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Saturday 9 February, 2008
Gamplay
A major strategy in Mario Kart is slide turning. The triggers engage the sliding process then player then toggles the joystick to change the color of the sparks until the blue ones let you know to let go. The sliding capabilities within sliding allow a player to define their own driving style to help master each level.
The artificial intelligence in this game is also worth noting. Say two people are playing in an intense round of DK mountain. One of them is far ahead and the other far behind. The computer drivers will speed up and slow down respective to each character so that there is always competition. Four levels of difficulty give ample time for the willing player to get aquatinted with the television screen. This game has a flawless reward system and is challenging enough to keep playing for years.
Design
The variety of levels allows players to warm up on circuit loop tracks like Baby Park and work their way up to a harder level like Bowser’s Castle. They are all intricately designed to fit their respective themes. The level Dino Dino Jungle complicates gameplay with giant stomping dinosaurs, timed geysers, and precarious bridges. This game also has excellent gap crossing. In the level DK Mountain a giant cannon shoots each player to the top of the mountain which essentially starts the course. This “boost over the gap” aspect recurs in many other levels and allows for both glory and disaster.
The specialization of specials for different characters, while somewhat of a disadvantage for those who can’t choose their avatars fast enough, provides a specific advantage to which ever player can obtain the light characters. The toad characters can get the golden multiple boost whereas the bowser characters can slay everyone and themselves with the giant destructive Bowser shell.
The characters and their karts have simulated weights. The bigger characters go slower, but an experienced player can abuse them to their advantage by smashing other characters, though this doesn’t have a huge effect since this edition of Mario Kart eliminated spinning out and getting squashed, so one is better off getting the baby players. The different karts are a novel idea, but the reality is that everyone usually picks the toad kart because it is simply the best kart, despite numerous claims that the golden trophy kart is “statistically” the best kart in the game. Like most Mario Karts, Double Dash stands the test of time and quality.
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