mario kart: double dash first impressions

[pg]

i've only played an hour or two(finished first in 2 50cc cups along with some multiplayer) but mk:dd seems to be much better than mk for n64. it's quite fun so far and i'm optimistic about it's longevity.

everything seems much closer in spirit to snes mk(which is one of my favorite games of all time, especially when played with 2 or more people) and this is reflected in course design, and control. the new mode which allows 2 players to share control of a kart is pretty fun and not just a gimmick imo. cup racing is the strong point of the game because battle mode, while much more fun than the n64 incarnation, has pretty weak maps due to their open nature and lack of architexture to use for advantage. i really miss the snes battle maps which were packed full of tight corridors.

i was a bit irked by the graphical intensity of some of the maps. while nowhere as bad as f-zero for the cube it strained my eyes a bit playing 2 player split screen on a 27 inch tv. on our 40 inch tv it's much better but i imagine 4 player split screen might be really painful.

most importantly the game is pure fun so far which is refreshing compared to most gamecube games i've played.

[Guynemer]

Rented it. Loved it. Hope I get it for Xmas (along with a bigger TV).

[Buck Birdseed]

I quite enjoyed it, but everyone else at the party we were at seemed to think they'd made it too visually intense, with too many things going on on-screen at once.

[asleepathewheel]

Love it, haven't played it too much (purchased right before had to go away for the holiday) Love to play against the wife. Never played the N64 game. Very fun so far, so far I'm pretty bad at it to, struggling to medal in the 100CC races.

[pg]

well, me and my brother have played practically all day with infrequent stops to choke down some turkey. we just finally beat the 150cc special cup race with 2 people playing 2 separate karts. which helped us a lot because i was racing good but my brother tried a different kart than his normal one and ended up near last each race. him doing so badly was the key because i think the ai didn't go as fast so he had a chance to catch up.

all the other 150cc races we used the 2 person per kart mode with each person racing his 2 best maps. i really like this new mode! hopefully we'll get 2 more controllers for xmas.

gotta cut this short but i have a lot of tricks, etc i could share. bottom line is this - if you play multiplayer or want to play multiplayer(even if it's just 2) get this game! the 2 person per kart mode is great if you have some gamers who aren't comfortable with hard competition.

[Guynemer]

Couldn't even beat Mushroom at 150. Need more practice.

[Snotty]

How does the two person on one kart thing work? My gf likes to play but she whines when we play head to head. Am I going to cringe every time she takes over the kart, or can I help her drive it straight somehow?

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by Snotty
How does the two person on one kart thing work? My gf likes to play but she whines when we play head to head. Am I going to cringe every time she takes over the kart, or can I help her drive it straight somehow?

Don't know anyone with a Gamecube so I doubt I'll play this, but Mario Kart was awesome in its day.

[Guynemer]

Well, when she is driving the cart, you can give it a little "oomph" one way or the other with L and R.

[Zero]

MaRiO KaRt D^2 pWnZeD j00!!!11!!!11!!!!


OMG WTF ROFL!!!11!!!!11!!!!!

[FlameFlash]

Wife and I are very very tempted, she and I loved Mario Kart 64. Now all we need is some spare cash...

Can't you be a team on this one? One driving and the other lobbing items?

[asleepathewheel]

Originally posted by FlameFlash
Wife and I are very very tempted, she and I loved Mario Kart 64. Now all we need is some spare cash...

Can't you be a team on this one? One driving and the other lobbing items?

yes

get it, you won't be sorry.

[pg]

me and my brother finally beat all the cups. the hardest cup we played was 150cc special cup by far. after that you unluck an all cup tour which is all the cups in one sitting which is much easier than playing a single cup at once since the computer players are much less consistent in their driving than we were(we usually place 1st but always in the top 3). the last mode to be unlocked is mirror mode which was somewhat disappointing as i hoped there would be 200cc(iirc snes had this) as 150cc can be pretty easy once you learn the shortcuts and courses. the last kart you unlock is quite good; it's the gold kart toad drives during the award ceremony(stats being 4 speed, 3 accel, 4 weight).

few tricks...

1. you can gank other kart's items(R and L buttons)
2. mushrooms can now be used as a weapon if you hit someone when going fast
3. run into someone right before they finish recovering from spinning out, and they will spin out again

advice...

