Introduction

This blog will be a place for us to discuss advanced Mario Kart: Double Dash!! tactics and strategy. This game exists for the Nintendo GameCube. Commentary is limited to this version, with occasional comparison to Super Mario Kart, the original SNES game. In my opinion, Mario Kart Wii is not fit to share the franchise. After playing with the Wii Wheel for some 10s of seconds I had great dislike. Perhaps I should try again without the wheel. In any case, that version will not be discussed.

This blog is authored by Matt and Dan Jibson. We consider ourselves experts in Mario Kart proper, and artisans in battle mode. Having owned both this and the original, we have spent many hours playing each. It is common for us to spend 2-3 hours nightly battling when we are home on vacation. Battle sets tend to end in even scores. Due to this, our skill has risen to a level where we felt that sharing could be beneficial.

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For the first post, I share a highly-useful bug. There are 3 battle modes. Shine thief and Bomb-omb are more fun in large groups. For 2 players, the nostalgic balloon mode is the most fun. Of the 6 available levels, we find the pipe level the most convincing. The others are too large or too boring.

There is a bug in the pipe level, however, that lends itself to frequent exploit. If a player loses a balloon for any reason and enters a pipe soon after (around 1 second), the balloon will be returned. This has a few side effects which can be used for gain. First, invincibility is retained after the hit. This can be useful is the pipe has been trapped (i.e., an unmoving object has been placed at the landing location, [usually] guaranteeing a hit). Second, it serves as a getaway plan for red shells and other objects. If you know something is coming, making a dash towards a pipe can prevent the balloon loss.

This bug will certainly draw players to the pipes more often. An opponent attempting to escape attack opportunity by red shell will stay on top, and fall at the last moment to the ground to enter the pipe and land back on the upper grid. The opponent's theory is that the red shell cannot hurt them since if it does hit, they will enter the pipe and trigger this bug. To counter this, a well timed shot (close to when your opponent will hit the ground) will actually halt them, instead of just impeding their momentum. The best shot is timed so that the opponent will land on the shell/whatever. In this way the bug is not always a safety net, but can serve as a Siren.

Moving beyond the obvious exploits, let us discuss some of the more advanced. We have theorized, but not tested, that this can be used for balloon myosis. If hit with a mushroom or star, it is theoretically possible to then enter a pipe and have the balloon returned to you. Of course, balloons are instantly gained by the aggressor, and are likely not removed if this happens. Thus, we believe it to be possible to create balloons.