First things first: the game is incredibely colourful and attractive. GameCube players will recognise the ‘house-style’ immediately, but perhaps the bright colouring of the game might frighten some gamers. They shouldn’t worry though, as the colours really enhance the gameplay and add to the fun factor.

The GAMEPLAY itself is 100% pure fun with lots of options to choose from. There is the Grand Prix mode, the Timetrail mode or the VS (versus) multiplayer mode. Seen as there were two of us, guess which mode we went for. First of all, you get to choose the character you want to race with. I forgot to count them but all the well-know figures like Mario, Luigi, Wario, Peach, Daisy, Waluigi, Koopa Troopas, Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, Baby Mario, Baby Luigi, Baby Bowser, Bowser and Yoshi are all there.

Each character is automatically teamed up with a racing partner (hence: ‘Double’ Dash). At the same time the game calculates which karts can accommodate both characters (no Donkey Kong in a babypram :). Now, while one character drives the kart the other one functions as ‘attack-man’ who hurls a series of bombs, traps and other nasties to adversaries. Now, the driver and gunner can be switched at any time during the race at the press of a button, which is important because it is the character that drives that determines how the kart handles. Other than that, each character has it’s own set of weapons, so a strategic well placed switch can prove useful in winning a race.

The (soft) weaponary includes the famous red shells, the ricocheting green shells, the mushrooms, Mario’s fireballs, Bowsers ENORMOUS spiked shell, Donkey Kongs Xtra large bananapeel and a lightening jolt that turns all players in little teenie-weenie versions of themselves. Needless to say, it are these dirty little tricks that are the most fun to inflict on each other :) Another thing is that you will drop your ‘weapon’ if you are struck by one of the other players dirty trick. Any person driving behind you can then pick up your old one and then use it against you !


A factor that adds to the fun are the double power-up boxes that contain one weapon for each character, so changing at the right moment can prove useful. But beware of stray power-ups! Some characters can drop ‘fake’ power-up boxes. And they’re nasty :)


One thing that immediately strikes you, is that the handling of the cars is impeccable, the controls are easy and intuitive. In some of the tracks you’ll really have to use the shoulder-buttons to powerslide around and through the corners. This features is particulary useful in the ‘bomb’ and ‘balloon’ mode of the game where 4 specific maps (cookieland, a gamecube, a tetrislike map and a fourth map with tunnels and warpzones) make you chase one another like two crazy turkish cabdrivers with a vengeance.


In conclusion I’d like to say that this game is a hell of a lot of fun. In fact, my sister asked me what console to buy my 6 year old nephew. Well, let’s just say that I’m gonna pay him a lot of visits and probably get my arse kicked :-) For all Gamecube owners – this is a must-have. For none-Gamecube owners … this is the reason you’ve been waiting for, and I mean it.