Mario Kart: Double Dash!!

[Johnny Nighttrain]

ok, the new build of the game was finally shown off with speed intact, so check out these impressions from PGC. i only left in the good stuff.

So let's get this out of the way first … Mario Kart: Double Dash is at least TWICE as fast as the E3 build, if not faster. Seriously, they've put a great deal of time and effort into getting the game as fast and responsive as possible, and it's playing VERY well. 150CC is almost too fast at first, just like it should be, with players careening into walls if they fail to use the brake going into turns.

Also making its return is the power-slide feature, triggered with the shoulder buttons. I wasn't able to pull-off the speed boost trick, but that might have just been me. Power-sliding really loosens up the cart, and will take very careful timing and practice to master, but will help a lot in the 150cc class when coming into tight corners.

Special character-only items are now in the game, and seem to be given semi-randomly. I say "semi", because as fans of Mario Kart 64 know, the items are given based on your placement in the race. First place racers are more likely to get items like green shells and banana peels to drop back at unwitting followers, while last place racers are more likely to get the blue winged spiky shell to take out the race leader. Each character has their own unique items now, such as Yoshi's egg which wobbles towards racers, and Mario & Luigi each have red and green fireballs, respectively.
The character swapping and unique items add a feeling of strategy that the N64 incarnation didn't have, and is a total blast. Switching the character with the red-seeker shell into the driver’s seat so that the other can unleash a special attach is a very satisfying feeling. There are “double question boxes” on the course now; picking one up will give items to both characters, while the single boxes will only give an item to the character in the back. Of course, if you have an item, you get nothing, so again, swapping characters and judicious use of items becomes key strategy.

Watching the kids play, it was interesting to see that at first most kids didn’t realize the difference. It played just like the Mario Kart they are used to, but when they figured out how to use the other rider, these little hellions starting devising and hatching plans of Machiavellian proportions. Imagine what 8-player LAN games will be like where no one but you can see your screen and the items you possess. While the player in back will “flaunt” the weapon they’ve acquired, the driver shows no outward signs of what’s in store, and that amounts to a great feeling of satisfaction when you unleash a place-stealing disaster at the last moment.

The graphics overall appeared to have been polished all the way around, looking very vibrant and sharp. The entire Mushroom Cup was open, which consists of four tracks: Luigi Circuit, Mushroom Bridge, Waluigi Stadium, and DK Mountain. There were also two battle modes available, including the incredibly fun Bom-Omb Blast ... where you hurl bombs at your opponents and hope to blow them up in the blast. It's a simple change from the standard Balloon Burst (also showcased), but is tons more fun.

the new battle mode um...mode sounds really like fun. i knew the speed would get in there, but im sure differences have been made to the power slidding, i'd like to know how it feels now. if i remember correctly, jumping wasn't in the E3 build, yet, there was still a power slidding system (although it was more of a sharper turn with a slight slide).

i hope they get pictures of the new levels up soon. i'd like to see what those look like.

anyways, i'll go ahead and finish this post off with a picture of the games boxart.

[Green]

Good news. Nice cover, too.

[Jeremy]

Great news, the character-specific items thing should be interesting, and the box art looks fantastic as well. Thanks for posting this stuff, Lucas.

[ChaoofNee]

Can someone tell me again why the Donkey Kong Country characters are now Mario characters and why the Koopa kids aren't?

[Kinopio]

I'm looking forward to finally replacing Mario Kart 64 in my rotation of heavily played multiplayer games. I must be around the 200 hour mark in that game.

Im guessing its coming out in Japan around the same time as the US, right?

[AaronChance]

The cover makes it look like Luigi is... something I can't say on a public message board.

[Hero]

Man, that's perverted

I'm VERY glad to hear powersliding is in. That E3 demo had me worried to death.

[johnk_]

it's gonna rock...unless they make it like the N64 game..

...god i hate that game so much.

[FuryFox]

The cover makes it look like Luigi is... something I can't say on a public message board.

Dude, that's what Luigi does. Haven't you seen him jump?

[Clash!]

This is my most anticpated game for this fall. It just looks so damn awesome, I have not been dissapointed by any version of Mario Kart. And from what I have read of Play Impressions, it just sounds so perfect. Man I can't wait to play this Lan, or just 1player in General.