1. we used baby mario and koopa to beat all the cup racers. with a kart rated 2 speed, 4 accel, 2 weight. this one seemed way better than all the other karts but to each their own.
2. learn the short cuts - some of them are very easy and if you can pull them off will almost guarantee 1st place finish on some boards. a good example is the short cut on bowser's board where you jump down over a lava pit near the end of the board where the big bowser statue is shooting fireballs.

there are a couple bugs in the game though i think. for one thing i was surprised how easy the light karts where compared to the medium and heavy karts. considering there is really no advantage to the heavier karts this is a bit weird. also on 150cc it was really amazing to see some of the things the ai drivers could do especially their ability to dodge red shells or just out run them! red shells in general seemed a bit wonky as you could be driving on a long straight away drop an item behind you to block the red yet still get hit seconds later.

[FlameFlash]

Originally posted by pg
me and my brother finally beat all the cups. the hardest cup we played was 150cc special cup by far. after that you unluck an all cup tour which is all the cups in one sitting which is much easier than playing a single cup at once since the computer players are much less consistent in their driving than we were(we usually place 1st but always in the top 3). the last mode to be unlocked is mirror mode which was somewhat disappointing as i hoped there would be 200cc(iirc snes had this) as 150cc can be pretty easy once you learn the shortcuts and courses. the last kart you unlock is quite good; it's the gold kart toad drives during the award ceremony(stats being 4 speed, 3 accel, 4 weight).

Actually the SNES only had 50, 100, and 150. 150 was the special unlockable one to my memory.

Hang on... you can choose your kart as well as your drivers!?

Crud... my time as being the heavy-weight Wario and the wife being Yoshi are over... she's good with DK too, she just prefers Yoshi but if she can have a heavy karted Yoshi I'm screwed.

few tricks...

1. you can gank other kart's items(R and L buttons)

eh?

2. mushrooms can now be used as a weapon if you hit someone when going fast

So, the heavy kart ram spinout technique is possible with all karts now... great...

3. run into someone right before they finish recovering from spinning out, and they will spin out again

advice...

1. we used baby mario and koopa to beat all the cup racers. with a kart rated 2 speed, 4 accel, 2 weight. this one seemed way better than all the other karts but to each their own.

What strat do you generally depend on though? Need for quick start or need for sustained high speed and slow start? I'd want a kart with 4 speed, 2 accel, 4 weight... if that's even possible...

2. learn the short cuts - some of them are very easy and if you can pull them off will almost guarantee 1st place finish on some boards. a good example is the short cut on bowser's board where you jump down over a lava pit near the end of the board where the big bowser statue is shooting fireballs.

Very cool... must look up tips online then...

there are a couple bugs in the game though i think. for one thing i was surprised how easy the light karts where compared to the medium and heavy karts.

Light karts always were easier for me on the N64...

considering there is really no advantage to the heavier karts this is a bit weird.

Hang on... are you serious? So what is the weight rating for?

also on 150cc it was really amazing to see some of the things the ai drivers could do especially their ability to dodge red shells or just out run them!

Nothing new... I remember my frustration with the SNES version because the AI characters permanently had feathers available to them...

red shells in general seemed a bit wonky as you could be driving on a long straight away drop an item behind you to block the red yet still get hit seconds later.

They probably purposefully put in a work-around so players have to think up a new strat to blocking red shells.

[Zero]

Played it. It was FUNTASTIC.

[pg]

Originally posted by FlameFlash
eh?

maybe those are the wrong buttons(we just rented it, hopefully we will get it for xmas), but there is a way to do a dodge attack to steal other kart's items!

What strat do you generally depend on though? Need for quick start or need for sustained high speed and slow start? I'd want a kart with 4 speed, 2 accel, 4 weight... if that's even possible...

well one thing that is quite important is getting down the speed boost are the start of the race. basically you start holding down your engine button after the countdown hits 1 and you can get a boost if you time it right(if you don't get it right away keep practicing). it's the equivalent to a mushroom more or less. very helpful as you will be up to full speed in a sec or 2 and not need to accelerate from a stand still. i imagine it's incredibly important for the heavier karts. it usually saved me 3 secs or so on my first lap.

What strat do you generally depend on though?

consistancy, heh. seriously, this game is sort of hard if you aren't quite a skilled player imo. even after me and my brother are able to beat all the cups by ourselves we can still lose races if we get unlucky. just a couple falls, spin outs or getting stuck on the wall(read: lose a few seconds) and you can easily go from 1st to 6th.

Hang on... are you serious? So what is the weight rating for?

it does help if you run into other karts, as they will bounce around and not you but it doesn't seem nearly as useful as it used to. heavy karts just take too damn long to get up to speed compared to light karts.

Nothing new... I remember my frustration with the SNES version because the AI characters permanently had feathers available to them...

i only really noticed AI cheating on 150cc myself so it's forgivable.

