Mario Kart Double Dash is a good racing game, but a disappointing one as well. For what we come to expect in the Mario Kart franchise, this is a letdown. Don't let this confuse you from buying this game, or at least renting it. Its still one of the best kart racing games out there easily, but I can't consider it great.

Concept: Bring the old roots of Mario Kart back to gaming, while adding some new twists to the gameplay to keep it fresh, as well as ruin it. What I'm saying is, you will either love this idea or despise it. There a great amount of characters to pick from, and when I first read the preview of the game, I thought there would be much strategy to selecting both your characters. There isn't, since usually the stats don't differ much. The idea was noble, but its hard to say if it really belonged in a Mario Kart game. I'm leaning towards no. 8/10

Graphics: Like Gameinformer said, the graphics are colorful and vibrant. That's basically all they said, making you believe the graphics were spectacular. But what they make up in color, they extremely lack in detail. This may not be a bad thing, since it does sort of give you the feel of what Mario Kart is all about. But in this generation, people come to expect the best graphics, and only the true old-school gamers will feel home with this graphics design. 7/10

Sound: The sound is very nice, going through the levels, listening to all the brialliant effects as well as the nice music. You can't complain when it comes to here, since it fits the Mario Kart theme pretty nicely. 9/10

Gameplay: The double character feature was incorporated nicely, but doesn't feel like Mario Kart to me. I have mixed feelings about this Double Dash idea. The tracks are well designed, but way too short to give them much credit. The tracks are extremely short and the only way to fix this problem would either be to extend the tracks or have more tracks to play. They don't do either of these. There is just a slim amount of tracks to play, and the only one I truly loved was the mountain level where you get shot up by a cannon, then have to drive down the mountain. The smoothness of riding is the good thing about the game, and there really isn't much fun in playing two players in the same Kart. 30/35

Entertainment/Replay Value: This game will only appeal to you in two ways. Either you will think its extremely fun, or very disappointing and really boring. They offer some unlockable modes, but I wish there would've been more. Actually, they needed a lot more. It doesn't come close to the amount of Replay Value that was in Super Smash Brothers Melee. 29/35

Overall: 8.25

I consider an 8.25 a good score in the ways of gaming. But for a sequel in a well-loved series, it is a shallow score. Still good, but disappointing, I won't blame you if you pass this one up or if you come to love the game. This is a very two-sided game, half of the people who play it hate, other half love it. I'll settle somewhere inbetween.

See the picture below. Let me explain the graphics simply. Color and Vibrancy minus details and good textures = meh.