Mario Kart Double Dash - the magic is back

[kinglumby]

I know Shane is a fan of Mario Kart 64 but I must admit I didn't enjoy the transition from 2D (mode7) to 3D and found MK64 a little boring. So I waited and waited until finally I found a cheap copy of MK Double Dash and ooooohhh the joy.

It too starts of a little slow and I still think you should have to start at the 50cc level and win it to unlock the 100cc and 150cc classes but that just being old school. As I continued to play through the tracks and classes I found that old time magic back again.

This is the sort of game you can play for just a few minutes or for hours on end. It felt just like the good old days when you could plat a game straight out of the box. I must admit I haven't played Flag to Flag yet....can't seem to find it anywhere... and although I have F-Zero I still think that MK is one of the best games on any platform and if you have a LAN adaptor you can play it over the net apparently, awesome.

Thank god someone is still keeping the magic alive!

[Shane R. Monroe]

Just to be totally clear on this topic - since the old RGR messages aren't here.

There are some games that 3D is required to be good. Not-Pseudo 3D. Not chunky-to-planar fake 3D. Not Mode7 exploits to look 3D. But actual 3D. This coming from someone that CURSES 3D.

Mario Kart on the SNES was FLAT. HORRIBLY HORRIBLY flat. No hills. No valleys. No fun. It was blocky. It was gimmicky. To me it was simply failed to give ANY illusion of racing. It wasn't any fun to me at all.

MK64 .. you can bitch about the CPU cheating (just keeping the race close ain't cheating to me - who wants to lap the opponent? How much fun is that) and the short tracks (they may be short, but dammit, the 3D presentation with the hills and dips and jumps were incredible). But the game WORKED that way. Not flat, boring tracks - vibrant ALIVE tracks. No gimmicks - just the goods.

In fact, MK64 is single-handledly responsible for me getting into modern consoling. I didn't want to support Nintendo at the time - so I waited for a PS1 equivalent (Crash Team Racing - still played today in this house). My wife and I played it for nearly days straight.

Double Dash is supposed to be good - but until its out for the PS2, I'm not in. I won't own two consoles at the same time - I don't care how cheap they are. Don't see that happening anytime soon.

Need to get CART Fury racing. Beg, borrow, steal. Its just high adrenaline racing - no weapons, no gimmicks (the tracks have secret short cuts - that's it).

For me, 2D Racing peaked with ROADKILL on the CD32. The Mortal Kombat of racing...

[patman]

I liked the original Mario Kart alot - it's still one of my favorite racers. I thought it gave a much better feel of being in control of a vehicle than Mario Kart 64 did. MK64 felt like a kiddie game to me. The first Mario Kart felt like a real racing game disguised as a kiddie game - I liked it better than any of the serious racing games of the time.

I'll have to check it out.

[Shane R. Monroe]

Here is where you can get it:

http://www.gamestop.com/product.asp?product%5Fid=938160

That's where I got mine :)

[kittendaddy]

Yeah, the original Mario Kart was fun (3D wasn't done back then, so I didn't mind the flat so much), but after seeing MK64 I'd have to agree it begged 3D all along for the gameplay changes.

I would at least like to see Double Dash at some point, but it probably won't happen unless Nintendo goes the way of Sega. They do love their exclusive franchises... The most modern Nintendo console I own is a SNES, and that's at my parents' house across country.

[Danny]

For me, 2D Racing peaked with ROADKILL on the CD32. The Mortal Kombat of racing...

******* YES!!!!! Roadkill owned so much. I sued to play that all the time when I had an Amiga CD32 and me and my brother played that game religously for a long time intill we brought shadow fighter... an awsome fighting game of which most people have never herd of! :(

[YoshiM]

Ugh. Double Dash. About as much of a disappointment as Wave Race: Blue Storm and F-Zero GX was. I loved MK64. My friends and I played the snot outta it. Double Dash took away the "hops" which we perfected so well. The controller isn't nearly as tight as the N64 one was so driving felt a bit sloppy and the swapping of drivers was gimmicky as all. I don't know if my dislike for the game was due to the lack of a "cherry high" like I had with MK64 or the fact that I had a difficult time adjusting to the new setup.

Eh, oh well. Not like anything else on the Cube has lit me on fire.

[Shane R. Monroe]

******* YES!!!!! Roadkill owned so much. I sued to play that all the time when I had an Amiga CD32 and me and my brother played that game religously for a long time intill we brought shadow fighter... an awsome fighting game of which most people have never herd of! :(

Shadow Fighter CD32 is the cat's friggin' meow. One of the overall best "street fighter" style fighter ever.