Mario Kart started out on the snes as simply the best racing game on a console ever. I'm pretty sure most of you will agree with me when I say that. It was followed by MarioKart 64 which, again, was copied many times by.. ahem... those other companies. But none of them even came close to matching its high standards. I think you can see where I'm taking this...

Mario Kart: Double Dash!! is soon to be released on GameCube, and guess what? We've been playing it. Oh... And Koopa is back. The first thing that you'll notice about this game are the graphics. They're kinda cartooney with hints of cell shaded effects, and they're more fluid than the last Mario outing. (Mario's last outing consisted mainly of water... get it?) Everything seems to have been paid attention to, from the screech of the wheels to the laughs and taunts of the racers, which leads me to another great aspect of Mario Kart. The audio is great: characters still yell at each other and the engines still buzz along and at points some of the things my driver and co-pilot did made me chuckle.

Co-Pilot... yep you have one of those too. I didn't like this idea too much until I played with it. Having another character standing on the back of your kart allows you to have one driver and the other man the weapons. It also means you can pick up more powerups and switch between characters (done by pressing the Z button) to effectively choose what you want to launch at your opponents. This works extremely well and even provides some visually pleasing jump moves (admit it, it does look cool when you switch characters mid-air).

The whole-lots-of-characters-racing idea really adds to the chaos of the action, often causing lots of trouble on corners (this is a good thing) and some of the most intense racing I've ever seen in a karting game. The tracks are as original as ever, and although some old names appear, such as the luigi circuit tracks, everything is new and well thought out.

Mario Kart is as good as ever. It took me a while to re-learn how to play and to get used to the powerslides, but everything I've played with has impressed me. The game is frantic, full of dirty tricks and shortcuts, and as awesome as ever.

Keep this quite, but I plan to sneak in some more Kart practice before we all play again ;)

- Matt Plummer