Linkstew

I'll spare the web yet another dissertation on "what Mario Kart means to me," but suffice to say I've spent a lot of time playing past versions of this game, and most notably my dad and brother and I clocked an absurd amount of time with the original Mario Kart back in the day. So needless to say, I had high hopes for this game. And to be honest, I'm pretty disappointed with the result. It seems like in Nintendo's attempt to "simplify the game to appeal to broader audiences," they not only took out a lot of the subtlety, but also managed to completely change the focus of the game.

It wasn't the double driver change that messed things up. In fact, just adding double drivers to any of the previous games (with just a few other tweaks) probably would have introduced a whole new level to the game, and in general, the double drivers are a pretty good idea. No, the problem with Double Dash!! lies entirely in the revamped item system.

In the original Mario Kart on the Super Nintendo, there was usually only one or two sections of item blocks per lap, which meant that using your items strategically was very important. In Double Dash!!, in contrast, you get more items per lap than you really know what to do with. There are so many items in Double Dash, in fact, that it seems to work just as well to immediately use any item you get as it does to hold on to that item until just the right time. In fact, holding onto an item is practically discouraged, because you now lose items when you get hit by weapons, or fall off the track, or even when another player hits you while using a star or mushroom. In other words, if you try to hold onto an item until just the right time, it's pretty likely that you'll lose that item before you get a chance to use it, because there is so much chaos going on at any given time.

One interesting aspect of losing items when you get hit by a weapon is that the items fly out of you and land on the track, so players behind you can then hit them and use them (or take damage, in the case of shells and the like). Of course, this just adds to the proliferation of items in the game.

Now, if you're a Mario Kart veteran and you've been reading so far, you might say "well, I can just hop over things or brake when I hit a banana or shell behind me in defense or X or Y or Z and avoid losing." And if you're a Mario Kart veteran, you'd think that the double kart / double item aspect of the game would offer a lot of intriguing possibilities: You'd be able to hang on to one item with your driver, and have your gunner do defense duty with whatever items he picks up. If the gunner picks up a better item, switch and have the former driver do defense.

But if you're a Mario Kart veteran, you'd be pretty much dead wrong, because they removed pretty much every defensive aspect of the game I can think of. You can no longer brake immediately after hitting a banana peel to avoid peeling out. You can no longer hop in any way (which both makes dodging items harder, but also makes hopping over little cracks impossible, and makes hopping out of / over rough track impossible). And perhaps worst of all, you can no longer drag a shell or banana peel behind you in defense. The only methods of defense you have are: 1. Using Peach or Daisy, and their special item is a defensive fireball which will not only block items, but which will also grab the item and give it to you. 2. Fire/drop an item behind you immediately before something is about to hit you. This is actually possible thanks to a little bubble that tells you when a weapon is approaching, but it's less desirable than the old methods of defense, in my opinion.

Here's an unordered list of some other problems I've found with Double Dash!!:

• The battle arenas are too small and lack sufficient complexity to be as fun as any of the previous battle arenas.
• Though you have an option to select a random character/kart combo in single player GP mode, no such option exists for any of the multiplayer modes. This is a big bummer, because random is a pretty good method of handicapping in multiplayer. Also, randomness is fun. And seriously, why would you ever want to play with random characters on single player?
• In the multi player kart selection screen, there's no way to view the stats of the karts. This is a big problem, because when you have someone play the game for the first time, experienced players are going to have to explain "no, not all those karts actually work the same," and also remember the different stats of the different karts, and then pretty much just tell the newbie which kart to use, instead of letting them make their own choice. Bad interface move.
• I was really excited about the LAN features of the game and the prospect of an 8 player race, but apparently you can't pick your characters/kart in this mode, which is pretty much totally lame, and now I don't think I'm going to get a LAN adapter to try this mode. It's like Nintendo's trying to make their "people don't want to play games online" claim ffulfill itself by neutering their network features out of the box.
• There's no longer a ghost item to steal items. This was probably removed because there are other ways to steal items now, but the ghost also turned you invisible, which was another important strategic and defensive move -- and the hitting to steal play mechanic would have only made the ghost that much more useful. Bummer.
• Honestly, the tracks aren't that interesting. They're pretty much just rehashes of things we've had before, and we don't even get a Haunted Mansion in this game. Probably half of the levels are interchangeable, and there are only a handful of levels that I really like (My favorite so far is the Wario Coliseum).
• Did we honestly need two traffic levels? (No, we did not, especially when neither of them is as good as Toad's Turnpike on the N64)
• Also sadly, there's no sign of a Ghost Valley in this game -- Ghost Valleys were always my favorite.
• In the past games, if you hit someone who was jumping across a track, they would fall onto the other portion of the track, knocking them back in the pack. This was an another important strategy in the old games that is just completely missing in this game.
• The GBA game had the original SNES tracks as extras, so why didn't this game have the N64 tracks as extras? Oh, right, because most of the N64 tracks are already "available" in this game in one form or another. =\

