Topic: Mario Kart on GameCube Details

[S-U-P-E-R]

Pictures and everything! LAN play!

Nintendo has revealed details and images of Mario Kart on the GameCube, which will be called Mario Kart: Double Dash.

The images reveal 16 characters riding in pairs on their karts. One character drives, and the other throws weapons. Characters include Mario, Luigi, Peach, Baby Mario, Baby Luigi, Yoshi, Birdo, Wario, Waluigi, Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, Bowser, Bowser Jr., Koopa, and Paratroopa.

We'll have some more details shortly. In the meantime, eyeball what NOA has revealed.

Update: Famitsu says the game WILL work with a LAN adapter; 8 players can play!(with two GameCubes and two copies of the game)

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

HAHAAHA!

I love the new karts!  DK in a barrel!

[JB]

WOOHOO!

If the game supports LAN-play it will only be a matter of time before someone writes a program that enables you to play over the internet!!!!!!  

[mrcivic]

Yeah, the karts look great!

I've stumbled upon some high-res version of the screens;
Direct linking to images is bandwidth theft and is prohibited on PGC Forums. -Bloodworth

[joshnickerson]

Hmm, now, what are the exact words I'm looking for....?
Oh yes.... HOLY SHNIKES!!!

[Fammy2000]

Is it just me, or does this sorta look like the Donkey Kong racing game a little? Didn't each player have custom vehicles in that game? Maybe the two joined together, or the Mario Kart team took all the good ideas once Rare went to the dark side.

Awesome, just wish it supported internet play out of the box (err, case, Cube, etc...)

[Jdub03]

It does support lan play.  This means days w/out sleep for a couple of months.  Oh well!

[JB]

In Donkey Kong Racing you don't have karts but animals to race with. All the characters hd to use the same animals.  It's not likely that Donkey Kong Racing and Mario Kart were joined together as Donkey Kong Racing is being released on the X-Box as SabreMan Racing.

[DRJ]

Where's Boo???

Oh well it does have wario and paratroppa. I like the idea of specialized weapons and co-op play.

I am glad that the did not add Sonic since it is Mario Kart and not Nintendo Kart.

Now for the important question: What is the release date. Dont say christmas 'cause I want it now. I can wait until July.... Maybe

Nintendo is getting a lot of momentum for their little cube. Mario Kart, FF:CC, F-Zero, Pikmin 2 this year and maybe another Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Pokemon RPG next year. Time to take back some serious market share from Sony, and forget about Microsoft, 'cause they're finished IMO.

If Nintendo keeps giving away free primo title with a cube purchase, nobody else can compete.

[Illini4]

Wow-ee-wow-wow-wow!  Ok, we can all admit, the mario kart series was getting kind of, well, stale.  If nintendo would have just released a graphically updated version of MarioKart64, sad to say i would have passed it up.  But yet again, Nintendo "changes" one of the strongest franchises, and I am sooo excited!  Wow, look at those screens!  Two person karts, in which one drives and the other throws the goodies!  What a simple idea that makes the game so NEW.  Of course the graphics do look awesome, but when we are talking Nintendo games, graphics are the last thing to worry about.  None of us can see the gameplay (most important part of any game) from the pictures, but I don't think that is something to worry about.  The thing we all need to start worrying about is, 7 other people to play with!!  So for all of those peole saying "nintendo blew all their games they had in the past 3 months"  uh ohhhhh, somebody's got yet another flood of games coming out!  It feels great to own a Gamecube.

[Ninja X]

No Toad...but we got the much better Diddy Kong.  
It'll be one of the best games of the year...

But I'm still disappointed that no official online will look likely considering the game has LAN play connected to it.  

[vudu]

well, now we know why nintendo said they couldn't release a single screenshot without giving away an important new aspect to the game.

and even though they're not mario characters, i can't help but wish for a link/zelda kart.  w00t.

[Gamer1982]

Am I the only one who is disappointed?  When they said they couldn't show screen shots, I thought it would be something much cooler than double person karts.  And no internet play?  Only LAN?  LAN is weak.  Not too impressed.

