Mario Kart Double Dash: How to Choose a Pair and Race

You sit two characters in one kart, then try to hold a racing line while the rider in back juggles items. Mario Kart Double Dash is the GameCube entry built around that split, and you can hand the wheel to the other rider whenever the corner or the item calls for it. The heavier rider is the one who sets your kart class, a light pair keeps each drift boost going longer, and a special item is the reason you would ever give that up.

What follows is the order you face on the menu. The two seats come first, then the kart class your pair locks in, the special item each rider carries, the blue-spark boost, the gold trophies that open the kart you actually want, and the cups and battle modes where you spend those trophies.

What Do the Front and Back Seats Do?

Nintendo EAD released Mario Kart: Double Dash!! on the GameCube in Japan on November 7, 2003, with the other regions following later that month. One kart holds two riders the whole race. The front rider steers, accelerates, brakes, and starts a drift. The back rider carries the item and throws it. Playing alone, you do both jobs, and the Z button swaps who is in front.

A normal item box hands one item to the rider in back. A double item box hands one item to each rider, so a full hand should swap forward before you drive through the next set of boxes. Each rider holds only one item at a time. Press the item button to stop the roulette on the icon you want, then hold a stick direction as you throw so the item goes forward or back. On one console, up to four people can play at once.

Co-op splits that same kart across two controllers, and several moves exist only there. The front player still accelerates with A, drifts with L or R, and passes an item rearward with X or Y. The back player throws with X, Y, or B, aims with the stick, and taps L or R for a Slide Attack that bumps a rival and can take whatever that kart is holding. Both players have to press Z at the same moment to swap seats. Both have to press A together when the light turns green if you want the stronger launch.

Once those seats are clear, the next screen is where most lost races actually begin. The karts you are offered depend on who is heavier, not on who you left in the driver’s seat.

Kart Class Follows the Heavier Rider

The heavier rider sets the kart list, whether or not that rider is steering. Riders do not change the speed, acceleration, or weight marks printed on a kart. They open or close a class, and they decide which special items can show up for you and for the computer racers. A full chart of those marks sits with the kart stats sorted by weight class.

Light with light is the only way onto a light kart. Add a medium rider and no heavy rider, and the list switches to medium karts. Put any heavy rider in either seat and every option left is a heavy kart. A partner with a high speed mark can take the long drift boosts off the table before the race loads.

The star rows never print the boost length. Check how long each mini-turbo lasts before you trust a speed rating of 5. Light karts hold that boost the longest, heavy karts the shortest, and the Parade Kart is the one machine that breaks the pattern.

Baby Mario shows the trade in one sitting. He is light, and his special is the Chain Chomp. Pair him with Diddy Kong, also light, and you stay on light karts with both the Chain Chomp and the Giant Banana on offer. Pair him with Bowser and you still keep both specials, but Bowser is heavy, so the list collapses to heavy karts and the drift boost shrinks to 10 frames.

Heavy riders are not stuck with that short boost forever. The Parade Kart accepts any pair, and its mini-turbo matches the light karts at 30 frames. It is large and clumsy in traffic, and it is the last kart the cups hand you. Toadsworth drives it at the award ceremony, and he is not a racer you can select.

The Barrel Train is the light kart time-trial players keep coming back to, and it is not on a new save. Gold in the 150cc Star Cup unlocks it. Until then the Goo-Goo Buggy, which is available immediately, is the light kart with top acceleration and the lowest speed mark, so it recovers after a hit and runs out of pace on a long straight. The Toadette Kart has that same acceleration-first shape, and it waits behind the Mirror Mushroom Cup.

Special Items for Each Character Pair

The roster has 20 playable characters. Light riders are Baby Mario, Baby Luigi, Diddy Kong, Koopa Troopa, Paratroopa, Bowser Jr., Toad, and Toadette. Medium riders are Mario, Luigi, Peach, Daisy, Yoshi, Birdo, and Waluigi. Heavy riders are Donkey Kong, Bowser, Wario, Petey Piranha, and King Boo.

