Mario Kart: Double Dash
Mario Kart: Double Dash!! (Japanese: ãÂÂãªãªã«ã¼ãÂÂãÂÂãÂÂã«ãÂÂãÂÂã·ãÂÂ¥!!, Hepburn: Mario KÃÂto: Daburu Dasshu!!) is a racing game developed by Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development and published by Nintendo for the GameCube in 2003. The game is the fourth installment in the Mario Kart series and the third for home consoles after Mario Kart 64. It was preceded by Mario Kart: Super Circuit from 2001 and was followed by the handheld game Mario Kart DS, which was released for the Nintendo DS in 2005.
Similar to previous titles, Double Dash!! challenges Mario series player characters to race against each other on Mario-themed tracks. The game introduced a number of new gameplay features, such as supporting co-op gameplay with two riders per kart. One player drives the kart, and the other uses items. Players can switch at any time. Double Dash!! is the only game in the Mario Kart series to allow cooperative gameplay so far. Double Dash!! supports LAN play using the Nintendo GameCube Broadband Adapter, allowing up to 16 players to compete simultaneously. There are 20 characters to select from in total, each of which with a special item, and with eleven characters being new to the series.
Double Dash!! received positive reviews by critics; it attained an aggregated score of 87 out of 100 on Metacritic. Reviewers praised the graphics and the new gameplay features, but elements of the voice acting were poorly received. It was commercially successful, with more than 3.8 million copies sold in the United States, and more than 802,000 copies sold in Japan. It is currently the second best-selling GameCube game of all-time, selling around 7 million copies worldwide.
