Mario Kart: Double Dash!!

Mario Kart: Double Dash!! is a 2003 kart racing video game developed and published by Nintendo for the GameCube (GCN). This game is the fourth main entry in the Mario Kart series, succeeding Mario Kart: Super Circuit (2001). It is the first game in the series to use 3D polygon graphics for the racers, as opposed to sprites, after Mario Kart 64 (1996) only used polygons for the environments, and 2D sprites for the racers. Similar to the previous titles, Double Dash!! challenges Mario 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, hence the game's title. 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 from critics; it attained an aggregated score of 87 out of 100 on Metacritic. Reviewers praised the graphics, new gameplay features, character and item rosters, arcade aesthetic and track design, but elements of the voice acting were poorly received. It was commercially successful, with more than 3.8 million copies sold in the United States, and more than 802,000 copies sold in Japan. It is the second best-selling GameCube game of all-time, selling around 7 million copies worldwide, behind Super Smash Bros. Melee. It also was rereleased as a player’s choice title in Australia and New Zealand.