The Best Mario Kart Game Released 22 Years Ago

Mario Kart has been a consistent part of the Nintendo library for years, with the original title for the Super Nintendo quickly becoming a fixture for gamers. There have been several iterations of the franchise, often highlighting the new capabilities of each console in turn. This has carried over to the newest release of the franchise, Mario Kart World, which helped serve as a killer app for the Nintendo Switch 2.

The best entry in the series came out 22 years ago, though, and it remains one of the best racing games of all time. With a clever expansion on the gameplay mechanics that didn’t overcomplicate the typical gameplay loop, this entry in the series became one of the best-selling games of its generation and remains a fan favorite. Here’s why Mario Kart: Double Dash is still the best game in the series, over two decades since players first got their hands on it.

Rules Of The Road

Mario Kart: Double Dash debuted on the GameCube in November 2003 and remains a highlight of the long-running series. The game improved on the tight controls and racing mechanics of previous entries while also introducing other elements like cart stats and unique items available to specific characters. The biggest tweak to the game’s standard formula was the way Double Dash allowed players to choose two different drivers for each race, flipping back and forth with a push of a button.

This allowed players to mix and match their ideal racing team, or even to work together in co-op, with one person driving and the other deploying the items. It was a clever mechanic that was brought to vivid life with the help of the GameCube. Double Dash used the GameCube’s computing potential to create vivid tracks that still look good today, over two decades later. More than anything, Double Dash feels like a refinement of the Mario Kart formula and an expansion that highlights the series’ strengths while mixing it up a little bit.

With new layers added to the streamlined gameplay, Mario Kart: Double Dash was easy to pick up and hard to master. Just like any good Nintendo title, the mix of tight design and straightforward mechanics lends itself well to plenty of replayability, which was one of the best elements of Double Dash. Thanks to the ability to mix up teams and use different carts to achieve different effects on the race, players had plenty of reason to experiment with character selection. Different cart types worked better in different circumstances, giving plenty of reason to try out new approaches and test their effectiveness.

Why Double Dash Is The Best Mario Kart

Mario Kart games had to find a nice balance in their execution. Between incorporating new elements and retaining the tight game design, it can be easy for subsequent entries to stumble over themselves. Even the impressively ambitious Mario Kart World has some trouble in that regard, with the shift to more open-world racing having a few more struggles with the player base. While it’s always exciting to see Nintendo push the limits of the series, it can also inadvertently create challenges for the developers and hiccups for the players as they adjust to the new tweaks on the established formula.

By contrast, Double Dash‘s specific changes to the standard Mario Kart gameplay opened up a lot of player choices to make each race its own, all without overcomplicating the core mechanics of the title or distracting from the natural pace of the race. Even more so than other entries in the franchise, Double Dash was a hit when it landed in 2003. Critics at the time celebrated the title as a highlight of the franchise, and it connected with audiences. Mario Kart: Double Dash eventually became the second-best-selling game on the GameCube, with the game’s multiplayer options helping it become a frequent favorite for sleepovers, dorm parties, and even in professional gaming circles. Double Dash‘s unique blend of character combos allowed each player to refine their own strategy without overcomplicating the game’s central mechanics. Other games might have dropped the two-person carts, but the focus on kart capabilities has carried over to the other recent entries.

More than anything, Double Dash stands out as the best entry in the game because it’s the most fun. It takes all the tight design of the earlier entries and adds new beats that don’t ruin the core gameplay mechanics. It has some of the best courses in the franchise’s history, like DK Mountain and Wario Colosseum. The character-specific super items are one of the best mechanics that have been missing from later titles. It has some of the brightest visuals, tightest gameplay, and purest thrills of any entry in the series. It’s the Mario Kart I’ve played the most, and the one I’m still excited to dive into at any opportunity.