[Ian Sane]

So like where's the online play?  Seriously I am extremely disappointed that there's no online play (though I'm not that shocked).  Here is this potentially awesome game that I should be incredibly excited about and all I can think of is that there's no online play.  Isn't it interesting that the lack of one small feature that anybody but Nintendo would have included has turned this from a "HOLY SH!T THIS IS AWESOME!!" title to a "oh two people. Neat" title.

It's nice to see EAD is continuing their "give all of our Cube titles stupid names" trend.  Double Dash?!  It's not Mario Sunshine bad but it's still a pretty dorky name.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

"much cooler"?

What the hell do you expect out of MARIO characters in KARTS, anyway?

Super Mario Airborne Vehicular non-Kart Space Combat: Rogue Mushroom III, featuring the ability to exit your kart and gut the other guy's kart using your Jedi light saber?

Given time, GameSpy will come up with an internet/LAN tunnel for use with GameCube.

[DRJ]

Unfortunetely since this game was not initially designed for internet play it was too dificult to modify to support it. I for one would rather have the game now then wait 1-2 more years for nintendo to incorporate online play. Anyways the best part of the game is making fun of your friends after you completely owned then in a battle game.  

[Rambozo]

For the last time, LAN play MEANS online play. I play my XBox online through XBConnect (Much smoother than Gamespy Tunnel, IMO)  and such an application is sure to be designed for Gamecube.  It's better this way, because the online play is free.  

[Koopa Troopa]

Koopa Troopa is back! He's Back! Wahooo! Man did I miss him in MK64.

[Radison]

Those larger pics are great. Thanks for posting them. The one thing I noticed is that it doesn't look like the pairings are set. For the most part, Mario drives and Luigi attacks. But in the last picture, Peach is riding behind Mario, and in another, Peach #2 rides with Luigi. (What's the other ditz's - I mean woman's - name? Daisy?) I wonder how that's going to work. It'd be strange if Mario drives and Bowser's on the back.

[DDeath666]

They held out, and made us wait for so long..........to show us the ... idea i have seen since cell shading. I like the idea about the double seated karts, but the karts look stupid.  Take the original kart, and make it extra wide so it fits two and then it would be the best game ever.  But anyways, if you can play it on LAN, I'm pretty sure it will be online too.  

[sycomonkey]

Who.  This is great.  I'm not a big mario kart fan, but this is definatly the new party game for GCN.  Lan play is the greatest idea... Because it's in every way better than internet play.  No lag, and you aren't playing with stupid people who think they're "l33t".

And any cooperative play, in anything, is almost alway good.

[Ian Sane]

"Lan play is the greatest idea... Because it's in every way better than internet play. No lag, and you aren't playing with stupid people who think they're 'l33t'."

How is not even having the option for online play a good idea?  All of you who are against online don't seem to realize that online Mario Kart would merely be an option; you don't have to play it.  Split screen and LAN multiplayer would still be in the game.  Online multiplayer would just be another option.  Many of you anti-online people have this idea that if Mario Kart went online then you would have to play with "stupid people who think they're 'l33t'".  You DON'T so why can't those of us who do be given the option?

[WuTangTurtle]

In my opinion I think Nintendo is doing the right thing, which is also what they have been planning all along.

First off lan is a great way to sell more systems, trusts me when younger people play this game they will practicly peer pressure all of their other friends to get it.  For example, pokemon (system link) sole reason why GBC sold so well.  Heck it worked for halo, I know like 2 friends that bought xbox cause they played halo at my friends lan party.

Also I remember PGC posting something about GameSpy being a current Nintendo developer or partner or whatever which means they are prolly getting GameSpy to set up all of nintendo's games for free just like nintendo said before about online plans.

Seems like thier plan is unrolling quite well.

[joshnickerson]

I know that with Halo there is a sort of limited way to play on-line through the LAN feature, but you could only play through a local server. I'm not sure exactly how though.

[SirX-Wolf]

I think that the double-seater thing looks cool. While it may sound stupid to some, I think that Nintendo will make it in such a way that it's fun. I mean, it's Nintendo.  I'm looking forward to this; the Mario Kart series has always been a favourite of mine (and my friends like it greatly as well).