Anyone who knows how particular I am about game quality will not be surprised to learn: I have been playing a lot of Mario Kart lately. Nintendo knows quality like Blizzard knows quality, and like few others in the games industry seem to understand. And what I mean by "quality" is that when you see it, and when you play it, the game reeks of high production values and rich gameplay mechanics. And Mario Kart: Double Dash!! does not disappoint in either department. There are tons of different characters and karts to mix and match and choose from, tons of rich and diverse tracks to race on, tons of different items to wield and a steep level of difficulty curve as you advance throughout the game. Which means, you won't soon play through this rich and wonderful game: it will gnaw and nag at you to come back and give it another shot.

In my humble opinion (IMHO), me thinks the game critics out there doth complain too much, as MKDD!! has been given a slightly bad rap since it had an enormous expectations list to live up to. Each iteration in the Mario Kart series has excelled and impressed and, above all, entertained the masses for years, and I believe it was impossible for this iteration to live up to the hype. But Mario Kart Double Dash!! delivers what every Mario Kart has before: quality through and through and then some... LAN support! And with the Warp Pipe project well underway, soon you'll be able to play MKDD!! over the Internet with a broadband adapter and a PC running the Warp Pipe software.

I love this game, and I can't wait for Thursday festivities to roll around so I can race my nieces with some genuine Mario Kart multiplayer shenanigans! Rating: A.