Mario Kart: Double Dash!! is a
kart racing game in which the player controls characters from the
Mario series, who operate karts in
tandem: the rider in front drives the kart while the rider in back controls the use of items. Any combination of characters is possible; for example,
Mario can be paired with his brother
Luigi or his
archenemy Bowser. In single-player mode, the player controls both riders, while in co-op play, each player controls one of the riders. While racing, the player can accelerate, steer, reverse, brake, drift, switch character positions or use weapons and power-ups with the game controller's analog stick and buttons. The game supports
LAN setups for up to sixteen players in eight pairs. Both characters and karts are divided into light, medium, and heavy classes; characters cannot ride in karts that are smaller than they are. Light karts have fairly low top speeds but accelerate quickly and are scarcely affected by off-road terrain. Heavy karts have high top speeds and can knock away lighter karts on impact but have poor acceleration and lose significant speed off-road. Medium karts are average in both speed and acceleration. The player can acquire weapons and power-ups by running into Item Boxes scattered across the tracks and arenas of the game. The item the player receives is determined randomly and can be used to hinder other racers or boost the player's own performance. Each pair of characters has a unique item that others cannot receive and are picked up in the same way as standard items; for example, only Mario and Luigi can launch fireballs against other racers. Singular Item Boxes grant an item to the rear rider, while Double Item Boxes give an item to both riders. When a racer suffers a crash, any items they were carrying will fall onto the course, and any racer who runs into these items will be instantly affected. In co-op play, if the rear rider is not already carrying an item, they can steal an item from other racers by using one of the shoulder buttons to attack an opponent. The player can send their kart into a drift by pressing one of the shoulder buttons while making a turn, allowing them to take a tight corner while maintaining speed. While drifting, the sparks emanating from the kart's tires will change color; the player will obtain a short burst of speed if they exit a drift when the sparks are blue. At the beginning of a race, the player can receive a burst of speed by pressing the acceleration button at the same time
Lakitu's start signal turns green; if both players in co-op play execute this input simultaneously, an even greater burst of speed can be achieved.
Modes Mario Kart: Double Dash!! features four
game modes: Grand Prix, Time Trial, Versus, and Battle. In the Grand Prix mode, the player races in one of a series of Cups consisting of four tracks each. A race is held on each track, and the racers receive points depending on their finishing positions. Upon the conclusion of a Cup, the top three racers are awarded gold, silver and bronze trophies. A player who sets a new time record can enter their initials after the trophies are awarded. The Time Trial is a single-player mode in which the player can race over a set number of laps to record the fastest completion time. The player can set records in total race time and individual lap time, and can race against a "ghost", a recording of the player's best time on a track. A ghost cannot be created if the race takes too long or if the completed race is not faster than the current ghost. In the Versus mode, two or more human players can race against each other on any given track, with the race concluding when all but the last-place racer finish the race. The frequency of items and number of laps are customizable in this mode. The Battle mode is divided into three multiplayer games that take place on one of a selection of arenas. In "Balloon Battle", each player has three balloons, with one being lost when a player is hit by a weapon or hazard; players who lose all their balloons are eliminated, with victory going to the last player standing. Players can steal balloons using the same method for stealing items in races. In "Shine Thief", players fight for possession of a single
Shine Sprite, which activates a timer upon being collected. Whoever is holding the Shine Sprite when the timer reaches zero is the winner. Players can steal the Shine Sprite by attacking the player and making them drop it. In "Bob-omb Blast", players gain points by attacking other players with
Bob-ombs and lose points when hit by opponents' Bob-ombs, with the winner being the first to reach three or four points depending on the number of players. == Development and release ==