• And I could go on and on. But I'll stop, because I'm sure you get my point by now.

To be fair, there are some good things about Double Dash!! Giving each character a special item was long overdue, and I think overall the special items are pretty well balanced. As mentioned above, the double driver aspect could have added a lot to the game, and I still think it's a sound idea that shouldn't get the axe in the next Mario Kart. The co-operative mode is a lot of fun, requiring fun communication between the driver and gunner -- I haven't had a chance to play co-operative vs. yet with 4 players, but it should be a lot of fun. The new Bob-omb Blast battle mode is a lot of chaotic fun, even if the new Shine Thief mode is a little flat. Meanwhile, the Balloon Battle mode just doesn't seem to have the same spark it once did.

I think the real evidence of how well the game succeeds at living up the Mario Kart name lies in this test: My dad used to play the original Mario Kart with my brother and I back in the day, and he was pretty good at it, all things considered. He was perhaps a little less devious with his item usage than my brother and I, but he was still competitive. However, when he tried to play Double Dash, he was just overwhelmed by the chaos of the weaponry and just didn't stand a chance. In other words, not only did their attempt at "simplification" ruin the game, but it also didn't actually work.

In short, Double Dash(!!) is pretty much all offense and no defense, with the general chaos that entails. I admit it's still fun, but I just don't think it's really the same game I knew and loved anymore. If you want some old fashioned Mario Karting, I highly recommend you pick up Mario Kart: Super Circuit for the Game Boy Advance instead. Not only is it a much tighter Mario Kart game, but it also features all of the original SNES Mario Kart tracks as unlockables. Hopefully we'll see a real Mario Kart as a launch title for the next Nintendo console, with as much spit and polish on it as Super Smash Brothers Melee had.

3/5

IGN Cube Reviews Mario Kart: Double Dash!!

Sadly, this review makes Double Dash sound like I'm not going to enjoy it that much. Especially disappointing is the remark that you can't even select your characters when you're playing in LAN mode...

Mario Kart 16 Players!

Well, if I convince my housemate to get a gamecube, and I get a second gamecube for my upstairs tv, and we get copies of the game and network adapters for all three consoles, *and* we buy 5 more gamecube controllers, then we can do 12 player... I think I'll just target 8 player with my housemate for now, though.

I recently played demos of several upcoming games, and here are my bullet point impressions of them:

• GameCube
• 1080: Avalanche - This amused me for a few minutes, and if I can get this for cheap after whatever unforeseeable point I get bored with SSX 3, I might pick this up.
• Star Wars: Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike: Attack of the Colons - I don't think I'm going to get this unless I can get it for cheap. It just felt like more Rogue Squadron, without fixing some of the play control issues that have always bugged me about Rogue Squadron. There are other things I'd rather be playing, like...
• Viewtiful Joe - Now this game was one I was unsure about before playing the demo, but after playing it I was totally sold. This games style is just too cool for words, and the fact that it's going to initially sell for $40 just seals the deal.