Each rider brings one special item, and a mixed pair keeps both. The portrait teams on the select screen are only a default. Toad and Toadette start locked, and so do Petey Piranha and King Boo. Any two different characters can share a kart, which comes to 190 pairs. You cannot seat a character beside a copy of the same character.

Shared items are not the only thing your pick changes. The characters you take are characters the computer cannot use, so their specials leave the field with them. On 50cc the computer racers stay in their default teams and draw from a small item set, and any kart can still run at the front. On 100cc those racers can throw red shells, and their light karts almost never hold the top spots.

Ordinary boxes still fill most of the race. A banana spins a kart out. A green shell flies straight and bounces off walls. A red shell chases the next kart ahead and breaks if it hits a wall. The Spiny Shell flies to first place, flips that kart, and explodes. A fake item box is red, shows a flipped question mark, and stops a kart cold. A mushroom is a short boost that can also steal an item if you bump a kart while it is running. A Star makes you briefly invincible and faster, and it can knock an item loose. Lightning shrinks every other kart and makes them drop what they are holding, unless that kart is under a Star or a Heart. Stars and Lightning show up when you are near the back.

Light Pairs With the Longer Boost

• Chain Chomp: Baby Mario and Baby Luigi get dragged along the racing line in a sharp burst, flattening karts in the way, until the chain breaks and the Chomp charges off the course. It tends to appear when you are behind, and a sloppy release can yank you off the line.
• Golden Mushroom: Toad and Toadette get repeated mushroom boosts for five seconds. You cannot steal items while it is running, and rivals cannot steal it mid-use. Both characters, and the Toad Kart, unlock together.
• Giant Banana: Diddy Kong carries this even if you leave Donkey Kong out. It can turn up in first place, it splits into three bananas when someone hits it, and a banana dropped behind you stops shells.
• Triple shells: Koopa Troopa rolls three green shells, and Paratroopa rolls three red shells. One crash spills all but one of them onto the track.
• Bowser Jr.: He is light, and he brings Bowser’s Shell. Seat him with another light rider if you want that shell without giving up the 30-frame boost.

Two light riders with a Giant Banana and a Chain Chomp, or a Golden Mushroom and a triple shell, cover both a clean lap and a recovery lap. That is the pair to learn on if you are still dropping drifts.

Medium Pairs and the Item You Want

Peach and Daisy share the Heart. Two hearts orbit the kart. Each one spends itself to catch a hit and hand you the item that struck you. A Star or a Heart also keeps Lightning from shrinking you. Green Fire, Luigi’s kart, posts a top speed close to the Barrel Train and still gets the shorter medium boost, so it is the stand-in when you want a medium rider’s item and cannot give up too much pace.

Mario throws a spread of five red fireballs, and Luigi throws the same spread in green. Anyone hit spins out, and the victim’s back rider cannot throw or swap seats for a moment. Yoshi’s egg and Birdo’s egg home in like a red shell, then crack open and drop three more items, which might be a mushroom, a shell, a banana, a Star, or a Bob-omb. Waluigi brings the Bob-omb on his own. Wario brings the same bomb, and because Wario is heavy, the canon Wario and Waluigi team can only drive heavy karts.

Heavy Pairs and the Random Special

Bowser’s Shell is a huge green shell that ricochets until it explodes, and it can loop back into the kart that fired it. If a crash leaves it sitting on the road, it stays put until someone hits it. The Bob-omb glows and then blows up, launching nearby karts and stripping their items, and a bad throw can drop it in front of you. Donkey Kong is heavy, so the Kong portrait team is a heavy kart even though Diddy is light.

WHEN A HEAVY RIDER IS WORTH IT

• The shell tax: Take Bowser or Bowser Jr. on a cup where CPU Bowser shells keep ending your lead, because the rider you picked cannot also appear as a computer rival.
• The mystery roll: Petey Piranha and King Boo are both heavy, and their special is a random special item from the whole list. You pay the 10-frame boost for a box you cannot predict.
• The shove: Heavy karts knock light and medium karts aside on contact. Use that on a narrow course, not on a track where you will spend the lap in the grass, because heavy karts shed much more speed off-road.

