Mario Kart: Double Dash was a game released in 2003 for the Nintendo GameCube. It featured a first time ability in the series, allowing two racers to race on one kart against other teams of two. You had your classic Mario and Luigi or Peach and Daisy teams, but you could mix it up a little. You could use Bowser and Mario, or Baby Luigi and Bowser Jr.
The possibilities were endless. Along with the new special items each racer had, this game was one of the most fun Mario Kart games ever made. The tracks were all expansive and creative in their own way, but which ones stacked up to be the best? Well everyone loves a bit of difficulty, so you’ll see the best tracks in the game, rated on visual appearance, and also the difficulty of the stage as well.
10 Daisy Cruiser
This luxury cruise line wouldn’t be the first thing one expects for a racetrack, but Mario Kart knows no limits when it comes to places where one can race. This stage is iconic, being a stage that features Princess Daisy as the owner.
While it is beautiful, having racers move past the pool and into the dining room or cargo bay, the stage itself is great for beginners to learn how to masters dodging objects without being overly punished for messing it up by running into tables or walls. And it is relatively short, making it a quick and easy track to master your skills.
9 Peach Beach
Peach Beach brings the setting of Isle Delfino into the game, basing much of the environment and hazards from Super Mario Sunshine. This is a stage that highlights the use of shortcuts and water as a means of pushing past your opponents.
Deep turns and drifting is essential to perform the best at this stage. The beach itself is quite open, not restricting racers to being the easy target for a Green Shell or banana. But watch out for the Cataquacks! They will launch you into the air and force your partner to hang from the back for a little while.
8 Waluigi Stadium
This stage is fast-paced, and one of the more exhilarating tracks in the game. The music pumps players full of energy as they drift along the stadium path. There are circles of fire players jump through using boosters, as well as mud-pits that will slow heavier carts down.
The stage is a little tough, but mastering drifting and good steering should make it simple. Characters with lightweight carts are powerful on this track for beginners, having an easier time with the tight turns that need to be made at certain points. Item usage is also crucial on this stage because it is very easy to get overtaken because of the boosters around the course.
7 Mushroom Bridge
Things begin to get a little difficult with the next two. Mushroom Bridge is where beginners really need to learn how to control their steering. While the bridge is a short track, cars, buses, and other vehicles roam the road, and running into them would be problematic.
They will cause you to spin out, or in some cases, such as running into the bomb car, would cause you to explode and slow down for a while. It is also easy for Green Shells to bounce around in tight spaces and hit you, including ones that you throw yourself. Be wary of using items when they aren’t aimed at someone. You are your worst enemy when it comes to Mario Kart.
6 Mushroom City
Mushroom City takes it up a notch by including more cars and narrower passageways. Wiggler buses are more common, which are extremely long vehicles that can turn onto different streets at any time.
Along with the darker tone of the stage, taking place at night, the end of the track leads to a slightly narrow and easily crashable area where cars are racing down, including a pit to the right.
Lightweight cats might have a disadvantage on this stage from being bumped around so often by their opponents, while heavyweights might have a hard time turning to avoid getting it. This is a hard stage for any weight class.
5 Bowser’s Castle
Of course, a stage from Bowser needed to be a tough one. He’s the Koopa King, after all. This stage has the impact of walking into the final level of a Super Mario game. Thwomps are all around to squish you, the turns are some of the tightest in the game, and there is plenty of fire.
At one point, you encounter a mechanical Bowser that shoots fireballs at players as they try to quickly maneuver around the area to dodge them. You have to be aware at all times on this stage because anything can happen. This is a stage geared more for lightweight cars than heavyweights.
4 DK Mountain
When most hear someone talk about Mario Kart: Double Dash, DK Mountain usually comes up in the conversation. The cannon section is not only memorable, but adds track depth as you are shot to the mountain under the volcano. The decent, however, is where things get hard.
Dodging boulders and making super-tight turns while trying not to fall over the side is only a few of the trials suffered on this stage. Towards the end, the bridge can either be one of the easier things to cross, or one of the hardest if items like Bananas or Fake Item Boxes litter the area. This stage heavily relies on control rather than steering. One wrong move will send your kart tumbling down a cliff.
3 Baby Park
For such a small stage, why would Baby Park be one of the hardest stages in the game? Well, Baby Park has seven laps instead of three, and it is just a small oval, making laps take seven to ten seconds. In normal tracks, though, 1st place never had to deal with items from 8th place, unless it was Lightning.
However, it is complete chaos in Baby Park, as items fly all over the place, bouncing off walls and knocking players over. Bowser’s special item, the Bowser Shell, is devastating on this map, bouncing around and hitting others, forcing them to lose their items.
2 Wario Colosseum
Wario Colosseum is full of twists and turns, being one of the longest stages in the game. There are only two laps, but you’ll be racing on this map for about as long as you would a normal map. The turning on this stage is precise, with some areas being pits or other places to fall from.
The track itself is narrow most of the time, making items easier to mess up players. Especially in 150cc, this stage is rough if you get nicked by an item. It’s also very hard to regain your position in this stage, even though it’s one of the longer ones. The AI takes turns easy, making human players work extra-hard because of it.
1 Rainbow Road
Rainbow Road has the best look and music in the game, hands-down. However, this is one of the hardest Rainbow Road iterations in the series, as most of them are. Lack of railing makes it easy to fight off the edge many times. You have to master everything you’ve learned in the game, such as drifting, steering, and control.
This stage doesn’t reward mistakes, instead punishing them relentlessly. Heavyweights, surprisingly, might have an easier time with this stage than lightweights. The extra-loose drifting that lightweights have to make controlling yourself a little more difficult, while heavyweights have bad steering, but can prove useful in the tightest of turns where you don’t want to go too low, or too deep into the turn.
NEXT: The 10 Best Nintendo DS Games Ever Made (According To Metacritic)