• PlayStation 2
• ESPN Hockey - It's been a long time since I've played a hockey video game (or any sports video game, for that matter), and I was surprised by how damn complicated it's gotten. The graphics were pretty, and I had fun playing for one period, but I just couldn't imagine playing for much longer than that.
• Hulk - I was amused by this demo, but in the end it was way too short. Still entertaining enough to play the demo twice.
• Ratchet and Clank 2: Going Commando - This was entertaining enough that I spent probably a half an hour playing with this demo, but it's not a game I'm going to buy. In particular, there was an entertaining racing mini-game, but in the long run it probably would lack depth.
• Roadkill - Um, I did not enjoy this demo at all. The objective was entirely unclear, and the demo was sufficiently buggy that I got my car stuck against a mountain and couldn't move anymore, so I quit playing it.
• True Crime: Streets of LA - This game also bored me silly, and again with the extremely unclear objective.
• SSX 3 - Last but certainly not least... Unfortunately, this demo was really buggy, with me falling through the mountain at times, or getting stuck inside of a rock.... The controls just felt a little off throughout, and the board's interaction with the snow frequently seemed very strange. The demo showed a lot of promise, but considering this game is supposed to be released next month, it was kind of scary... But the latest SSX 3 trailer had much improved board/snow interaction, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. This game has a lot to live up to -- I just hope it can deliver on all of its promises. The only real question will be what platform to buy this game for.


• I also watched a video of XIII, and while I believe it's just a first person shooter, the graphics and style in the trailer were damned awesome. I only have a vague notion of what the story is supposed to be about, but I kind of want to play this just for the graphical/style experience alone... I'll wait and see what the reviews say, though.

So the results: I would buy SSX 3 unless the reviews completely denounced it; I was convinced to not buy Rebel Strike, and to hold off on 1080; And I was convinced to pre-order Viewtiful Joe.

(This is a very poorly worded and misleading headline:) GameCube production halted

I mainly post this because of the awful headline which is going to give rise to more rumors and bad word of mouth for the GCN's reputation than I can count. Why couldn't they have made some clever play on words involving the fact that production is "paused?" No, instead they use a word as final as "halt," when it's anything but. Hey, wait a minute, this article is on MSnbs... Blah. Stupid media.

Spring 2005 launch for next Nintendo console?

I really hope Nintendo has learned what Sony taught everyone with the PS2, and that the Gamecube's successor will be backwards compatible with the Gamecube. Hell, Nintendo itself should be aware of this fact thanks to the success of the GBA's backwards compatability features. And I think this is especially important for Nintendo because Sony will certainly do this, and I'm pretty sure Microsoft will also do this.

The second most important feature is probably built in network connectivity out of the box, and I remember reading somewhere that Nintendo is trying to figure out how to let gamers play online for free... That would definitely be good stuff.

Though Nintendo likes to tout their connectivity features in the form of the Game Boy Advance Link Cable and the GameCube/Game Boy Advance Link Cable, I don't feel like people are actually worrying about those features when they buy Nintendo products, or even using those features at all.

What gives me that idea? Well, though one of my old roommates and I both had a GBA for a year, and though we each had several of the same games, we never played multiplayer games against each other. Why? Because we were too lazy to ever bother to buy a link cable. And of all the people I know with GBAs, none of them have a link cable, either. In fact, I'm the only one I know who even has a Game Boy Advance / GameCube link cable.

The solution? Nintendo just needs to bite the bullet and start bundling a Game Boy Advance link cable with every GBA SP they sell, and more importantly, a GameCube/Game Boy Advance link cable with every GameCube they sell. That way, there are no extra items to worry about buying to be able to take advantage of Nintendo's connectivity advantage, which will encourage people to buy games which take advantage of those features, which will encourage developers to make better use of those features.

Of course, it'd be even better if the next generation of these devices had wireless connectivity features built in, but I'm not optimistic about the chances of that happening.

Buy a GameCube, get the Game Boy Player FREE

Oh, an excellent counter to MS's and Sony's price cuts. "Get access to games for two systems for less than the price than the competitors are charging for one." Pity there's no good way for me to take advantage of this.

Oh, I just noticed that PGC posted links to Nintendo's previews of Super Mario Kart: Double Dash (for the GameCube) and Pikmin 2.

I'm not sure how I feel about the doubled up karts, but I'm sure it'll still be Mario Kart when the day is done. But between that and the upcoming F-Zero GC, I'm going to be very happy, because Mario Kart and F-Zero have always been my favorite racing games.

