baby Mario, and Baby Luigi; Jen Taylor
Jen Taylor
Jennifer Lee "Jen" Taylor is an American voice actress best known for her role as Cortana in various Halo games and the Xbox 360 game "1 vs. 100".-Voice work:...
as Princess Peach
Princess Peach
is a character in Nintendo's Mario series of video games. She is the Princess of the fictitious Mushroom Kingdom, and often plays the damsel in distress role within the adventure series. In 2007, Princess Peach landed on Forbes magazine's Wealthiest Fictional People list, with a fortune upwards of...
, Toad
Toad (Mario)
Toad, known in Japan as , is a fictional character belonging to an anthropomorphic mushroom-like species of the same name in the Mario series, created by Shigeru Miyamoto. A citizen of the Mushroom Kingdom, Toad is one of Princess Peach's most loyal attendants and is constantly working on her behalf...
, Toadette, and Birdo; Deanna Mustard as Princess Daisy; Kazumi Totaka
Kazumi Totaka
is a Japanese video game composer and voice actor who composed many major Nintendo games, including Mario Paint and Animal Crossing. He occasionally also does voice acting for Nintendo games, including Yoshi from the Mario and Yoshi series. He is also one of the various composers who worked on the...
as Yoshi
Yoshi
, is a fictional dragon-like character who appears in video games published by Nintendo. His debut was in Super Mario World on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System as Mario and Luigi's sidekick , and he later established his own series with several platform and puzzle games, including Super...
; Scott Burns as Bowser; and Dolores Rogers as Bowser Jr.
A special edition was also released, which included a special bonus disc containing the following:
- Demos of Mario Party 5Mario Party 5is a party video game published by Nintendo and developed by Hudson Soft. It is the second game in the Mario Party series for Nintendo Gamecube. It was released in North America on November 10, 2003, in Japan on November 23, 2003, and in Europe on December 5, 2003...
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.
Reception
Mario Kart: Double Dash!! has overall been positively received by reviewers and commercially successful. The game received the "Multiplayer Game" award from ITVITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
's Game Stars in 2004. The game sold 3.8 million units in the United States, and over 802,000 units in Japan. According to the NPD Group
NPD Group
The NPD Group, Inc. is a leading North American market research company. The NPD Group consistently ranks among the top 25 market research companies in the independent Honomichl Top 50 report, which the media and the research industry acknowledge as a credible source of information on the market...
, Double Dash!! was the best-selling game of November 2003. It is also the third best-selling GameCube game in Australia. Joystiq
Joystiq
Joystiq is a video gaming blog founded in June 2004 that has since become one of the most successful sites within the Weblogs, Inc. family of weblogs. It is the centerpiece of WIN's own network of video gaming blogs, which also includes a blog dealing specifically with the popular MMORPG World of...
reported in February 2009 that the game had sold over seven million copies worldwide.
Nintendo Power
Nintendo Power
Nintendo Power magazine is a monthly news and strategy magazine formerly published in-house by Nintendo of America, but now run independently. As of issue #222 , Nintendo contracted publishing duties to Future US, the U.S. subsidiary of British publisher Future.The first issue published was...
gave the game a perfect score, and said the graphics were of "3-D perfection" and the controls and game mechanics "rival those of any GCN racing game". Double Dash!! also received a perfect score from GamePro
GamePro
GamePro Media was a United States gaming media company publishing online and print content on the video game industry, video game hardware, and video game software developed for a video game console , a computer, and/or a mobile device . GamePro Media properties include GamePro magazine and...
, who commented that the gameplay remains "fast and furious". The feature of having two riders per kart was praised by Justin Leeper and Andy McNamara of Game Informer
Game Informer
Game Informer is an American-based monthly magazine featuring articles, news, strategy, and reviews of popular video games and associated consoles. It was formed in August 1991, when FuncoLand started publishing a six-page magazine, free in all its retail locations...
; McNamara stated: "Giving the player control of two different characters is pretty cool in single-player, but add a friend on the back of your kart in multiplayer and it opens the game up like never before." GameSpy
GameSpy
GameSpy Industries, Inc., known simply as GameSpy, is a division of IGN Entertainment, which operates a network of game websites and provides online video game-related services and software. GameSpy dates back to the 1996 release of an internet Quake server search program named QSpy. The current...
called Double Dash!! a "great-looking, great-playing game that most gamers will instantly warm to." Eurogamer
Eurogamer
Eurogamer is a Brighton-based website focused on video games news, reviews, previews and interviews. It is operated by Eurogamer Network Ltd., which was formed in 1999 by brothers Rupert and Nick Loman. Eurogamer has grown to become one of the most important European-based websites focused on...
thought the game was one of the "finest pieces of electronic entertainment ever developed." GameZone
GameZone
GameZone is an American multiplatform video game website. GameZone's daily coverage includes reviews, previews, news, hints & cheats, and editorials. Additionally, GameZone offers downloads, a child-targeted website and in association with GameStop, hosts GZGameShop, an online retailer...
's Louis Bedigian felt that none of the racing games he had played for the GameCube were as "spectacular" as Double Dash!!. GMR
GMR (magazine)
GMR was a monthly magazine on video games that was published by Ziff-Davis — the publisher of such magazines as PC Magazine, Electronic Gaming Monthly, and Computer Gaming World . GMR was launched in February 2003, being sold in only the Electronics Boutique chain of video game stores...
s Andrew Pfister said, "Mario Kart: Double Dash is the most fun you'll have with a game this year. And probably next year. And maybe even the year after that".
Double Dash‼ has also received criticism from the media. Considering the seven-year gap since Nintendo 64
Nintendo 64
The , often referred to as N64, was Nintendo′s third home video game console for the international market. Named for its 64-bit CPU, it was released in June 1996 in Japan, September 1996 in North America, March 1997 in Europe and Australia, September 1997 in France and December 1997 in Brazil...
's Mario Kart 64
Mario Kart 64
is a racing game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. It is the second installment in the Mario Kart series. It was released in 1996 in Japan and in 1997 in North America and Europe. In January 2007, Mario Kart 64 was released on Nintendo's Virtual Console service for the Wii...
, GameSpot
GameSpot
GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1, 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which...
's Ryan Davis stated that he was "a little disappointed with the limited scope of the game." He also said that the repetition of the voice acting was "unrelenting". IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
was also critical towards Double Dash‼ for not progressing beyond its predecessor, calling the game a "mediocre effort". The UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
-based publication Edge
Edge (magazine)
Edge is a multi-format computer and video game magazine published by Future Publishing in the United Kingdom. It is known for its industry contacts, editorial stance, distinctive anonymous third-person writing style, yearly awards and longevity....
accused the game of "not being a racing game anymore." Game Revolution
Game Revolution
Game Revolution or GR is a gaming website created in 1996. Based in Berkeley, California, the site includes reviews, previews, a gaming download area, cheats, and a merchandise store, as well as webcomics, screenshots, and videos...
criticized the game's single-player mode for lacking substance and the track design for being "bland". The game placed 63rd in Official Nintendo Magazine's 100 greatest Nintendo games of all time.