If none of those three jobs is the plan for this cup, leave the heavy rider out. You can always add Bowser for one messy course and go back to two light riders on the next.

Drift Boosts, Rocket Starts, and Steals

Hold L or R as you turn and the kart slides instead of scrubbing speed off in the bend. While that button stays down, tilt the stick against the turn until sparks show, then keep alternating the stick. The sparks run from yellow to orange to blue. Release L or R on blue and the kart kicks forward. Release on orange and you spend the corner without the full boost.

In co-op the front player holds the drift button and the back player works the stick. On a straight, alternating the slide from side to side is called snaking, and it strings the boosts together. A new drift also sheds speed the instant it starts, so ride the boost out before you flick into the next slide. A mini-turbo released as a red shell closes can shove you off the line that shell is chasing.

A CLEAN LAP ON LUIGI CIRCUIT

• The entry: Come at the bend from the outside so the slide has room to reach blue sparks before the apex.
• The release: Hold through yellow and orange, and let go of L or R only when the sparks turn blue.
• The exit: Straighten before the grass, then set the next bend, instead of sliding on a straight that does not need it.

Luigi Circuit is the wide opener of the Mushroom Cup, and it is also the course that always starts an All Cup Tour. The same entry habit is still there at the end of the unlock path, when the field is faster and the items are meaner.

A Rocket Start is the launch boost. Press A as Lakitu’s lights turn green, or tap A while he counts down. His hand dropping on the third beat is an easier cue than the lamp itself. In co-op, both players pressing A at that moment produces the Double Dash start, a harder launch that leaves a blue flame behind the kart. One player hitting A alone gives you an ordinary Rocket Start and nothing more.

You can take a rival’s item in three ways, and only when your back rider’s hand is empty. Bump them during a mushroom boost, bump them while a Star is on, or catch them with a Slide Attack in co-op. If you rob the back rider while a Star is running and that kart’s front rider was also holding something, the front item drops onto the track instead of into your hand.

Gold Trophies for Karts and Characters

Every cell below is a gold trophy, meaning first place in that cup’s standings. The Grand Prix point chart for Double Dash pays 10, 8, 6, 4, 3, 2, 1, and 0 points from first through eighth. Older Mario Kart games paid nothing from fifth on, so a fourth-place save now still moves the standings.

Four first-place finishes add up to 40 points. You do not need a perfect sweep. Points from fourth through seventh are why one ugly corner does not end a cup, as long as the other three courses go your way.

Mirror Mode flips every course and runs at 150cc pace. Turns go the other way, obstacles swap sides, and even Lakitu’s sign is mirrored. The All Cup Tour strings all 16 courses together, always opening on Luigi Circuit and always closing on Rainbow Road, with the middle courses in a random order. It does not appear outside Grand Prix. The Special Cup itself stays locked until you take gold on the 100cc Star Cup, so the Bullet Blaster in the 50cc Special Cup comes only after that.

The short path to the karts that match the boost chart is easy to order. Win the 100cc Star Cup to open the Special Cup. Win the 100cc Special Cup for Toad, Toadette, and the Toad Kart. Win the 150cc Star Cup for the Barrel Train. Win the 150cc Special Cup for the All Cup Tour, then win that tour on 150cc for Mirror Mode. Mirror Star Cup gold brings Petey Piranha, King Boo, and the Piranha Pipes. Mirror All Cup Tour gold brings the Parade Kart. On 150cc the lower speed caps of the easier classes come off, and heavy karts with a real top speed become much harder to pass if your drifts are sloppy.

The 16 Courses and Three Battle Modes

Two courses break the usual lap count, and both do it because of length. Baby Park runs seven laps because the loop is tiny. Wario Colosseum runs two laps because the loop is long. Every other course runs three laps.