They probably purposefully put in a work-around so players have to think up a new strat to blocking red shells.

there really is no other way now that red shells are so much smarter. red shells will follow the course by moving into the middle of the road right after you fire them instead of taking the direct and shortest path(did they do this in mk64 or just snes? i didn't play mk64 much), so even if you go around a few corners or over some jumps they will still get you almost all the time.

[FlameFlash]

Originally posted by pg
maybe those are the wrong buttons(we just rented it, hopefully we will get it for xmas), but there is a way to do a dodge attack to steal other kart's items!

Very cool.

well one thing that is quite important is getting down the speed boost are the start of the race. basically you start holding down your engine button after the countdown hits 1 and you can get a boost if you time it right(if you don't get it right away keep practicing). it's the equivalent to a mushroom more or less. very helpful as you will be up to full speed in a sec or 2 and not need to accelerate from a stand still. i imagine it's incredibly important for the heavier karts. it usually saved me 3 secs or so on my first lap.

/me nods.

All of the others had stuff like that too.

consistancy, heh. seriously, this game is sort of hard if you aren't quite a skilled player imo. even after me and my brother are able to beat all the cups by ourselves we can still lose races if we get unlucky. just a couple falls, spin outs or getting stuck on the wall(read: lose a few seconds) and you can easily go from 1st to 6th.

Actually, I'll buy consistancy... that sounds reasonable as a need.

I know that when I have bad luck on the item draw my wife usually hands me my arse on a race.

it does help if you run into other karts, as they will bounce around and not you but it doesn't seem nearly as useful as it used to. heavy karts just take too damn long to get up to speed compared to light karts.

It'll be interesting to experiment then.

i only really noticed AI cheating on 150cc myself so it's forgivable.

I remember on the SNES the game gave DK-Jr a star once. In that version, every character had a special item (computer characters at least) and that was the only weapon they had. My cousin and I think that we'd just been playing the game too long and Mario was right next to DK-Jr. so it just gave the powerup to the wrong character.

there really is no other way now that red shells are so much smarter. red shells will follow the course by moving into the middle of the road right after you fire them instead of taking the direct and shortest path(did they do this in mk64 or just snes? i didn't play mk64 much), so even if you go around a few corners or over some jumps they will still get you almost all the time.

The red shells, if you're in first place, will do that on the N64 version, otherwise these new red shells sound like a spikey shell from the N64 version.

Yikes is about all I can say to that.

[FlameFlash]

Originally posted by pg
maybe those are the wrong buttons(we just rented it, hopefully we will get it for xmas), but there is a way to do a dodge attack to steal other kart's items!

Very cool.

well one thing that is quite important is getting down the speed boost are the start of the race. basically you start holding down your engine button after the countdown hits 1 and you can get a boost if you time it right(if you don't get it right away keep practicing). it's the equivalent to a mushroom more or less. very helpful as you will be up to full speed in a sec or 2 and not need to accelerate from a stand still. i imagine it's incredibly important for the heavier karts. it usually saved me 3 secs or so on my first lap.

/me nods.

All of the others had stuff like that too.

consistancy, heh. seriously, this game is sort of hard if you aren't quite a skilled player imo. even after me and my brother are able to beat all the cups by ourselves we can still lose races if we get unlucky. just a couple falls, spin outs or getting stuck on the wall(read: lose a few seconds) and you can easily go from 1st to 6th.

Actually, I'll buy consistancy... that sounds reasonable as a need.

I know that when I have bad luck on the item draw my wife usually hands me my arse on a race.

it does help if you run into other karts, as they will bounce around and not you but it doesn't seem nearly as useful as it used to. heavy karts just take too damn long to get up to speed compared to light karts.

It'll be interesting to experiment then.

i only really noticed AI cheating on 150cc myself so it's forgivable.

I remember on the SNES the game gave DK-Jr a star once. In that version, every character had a special item (computer characters at least) and that was the only weapon they had. My cousin and I think that we'd just been playing the game too long and Mario was right next to DK-Jr. so it just gave the powerup to the wrong character.

there really is no other way now that red shells are so much smarter. red shells will follow the course by moving into the middle of the road right after you fire them instead of taking the direct and shortest path(did they do this in mk64 or just snes? i didn't play mk64 much), so even if you go around a few corners or over some jumps they will still get you almost all the time.

The red shells, if you're in first place, will do that on the N64 version, otherwise these new red shells sound like a spikey shell from the N64 version.

Yikes is about all I can say to that.

[Sava]

THE BEST ****ING GAME THIS YEAR!

I've beaten the entire game... all-cup tour on Mirror mode was ****ING HARD!

my sister and I have been playing MP a lot... so much fun...

