This weekend we celebrated my son’s fifth birthday and he and I spent some father-son bonding time with Mario Kart: Double Dash. For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure, this is a Gamecube title that has been available for a few years. If you have a Wii and you’ve been having trouble tracking down Mario Kart Wii, this could give you a great option for half the price!
Having said that, it plays beautifully on the Wii as well as the original Gamecube and, like many of the Gamecube games, it is capable of displaying at 480p if you have your console connected to an HD television via component cables. Honestly, it looks beautiful and the control is spot on. Yet, what makes this title a real family winner is the two-player options.
My son’s first exposure to this title was at a kiosk while we were at a local GameStop. As with most Mario games, he was drawn to the colorful graphics and humorous sound effects. However, as much as he seemed to enjoy the visuals, he wasn’t quite understanding the racing mechanic itself and when he finally crossed the finish line in eighth place, he seemed discouraged to see that his characters looked sad.
Rather than race head-to-head with him, I chose the 2-player option that allows him to control the second character on my kart. We were able to race as a team against the other characters and while I controlled the vehicle itself, he was in charge of the power-ups. This meant that when we’d pick up a speed boost, he’d ask me when it would help and then press the button. And when we’d pick up a banana peel or other trap/attack device, we’d coordinate on where to use it.
I found this experience far more enjoyable than playing the game against him and I felt that it instilled a sense of cooperation within him while providing a sense of accomplishment when we won the tournament.
Keep in mind that you can play up to four players with this title (4-player split screen or two 2-player teams) on a single machine and it has support for network play using the broadband adapter on the Gamecube. This has some great potential for a family or a small group of kids playing together. I don’t have a problem with competition, but in this case, we enjoyed cooperation and competition together.
I heartily recommend it and as an adult I can say that it’s as much fun for me as it is for my son!
2 responses so far ↓
1 Who’s Against Backward Compatibility? // Jan 14, 2009 at 10:50 pm
[...] In Conclusion It appears that most of the current console manufacturers see backward compatibility as a less-crucial feature on their systems that can be eliminated once they have a large enough library available on their current platform. (I hope that Nintendo doesn’t release a version of the Wii that follows in the footsteps of the DSi.) As players we recognize the value of our investment in our libraries. As parents, we know how much we’ve spent on games for our kids over the years and the ability for our kids to still enjoy them years later has value. (I still recommend the Gamecube version of Mario Kart!) [...]
2 ModNation Racers // Jul 14, 2009 at 4:46 pm
[...] interested. Knowing what fun I’ve had with my son playing Mario Kart Double Dash (see article HERE) and Little Big Planet (see article HERE), this seems like the best of both [...]
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