And as for Pikmin 2, Pikmin was one of the most enjoyable games I've played in recent memory. If you never played Pikmin, then you should either find a used copy, and you should definitely check out Pikmin 2.

I've been playing (and loving) The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, but there was one little issue that was kind of bugging me. But now I've got a tip for those of you who were also bothered by this problem, except I expect that it was probably pretty obvious to everyone else, and I'm the only one who overlooked it... But if you're having the same problem I was, then you'll appreciate this:

When you're using some weapon you picked up from an enemy -- like a stick or a large sword -- press B instead of A to fight with it, because if you press A, it will throw the weapon, and you'll have to pick it back up (which sucks a lot when you're in the middle of a melee). If you press B, you will keep ahold of it and not have to pick it back up!

I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I was two dungeons in before I figured that one out.

I played Luigi's Mansion way back in December 2001, but I've always wanted to say a few things about it, and I figure since I just wrote about Super Mario Sunshine, now was as good a time as any.

"This'll blow your mind. All your hard work lasted only a single night."
-- Dr. E. Gadd

That quote is from the end of the game, but it's ironic that it directly applied to me, because I played and beat the entire game in one night, and I've never actually played it since. Obviously, then, the length of the game is called into question. It took me somewhere between 4 and 6 hours to beat, by the time I died a few times. It probably would have been better spread out across a couple of evenings, but I was having so much fun that I just didn't want to stop until it was over.

I don't remember not liking the graphics at all, and the only things I remember about the graphics are good things, like nice transparency effects with the ghosts or how nicely the vacuuming the curtain effect was animated. I'd have to go check it out again to be sure, but in my memory, its graphics were at least as good as Super Mario Sunshine's.

I also don't remember a lot about the sound, but once again, what I remember is mostly good. Luigi's humming, screams, and cries for "Mario!" all work very well, and aren't overly intrusive. I do remember the vacuum noise starting to become a droning in some of the later rooms where I was effectively constantly vacuuming for several minutes continuously, but for the most part, it was ignorable. But, on the whole, nothing super offensive.

The basic suck up the ghost with the vacuum gameplay was enhanced with neat variations like the fire and ice vacuum, or just by sucking up a ball to use like a gun. There are only four bosses, but each one requires a moderately different approach to beating. Sometimes more difficult to figure out than how to beat the bosses is how to awaken some of the sleeping portrait ghosts. Once you figure out how to wake up one of those ghosts, however, it's very rewarding to fight him and ultimately capture him. Each ghost sucked in brings with it a small thrill of a job well done. While even more variety of gameplay would have quickly made for a longer game, the variety in the final game was just about right for its length.

I really enjoyed playing this game a lot, but in the end, its length is a pretty solid reason to recommend against buying it. Instead, I highly recommend you rent it some weekend and give Luigi's vacuum a whirl. It doesn't suck. Uh, except for when it's supposed to. 4/5.

I've been playing Super Mario Sunshine since I got it way back in September. Though I haven't quite finished it, I feel like I've played more than enough of it to say my piece.

For starters, the graphics were a fairly mixed bag. While things looked good for the most part, it seemed like I saw all of the good graphics early on (in particular, various water effects) and was left with the discovery of innumerable disappointing graphics for the remainder of the game. In some places it was a bad texture, in some places it was a blocky object, in some places it was strange clipping, and everywhere it was stupid looking islanders. It was a shame that there weren't more amazing graphics to find later in the game, because then I would have gotten something for my hard work.

Unfortunately, the player's introduction to the sounds of Super Mario Sunshine in the game's opening sequence is possibly some of the worst sound in the game. From the horrible airplane engine to various grunts, squeals, and cries from Mario, Princess and Toad, it's just ridiculously bad. I mean, I thought Sonic Adventure had bad sound, but this was worse. The sound situation only improves a little from there. The sound effects are incredibly repetitive throughout the game. Mario grunts and cries his way through all of his maneuvers, while all of the islanders Mario talks to make one of about three different guffaws. And off the top of my head, I can't even think of any of the game's music, because it was all drowned out by the sound effects.