I love the characters, and how everyone has a special. It is real fun to develop strategies for each character combo.

Things I've notice:
1. Light carts with small guys are the most effective for me (baby koopa and diddy kong are my fave combo-- 3 red shells and giant banana are specials)

2. Computer does cheat on 150cc and mirror mode, but being persistent and cutting across short cuts gives you a big advantage

3. If you hit the small R button as you fly into one question mark, if you hit a second real quick, you can pick up two items (if you don't hit a two question mark block that is)

4. There is usually 1 computer combo that will always finish ahead of the rest... knock this combo out as much as possible and get them to finish 3rd or 4th, this will allow you to get farther ahead in total points if you finish 1st.

5. Daisy is mentally challenged... (or retarded ) "Hi, I'm Daisy!"

6. 150cc is more about luck than anything else.

7. The Ducks on Daisy's Beach piss the **** outta me!

8. On 150cc and mirror mode, the computer's green shells are basically like red shells because they are super accurate shots.

9. As I said before, light carts are the best IMO, especially because they don't lose a lot of speed when going off road. It's real easy to cut corners on some maps.

10. You can do the powerslide boost and get out of the Sarlac pit on the desert level.

BTW, red shells don't follow the middle like in N64... they lock on to the person in front of you.

[Snotty]

I got this yesterday and love it. The 2 player co-op mode is a great way for my gf to get used to it, and the L/R sidestep thing while in the back has saved our ass many times.

I agree with all the light cart stuff. I can only think the heavys will be useful when I have powersliding perfected and want to crush other carts by smashing into them.

I'm worried about the SP longevity as I need gold on 150cc star and special to complete all thats visible. I hope the mirror modes supply a bit more of a challenge.

Overall, great game but it was always going to be. Shiggys head would be on a stick if they screwed this one up.

[Snotty]

Whoever thought up this co-op mode is a genius. Where else can two players work together outside of FPS games? Plus playing MK with my gf counts as spending time with her

I enjoy being back in Nintendos unique environments. Clean lines, and inovation in their obstacles. I did a few time trials and noticed the big screen in waluigi stadium for the first time. Fantastic.

[Sarxis]

The original Mario Kart is still the best. :P

My sister and I played that so much.

[The Pioneer]

Great game. This is one of the reasons why you gotta love Nintendo! Especially fun in multiplayer.

So long...

[asleepathewheel]

This game is worth the (now very reasonable) cost of the cube alone.

been playing a lot of bomb-omb mode against my wife, and the occassional grand prix co-op. Great stuff, still can't beat the 150 cc levels

[Asher]

I agree with IGN's review over anyone else's.

Feel the game needs to be made more complex than dumbed down like Nintendo's doing. I dunno, maybe I just need something more than cutesy characters in carts with limited controls.

[Verto]

Originally posted by Anun Ik Oba
The original Mario Kart is still the best. :P

My sister and I played that so much.

That game is a classic.

[asleepathewheel]

Originally posted by Asher
I agree with IGN's review over anyone else's.

Feel the game needs to be made more complex than dumbed down like Nintendo's doing. I dunno, maybe I just need something more than cutesy characters in carts with limited controls.

I hadn't read that review, because, well, I don't read many reviews unless bored. They made some valid points about complexity and fewer shortcuts. however, statements like "You won't unlock different costumes for riders, skins for karts are non-existent" hurt their credibility. I guess if that is what you're looking for then....kinda funny, that they say its too childish then complain about not having enough costumes

"I had hoped for deeper controls, more than one selectable costume, skins for the karts, maybe GBA link-up support, more intriguing level designs, more characters, much more high-quality music"

I concur with the control, levels and character criticisms, but the others? Please. This is why I don't read these reviews on a regular basis.

[FlameFlash]

IGN!?

I'm reminded of this Penny Arcade comic:



Video game reviews are almost as bad as movie reviews. You've got to rent the game to see if you like it and not listen to some site that doesn't know what it's doing.

BTW, nice to see you back around, Asher.

[Sava]

I agree with you FlameFlash... all these dopey reviewers wouldn't know a good game if it hit them in the seat. Counter-strike, one of the best and most popular games ever... and reviewers always say **** like "oooh the graphics aren't super l337 OMFG IT SuX)RZ"

MKDD is great fun. Who the **** cares if the characters don't have costumes? That's the dumbest ****ing complaint about a game I've ever heard.

[Snotty]

Does anyone else find Daisy the most annoying bint ever? I hear her say 'Hi, I'm Daisy' and feel the need to give her a good slap. If you don't know what I mean take her for the all cup thing