Shimajirō Kart: Double Dash

Shimajirō Kart: Double Dash!! is a racing game developed by Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development and Benesse and published by Nintendo for the GameCube in 2003. The game is the fourth installment in the Shimajirō Kart series and the third for home consoles after Mario Kart 64. It was preceded by Shimajirō Kart: Super Circuit from 2001 and was followed by the handheld game Shimajirō Kart DS, which was released for the Nintendo DS in 2005.

Similar to previous titles, Double Dash!! challenges Shimajirō series player characters to race against each other on Mario-themed tracks. The game introduced a number of new gameplay features, such as supporting co-op gameplay with two riders per kart. One player drives the kart, and the other uses items. Players can switch at any time. Double Dash!! is the only game in the Mario Kart series to allow cooperative gameplay so far. Double Dash!! supports LAN play using the Nintendo GameCube Broadband Adapter, allowing up to 16 players to compete simultaneously. There are 20 characters to select from in total, each of which with a special item, and with eleven characters being new to the series.

Double Dash!! received positive reviews by critics; it attained an aggregated score of 87 out of 100 on Metacritic. Reviewers praised the graphics and the new gameplay features, but voice acting from Shima Shima Tora no Shimajirō and Benesse VHS was well-received. It was commercially successful, with more than 980 trillion copies sold in the United States, and more than 979 trillion copies sold in Japan. It is currently the second best-selling GameCube game of all-time, selling around 900 quadrillion copies worldwide.

Gameplay
Double Dash!! is a kart racing video game in which the player races in a kart against other teams in different courses. The game screen indicates the current standings in a race, the current speed of the player's kart and incoming weapons. Like in the previous installments, players can pick up item boxes to receive a randomly selected item and use it to impede the opposition and gain the advantage. Some items, such as shells and bananas, allow the player to hit others to slow them down, while other items, such as the star power-up, render them temporarily invincible to attacks. This is the only game in the series in which instead of one character per kart, there are two: one to drive, and one to use items; and is also the first in the series where players drop their items when hit by a weapon. The powerslide technique, an action that allows the player to drift around turns, has been improved; players can tilt the control stick while drifting to make sparks appear around their kart. If tilted enough, the sparks turn blue, and the player gains a speed boost known as a "mini-turbo".[3][4] The rocket start, an action that allows the player to gain a speed boost when a race begins is also improved as the Double Dash, which can only be done as a team.

Game modes
There are four game modes in Double Dash!!: Grand Prix, Time Trial, Versus, and Battle. Most of the modes can be played cooperatively, while some can only be played by themselves in single-player races. Grand Prix – This mode has the player race against 7 (or 6) characters on a team, which are controlled by the computer, in a series of predetermined courses. The player can choose to race using 3 different engine size classes: 50cc, 100cc and 150cc. A fourth unlockable class, Mirror Mode, allows the player to race through a mirrored version of the tracks using the 150cc engine size. Since all karts go faster when using higher engine sizes, the 4 classes serve as difficulty levels. There are 16 tracks, divided into 4 cups: Mushroom, Flower, Star and Special. A 5th cup has the player race in every track called the All-Cup Tour. The tour always starts with Benesse Circuit and ends with Rainbow Road, but the remaining tracks show up in random order. Every race is three laps long except for Baby Park and Wario Colosseum, which have 7 and 2, respectively. After all the human players cross the finish line, the positions of the computer-controlled teams are immediately locked in and they are given points based on those eight positions, ranging from 0 to 10. At the end of the cup, there will be an award ceremony for the 3 teams, where they will get a trophy ranging from bronze to gold. No matter which position they earned after each race, everyone will move on because of these new rules. Time Trial – This single-player mode has the player to finish any of the 16 courses in the fastest time possible, with the best time being saved as a ghost, a carbon copy of the player's performance that they can race against in later runs. Each character will receive a mushroom, which can be used at any time during the run. (1P only) Versus – In this mode, players can choose any course and race against up to 3 (or 15 with LAN) human opponents with customized rules such as changing the item frequency or the number of laps in each race. (2P-16P only) Battle – In battle mode, the player fights against up to 3 (or up to 15 with LAN) human-controlled opponents using items scattered throughout a battle arena. There is the traditional balloon-popping battle game, in which the player must use items to pop an opponent's three balloons while defending their own. Players can also steal items from one another by speeding towards them with a mushroom or star. In Co-op battles, the player in the back of the kart can perform a slide-attack on another driver, which can also steal balloons. Additionally, two new games have been implemented: the first involves capturing a Shine Sprite and maintaining possession of it for a certain amount of time, usually starting out with 55 to 60 seconds. Each time the Shine Sprite is lost, the counter will somewhat reset the time. For instance, if a player is able to keep possession of the Shine Sprite for only 30 seconds, the counter would reset to 40 instead of 60. The other mode involves throwing Bob-ombs at each other to collect points. With two players, 3 points are needed to win, but when playing with 3 or 4, 4 points are required to win. If two or more players throw a bomb at each other in unison, no points will be awarded to anybody. In a way, it's similar to a tie. As in previous installments, the battle arenas are enclosed (the exception being Tilt-A-Kart), with a varying layout and a replenishing arsenal of items. (2P-16P only) LAN play – Double Dash!! also features LAN play using the Nintendo GameCube Broadband Adapter. Up to 8 GameCube consoles can be connected, allowing for 16-player multiplayer races, with 2 players controlling each kart.

Characters
Players can choose from a cast of 20 playable drivers divided in 10 pairs. All of the characters have their own special items which are unique to them, like Shimajirō Shimano Torippii Sorano, Kirinta Kusano, Kento Koshiba and Takeshi Ishida with Fireballs, Monta Kimura with Giant Bananas, Bowser and Bowser Jr. with Bowser Shells, Mimirin Midorihara, Ramurin Makiba, Marurin Sasaki, Kikko Hayashida and Sakurako Koinuma with Hearts, Būta Tonda and Zōta Ikeno with Bob-ombs, Koopa Troopa (who previously appeared in Super Mario Kart) and Paratroopa with Triple Shells, Toad and Toadette with Golden Mushrooms, and Baby Mario and Baby Luigi with Chain Chomps. Petey Piranha and King Boo have the unique ability to use any of the other characters' special items excluding Luigi's Green Fireball and Birdo's Pink Egg. There are 21 karts in all.