So if the graphics and sound weren't that hot, how was the gameplay? Well, I hate to sound repetitive, but like the sound, the gameplay quickly started to get repetitive. The main problem here was that each level in the 8 or 9 worlds (depending on how you count) is set in the same exact place. There are minor variations between each level -- sometimes a river runs dry or a few platforms are repositioned -- but for the most part, each of the 8 levels in each world is identical. While this does have the advantage of letting players become familiar with navigating the larger areas that are sometimes difficult to make mental maps of, it pretty quickly sucks the novelty out of each world (especially the smaller ones) after about the third or fourth level.

In addition to the overall lack of scenery, many of the tasks also get repeated. It felt like collecting 8 red coins, racing what's 'is name to the finish line, chasing down Shadow Mario, and hosing people and places off, made up more than half of the game. To make matters worse, the camera sometimes felt downright antagonistic. I would position the camera just where I wanted it, and as soon as I moved, the camera would slowly drift to the point where Mario was completely obscured by a wall. Admittedly, where the tasks were unique, I really enjoyed them. For example, the two roller coaster tasks were by far among my favorites.

A few of the tasks involved Yoshi, but I didn't feel like they were really exploiting the game play opportunities Yoshi presented (reference Yoshi's Island). Instead, it felt like the Yoshi tasks involved Yoshi just because they made the task so much significantly harder. I seriously didn't play the game for a couple of months after getting to Ricco Harbor 8, which required spending forever getting the fruit dispenser to give you a certain fruit, and then precisely kicking a soccer ball like fruit to the Yoshi egg without accidentally kicking it into the water, and then precisely jumping Yoshi across small platforms above water. Did I mention that Yoshi disintegrates if he hits water, requiring you to go back and play the stupid fruit game again? Jesus christ that was infuriating.

One other thing that pissed me off to no end was what certain buttons do while Mario is on a fence. If Mario is on a vertical fence, A will cause him to jump away from the fence, while B makes him punch the fence. BUT, if Mario is hanging from a horizontal fence, A will cause him to punch upwards while B makes him fall off. The fallout of this is, if you're on a vertical fence, you hit B to punch a gate and get to the other side of the fence, but if you're hanging from a horizontal fence, you press A to "jump up through" the gate. If you forget and hit the wrong button, in the best case you're going to lose a lot of ground. In the worst case, you'll die. SO FRUSTRATING.

As for the big addition to Mario's Sunshine arsenal, the FLUDD water gun backpack? I felt like it added a moderate amount of variety to the game, and the hover mode took some of the emphasis off of precise jumping (which only made the obstacle courses and yoshi segments that much more frustrating). However, it felt like still more could have or should have been done with FLUDD to expand the game play options further.

It was nice to see the little link between Luigi's Mansion and Super Mario Sunshine in that Dr. E. Gadd made the backpacks that the brothers wear in each of their games, but a little more of a tie between the two would have been a nice bonus for those who actually played Luigi's Mansion.

There are something like 120 Shines to earn in the game, but I'm going to beat the game with around 65, and frankly, I have absolutely zero motivation to go back and try to earn the rest of the Shines, much less do I want to try to find all of the blue coins. Even with the help of gamefaqs that would totally suck. Earning the Shines I've already got was pretty hard, and there were several points where I set the controller down boiling with anger at how close I'd repeatedly come to succeeding, but still ultimately failing. Trying to do some of those obstacle courses with a time limit (among other things) to earn all of the shines would probably actually put me over the edge.

So, in a nutshell, the game is hard. I seriously cannot imagine an 8 year old kid playing this game and getting very far at all.

Have I used the word "unfortunate" 50 times by now? It seems like I have, and if I haven't it's only because I've been trying to check my urge to use the word. But really, "unfortunate" is the first word I that comes to mind when thinking about Super Mario Sunshine. In the end, I can only give Super Mario Sunshine 3.5/5. There just wasn't enough good to make up for its multitudinous annoyances. If you know someone who owns it, borrow it. Otherwise, rent it. But I don't really think it's worth buying unless you're a big mario fan.