Of course, a new Mario Kart for the Gamecube, but is it a real improvement?
The basic idea of the game is still the same, power ups to kill your enemy’s, a multiplayer mode, funny Nintendo characters and of course time trails.

The Characters
In this new Mario Kart, there are a lot of characters that you can choose to race with, and the new thing is that two of them race on one kart. This is also the first version of Mario Kart in which the characters have their own abilities like the weight and the special attacks. The babies have a large chomp that pulls you a few places higher, hitting other karts, Mario and Luigi shoot fire balls etc. This way the players have more strategic choices to make.
 
If you’ve won a few races with gold, you get new faster karts and new characters with better special powers, therefore you must fight in the multiplayer selection screen for the best racers.

Bowser’s final solution: getting them both killed by driving on the wrong side of the road

The Cars
Another new thing in this game, is that you can choose from more cars, that all drive differently: some are faster, some accelerate slower. It’s a pity that you only see the difference if the car is from a completely different weight class, the cars from the same weight class drive nearly the same.
There are 3 weight classes: heavy, normal and light. All the characters are one of these classes, you can only get the car from the class of the heaviest character in the team. The heavy class is the fastest class, but if you get off the track, you will go very slow, the light class is not very fast, but you will still have speed if you lose the track, the medium class is more all around.

 
One of the nicest tracks in the game where you will be launched in a canon

Gameplay
The gameplay has stayed much the same like in Mario Kart 64, only now you must share the kart with someone else (that’s why it’s called Double dash, you stupid).
It’s still a lot of fun, but if you play on your own, the game is more difficult. In the Mario Kart 64 version, I only played at 150CC, and the special at cup 50CC and 100CC, but when I started here at 150CC, I finished all races first. But like I said, playing on your own, is a bit more difficult, so if you are lazy (like me) you can better do the Grand Prix with 4 persons, a new thing in Double Dash, because it’s easier..
The courses aren’t very hard, and are sometimes very boring, so you won’t get the idea ‘hmm, it would be fantastic to get a record on this course”. This makes the time trial option quite useless. It’s 100% sure the game wasn’t made to set  times on courses.

Multiplayer function
It’s clear that Mario Kart Double Dash is a multiplayer game, you will probably have enough fun with it if you got enough people to play with. But there’s something that would be better if they hadn’t changed it: the battle function. There are some new game modes:

Battle original: like in the old game, shooting on each other with a lot of power ups, and you loose If you loose all the balloons. But there are some things that they’ve changed, like the arenas, they all look the same, and they are boring.
One of the best things from Mario Kart 64 has been demolished. If you die, you will not change in a bomb to take revenge like in the 64 version. The good specials are too strong. So you probably will loose if the other players got the players with the best specials.

Shine Thief: get the shine, and hold it till the time is up.

Bomb omb battle: the second best mode in the game. Throw bombs at each other.

Unfortunately, they made this game in a way that the nicest thing in the multiplayer mode is the Grand Prix option. The battle arenas aren’t just enough fun to play a long time with your friends.

A little snapshot from the multiplayer

Conclusion:
It’s a good game and you probably have enough fun with the multiplayer. Too bad that the battle mode isn’t as good as I hoped. If you play the game by yourself, I cannot recommend it. The game becomes much better if you play it with friends. Playing it on your own is quite boring.

Graphics: very nice, everything is smooth and no graphic errors.
Sound: the music on the courses isn’t bad, but the music at the prize presentation is very irritating.
Gameplay: the controls work smoothly. It’s only bad that the single player is just frustrating and boring. The multiplayer is a lot fun.
Lifespan: the single player gets boring very fast. If you’ve unlocked all things, it’s game-over. Playing the multiplayer will keep you busy for some time. The bomb omb mode and the grand-prix will stay fun with more players.

Score: 8

This was the first game that I’ve played on a DS, and when I played it for the first time, I went crazy. The first reason for this was that I had never seen 3d graphics on a handheld (and they are pretty good), the second reason was that my Nintendo 64 was stolen with the 60% save game of Mario 64, and now I had a new chance to beat the game. I pretty soon realized that there were things not as I remembered them: you start with Yoshi (WHY?? I hate that… thing) and some stars had disappeared/were replaced by other stars. Also moving around was not as I remembered it, small ridges are were deadly as ever, and now and then you stop running when your thumb is in the screen corner, but after a few hours it played like the old version and I got used to it.

The four characters: Yoshi, Wario, Luigi and of course Mario.

Positive changes
This new version has some new, really nice, extra’s in it: the four extra characters add more varying game play, there are new stars so you can search a bit longer for them and (maybe the best addition) are the mini games. Also the rabbit hunting season is opened, and you must catch bunnies, hopping around the whole level, to get new mini games. These two features are quite addicting.
The mini games make a good use of the touch screen, and consist of rolling, shooting, jumping, rolling and even betting. These new factors and the highscore system make sure that you can stay playing this game for (nearly) ever against your friends, beating each others highscore, a nice way to spend time after making yourself angry about stars that you can’t get. In a nutshell: the mini games add much tot the game.
The only bad addition are the four new characters, they make the game to easy, because they all have their own powers, and if you use them very smart, you can skip hours of walking and puzzles, and in that way get stars that where a lot more challenging in the old version in roundabout 1 minute.

return of the Bowser

Old stays gold
Luckily the old elements are still in there, like swinging Bowser around (something that;s a lot harder with the touch screen). If you’ve played the old N64 version, the memory’s shoot back into your mind, and you will know that this version is even a little bit better then the old one, everybody seems a bit better. The old sounds are there, and the graphics are at least equal to the N64 version, and maybe even better.

Multiplayer
How is it even possible, a multiplayer in a game like Mario, but it is really in it. It is a funny option that isn’t worked out enough, you must hunt for the stars and punch players that already have a star.. a bit boring. I don’t get  why they even put it in there, it is to simple to force a draw, a better option was to make multiplayer mini games or something like it….

to conclude…
 It’s a nice made game, and an enormous must have for retro gamers, but of course also for non retro gamers. A beautiful game play that doesn’t bores quick, and with the mini games it will get a nice and long life length. It isn’t very hard to finish the game, to many things are made just to easy if you use the characters wise enough. It’s a pity that the multiplayer doesn’t adds much, but it’s certainly the best game in the first load DS games.

Marks
Graphics: 9, Not bad for the first 3D game that I see on a handheld, the quality is nearly the same as on the N64.
Gameplay: 9, it plays very sweet, no bugs and nearly no shocking camera work, it’s a pity the game is a bit simple…
Sound: 9, not very new, but it doesn’t matter very much, it are nice sounds to sing along, and drive your parents crazy with.
Lifetime: 9, A long time, till you’ve played the whole game, and longer till you’ve been driven crazy by the mini games (if you are motivated that is).

Score: 9