• Mushroom Cup: Luigi Circuit, Peach Beach, Baby Park, and Dry Dry Desert. These four are on the game from the first boot, and they are the right place to land blue sparks on purpose.
• Flower Cup: Mushroom Bridge, Mario Circuit, Daisy Cruiser, and Waluigi Stadium. Traffic and stadium bumps punish a heavy kart that cannot get its speed back.
• Star Cup: Sherbet Land, Mushroom City, Yoshi Circuit, and DK Mountain. Yoshi Circuit is another wide layout for drift practice once Luigi Circuit feels slow.
• Special Cup: Wario Colosseum, Dino Dino Jungle, Bowser’s Castle, and Rainbow Road. This cup is the long, gimmick-heavy set, and it is locked behind the 100cc Star Cup.

Battle is a separate menu. Balloon Battle is a fight to pop the balloons on the other karts. Shine Thief is a chase to grab a Shine Sprite and hold it. Bob-omb Blast scores with bombs. Two battle courses stay locked until you earn them: Luigi’s Mansion after the 150cc Mushroom Cup, and Tilt-A-Kart after the Mirror Flower Cup.

Versus is a race against people, with no computer karts on the grid. Time Trial keeps the track to a single racer and the clock, so special items still matter there only as far as the character’s size lets you pick the kart. Bring two light riders, take the longest mini-turbo you have unlocked, and leave the Heart and the Bowser shell for Grand Prix, where the CPU field is actually throwing things.

Mistakes That Cost You the Drift Boost

Most blown leads in this game come from the select screen or from releasing a drift one color too early. The cups will not warn you about either one.

WHERE CLEAN RACES FALL APART

• The speed stars: A heavy kart with a 5 on speed still carries the 10-frame boost, so the Barrel Train’s cleaner slides beat it when you stop hitting walls.
• Early release: Letting go of the drift on orange sparks spends the corner and skips the blue boost you were charging.
• A live mushroom: Starting a new drift while a mushroom boost is still running can cancel that boost before it finishes.
• The poster pair: Donkey Kong with Diddy, or Bowser with Bowser Jr., looks like the intended team and still counts as heavy, because one rider is heavy.
• Co-op timing: One player pressing A at the green light, or one player pressing Z to swap, does nothing beyond the ordinary button. Both controllers have to hit it together.

The item button has a matching habit. A Bowser shell and a Bob-omb can come back to the kart that threw them, so on a narrow course you throw them only when you can see where the bounce will go. A Giant Banana behind you is the calmer shield in first place, and Diddy can carry it while you keep a second light rider and the long boost.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can Two Players Race in Separate Karts?

Yes. Grand Prix, Versus, and Battle each give every player a kart of their own. Co-op is a separate menu choice, and it is the only mode where two people share one kart, press Z at the same time to swap seats, and use a Slide Attack.

What Happens If You Win Every Cup?

Once every cup has a gold trophy, the game swaps in a new title screen and a “Thanks For Playing” message. The 50cc and 100cc All Cup Tours do not unlock a kart on their own, but they still count toward that screen, which is why a full clear runs those long tours even though the reward list looks empty.

Can the Heart Stop a Spiny Shell?

Yes. Peach and Daisy’s Heart puts two shields on the kart, and each shield can catch one hit and hand you the item that struck you. A Spiny Shell counts as one of those hits. That shell is aimed at first place, you cannot shoot it down, and Battle Mode does not offer it at all.

How Many Players Fit in a LAN Race?

Sixteen. The consoles have to be linked with a GameCube Broadband Adapter, because the game has no built-in internet lobby. Play on a single console still stops at four players, whether you are in separate karts or paired up in co-op.

Before the next cup, lock two light riders if you want the long drift boost, and add a heavier rider only for a special item you plan to throw. Spend the gold trophies on the Toad Kart, the Barrel Train, and the Parade Kart, in that order, instead of chasing every heavy kart with a high speed mark.