As mentioned in my South Park review it’s good fun to go back to older games of yours for a multiplayer session with friends. Sure they don’t look as pretty as this gen, but they still offer a good bunch of laughs and fun and Mario Kart Double Dash is a game that doesn’t skimp on the fun.

Mario Kart is a fun racer that relies on weapons as much as it does your handling of the vehicle. Accelerate with the A button, fire with Y or X and start a drift with the shoulder buttons. That’s it and it’s so simple to pick up. Like past titles, racing can be mastered as well thanks to the drifting mechanic that sees you wiggling the analogue back and forth as you turn round corners for an extra boost. The catch here is that you pick two characters to ride your kart allowing double the firepower. While it isn’t going to have a major effect on how you play (everything handles the same pretty much as other Mario Karts) at the press of a button you can swap who’s driving and who’s firing weapons. This can allow you to store more powerful weapons for later use or if you like just use both your character’s firepower right away. It adds a little strategy.

Grand Prix is your main single player option. Here you play in four different cups each consisting of four tracks and compete for pole position. Classes or difficulty range from 50cc right up to 150cc with an extra unlockable one later on too. Not much really at only sixteen tracks sadly. This can luckily be played in two to four player mode too either as two competing against each other or four forming into two teams. Working together may sound awesome and actually is quite fun but the problem lies in the fact only one of you can drive, and that’s where the fun is had! Just make sure you’re with someone who shares the jobs.

Time trial is your typical race three laps on a track for the best time and it’s just as addictive as before. Sadly there is no online to compare ghosts. Then multiplayer mode allows you to simply take to any race track you like and race against your friends. It’s a shame you can’t include the computer too as the more racers on track usually means more fun.

If you hated what Nintendo did to the battle modes on Wii then fear not as here things couldn’t be better. The normal battle mode is here where you are each given three balloons and must hit others with items. Last man standing wins. Then there is bomb battle which is just a free-for-all of blasts and explosions. Like the regular mode you must hit your opponents using nothing but bombs. And then comes in my opinion the best of the three, Shine Thief. This is similar to capture the flag from first person shooters in that the idea is to be the person who holds onto the shine when a timer expires. The only way to snag it off said person is to hit them with an item. The game is hectic and more often than not will have you playing the final ten seconds over and over again as people become desperate to grab that shine obliterating them with shells and bombs. Why Nintendo has excluded this option from newer Mario Kart’s is odd.

The tracks themselves each have a unique look and feel to them. While it’s a shame a lot of them are simply recycled environments from past Mario Karts, they’re all still a great deal of fun to race around in. One of the final tracks located in a dinosaur jungle is one of the best in the game. It’s just a shame there aren’t more original ones like it.

The list of characters is vast and not only does weight differ between the cast, but also their special weapons specific to them. Diddy Kong for example has a giant banana while Mario shoots three red fireballs at his opponents. It makes choosing characters a lot tougher as certain weapons are better in certain situations.

Visually this still holds up as the best Mario Kart yet. Even more so than the Wii version. The characters animate well and each track looks vibrate and full of colour. It’s typical Mario. The music may not be up to the usual standard but it’s hard to deny how good Rainbow Road still sounds. The characters all have the usual grunts and catchphrases you’re used to hearing as well.

Mario Kart Double Dash is still a great game with a few features that make it unique to its many other versions. While the track amount is kind of low and a lack of online (What can you do, it is the Gamecube after all) does hurt it, grab three friends and you’ll soon discover the magic Mario Kart addiction that soon takes over.