Development
Double Dash!! was first shown at the E3 in 2001 as a seven second long video clip. The clip featured Mario and Luigi driving their karts on a bump mapped 3D surface with no background. At the time, it was early in development, and the working title of the game was simply Mario Kart. In April 2003, Nintendo released the first pictures and details of the game, as well as revealing the title to be Mario Kart: Double Dash!!. At the E3 in 2003, a playable demo of the game was available. New features, such as having two characters drive one kart, had been implemented. An updated demo with some new additions was shown at the Games Convention in August 2003. In September, Nintendo held a Gamers' Summit for the press, in which a nearly complete and more sped up version of Double Dash!! was displayed. The Gamers' Summit also announced the North American release date to be November 17, 2003.
The development team struggled in coming up with gameplay features that would be enjoyed by the fans of the series. One of the hardest tasks chief director Kiyoshi Mizuki was assigned to do was to attract people who had no prior experience with the series; he decided to make the gameplay as simple as possible. Producer Shigeru Miyamoto presented the staff with a variety of opinions which they in turn would have to accommodate into the game the best way possible. Miyamoto let the team decide which graphics they wanted to use without restrictions.
Connectivity to the Game Boy Advance was discussed as an opportunity among the developers, but they eventually agreed that Double Dash!! was not suited to these connectivity ideas and decided to exclude it. It was desirable to narrow down the gap between the ability of veteran and novice players. Therefore, gameplay features like the ability to escape the banana were removed; the staff wanted both veteran and novice players to enjoy themselves.
A special edition of the game was also released, which included a bonus disc containing demos and gameplay videos of other games released around the time, including Mario Party 5, Pokémon Colosseum, and Kirby Air Ride, among others. The special edition disc also includes exclusive digital content that could be transferred to the Game Boy Advance title Fire Emblem via the Game Link Cable.
Read more about this topic: Mario Kart: Double Dash!!
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