Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, Two Pilots on a Single Kart

GameMario Kart: Double Dash!!Nintendo GameCube

Two pilots on the same kart, a system the series has never brought back. Released in 2003 on Nintendo GameCube, the fourth entry in the saga hands every vehicle to a duo: one drives, the other throws the items, and the roles swap mid-race. This profile details its pairings, its exclusive items and the roster it introduced.

The fourth entry in the saga of Mario Kart, Mario Kart: Double Dash!! was released in 2003 on Nintendo GameCube. Our retrospective describes it as a genuine oddity in the saga : every kart here carries two characters, and each of them has a special item that belongs to them alone.

More than twenty years on, the idea remains unique in the series. Its legacy, though, is visible everywhere: a good chunk of the modern starting grid ran its very first race here.

Contents

• An oddity released on GameCube in 2003
• Two pilots on one kart, one of them throwing
• A special item for every duo
• The game that founded the modern roster
• Sixteen tracks, three battle modes
• Quick facts
• FAQ

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An oddity released on GameCube in 2003

Mario Kart: Double Dash!! is the fourth entry in the main saga. It sits between Mario Kart: Super Circuit, released on Game Boy Advance in 2001, and Mario Kart DS, which followed it in 2005.

• The game is developed by Nintendo EAD and published by Nintendo.
• Its release plays out at the end of 2003: Japan first, and then Europe and North America in the same month of November.
• It is the first Mario Kart released on optical media, the GameCube's miniDVDs, after three entries on cartridge.

This change of format comes with a very clear visual overhaul : our retrospective notes improved graphics and a brand-new team strategy.

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Two pilots on one kart, one of them throwing

The game's big idea fits into a single image: two characters share the same kart. The one in front holds the wheel, the one at the back handles the items, and the race is decided as much inside the cockpit as on the track.

• The two pilots swap roles in real time : whoever is driving moves to the back, and vice versa.
• The passenger can hit a neighbouring kart to steal its item, a manoeuvre that exists only in this entry.
• The karts are sorted into weight classes — light, medium, heavy — and a duo only climbs into a vehicle in its own class.

The co-op mode takes the principle all the way: two players share a single kart, one at the wheel, the other manning the arsenal.

The reference illustration in our retrospective shows Bowser and Bowser Jr. both aboard the same kart: the default Koopa pair sums up what the game expects from a pairing.

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A special item for every duo

The second consequence of the system: almost every character brings their own special item, which only they can draw. Choosing a duo becomes choosing a loadout.

• The Giant Banana appears here, reserved for Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong: it causes a longer spin-out than a standard banana, and then splits into three ordinary bananas.
• The Chain Chomp goes to Baby Mario and Baby Luigi: hooked to the front of the kart, it charges ahead and knocks aside everything in its path.
• The rest of the roster follows: a fireball for Mario and Luigi, a heart that absorbs the opponent's item for Peach and Daisy, a homing egg for Yoshi and Birdo, triple shells for Koopa Troopa and Paratroopa, a Bob-omb for Wario and Waluigi, a giant Bowser Shell for Bowser and Bowser Jr., and a Golden Mushroom for Toad and Toadette.

One major quirk awaits the pack: this entry is one of three, along with Mario Kart DS and Mario Kart Wii, where the blue spiked shell has wings. It flies over the track and strikes the pilots it passes along the way before swooping down on the leader.

Petey Piranha and King Boo, for their part, have no item of their own : the last two characters to be unlocked draw any special item from the other duos.

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The game that founded the modern roster

This may well be its most lasting legacy: a Mario Kart starting grid today still looks like the one from 2003. The game lines up twenty playable characters, in eight default duos and two duos to unlock.

• Toadette makes her very first appearance here, as Toad's unlockable team-mate with her mushroom kart.
• Baby Luigi becomes playable for the first time alongside Baby Mario, who becomes a pilot that same year and has never left the spin-off rosters since.
• Waluigi has been racing in the Mario Kart series since this entry, in a duo with Wario.
• King Boo makes his first playable appearance in the Mario Kart series, as a heavyweight, while Petey Piranha, a boss in Super Mario Sunshine the year before, becomes an unlockable pilot.

Birdo joins the party too, alongside Yoshi and his egg kart: this duo has been fuelling fan theories for years and marks a step in a former enemy's shift over to Mario's camp.

The game leaves one last unexpected mark: the line “Hi, I'm Daisy!”, which Princess Daisy delivers here for the first time, has since been regularly quoted and parodied by the gaming community.

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Sixteen tracks, three battle modes

On the layout front, the game offers sixteen tracks across four cups — Mushroom, Flower, Star and Special — plus an All-Cup Tour that runs them all back to back. Not a single retro track in the line-up, whereas Super Circuit before it and Mario Kart DS after it both offered some.

• Baby Park is a plain oval, the shortest track in the series, made up for by seven laps of non-stop chaos.
• DK Mountain catapults the karts by barrel cannon up to the top of the volcano, and Mushroom Bridge has the race share the road with the traffic.
• Wario Colosseum is so long that it is raced over only two laps, while Daisy Cruiser sends the tables of its dining room sliding under the wheels.
• Yoshi Circuit traces the outline of Yoshi seen from above.

The obstacles do the rest: the Cataquack flings careless drivers off the road on Peach Beach, while the Pokey and its giant version, the Big Pokey, sway at the edge of the track in Dry Dry Desert, where hitting them costs precious seconds.

Battle mode comes in three flavours: Balloon Battle, Shine Thief and Bob-omb Blast, the last of which devotes an entire arena to Bob-ombs. A LAN mode also links several GameCubes together via the Broadband Adapter, with no follow-up in the series.

Success followed: nearly seven million copies sold, a very favourable critical reception and the title of best-selling game on the whole Nintendo GameCube. Several of its layouts have since come back as retro tracks, right up to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

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Mario Kart: Double Dash!! at a glance

Type	Racing game
Publisher	Nintendo (development by Nintendo EAD)
Console	Nintendo GameCube
Release	Late 2003, Japan and then Europe and North America
Tracks	16, across four cups, none retro
Pilots	20 characters, in 10 duos
Distinctive feature	Two pilots per kart, never brought back since
Sales	Nearly 7 million, a GameCube record

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FAQ

• Why are there two characters per kart in Mario Kart: Double Dash!!?
  It is the game's core mechanic: one drives, the other handles the items, and the two swap roles mid-race. The passenger can also hit a neighbouring kart to steal its item.
• Has the two-pilot system come back in another Mario Kart?
  No. No other entry has taken up the principle of two pilots on the same kart: it remains the exception of a single game, released in 2003 on Nintendo GameCube.
• How many playable characters does Double Dash!! have?
  Twenty characters, in ten duos: eight pairs available from the start and two pairs to unlock, Toad and Toadette on one side, Petey Piranha and King Boo on the other.
• Which characters make their debut in Double Dash!!?
  Toadette appears here for the very first time. Baby Mario, Baby Luigi, Bowser Jr., King Boo and Petey Piranha run their first race in the series here, and Waluigi becomes a Mario Kart pilot.
• Does the game contain retro tracks?
  No, its sixteen tracks are all new. That is a quirk of this entry: Mario Kart: Super Circuit before it and Mario Kart DS after it both offered retro layouts.

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