Mario Kart: Double Dash!!

Each character has a unique power-up that only they can use, Mario shoots a horizontal line of fire balls in front of the kart, Bowser shoots a larger version of the Bowser shell from Mario Kart 64, the Koopa Troppas shoot advanced versions of green shells, Donkey and Diddy Kong drop larger bananas, Yoshi shoots a rolling egg and Luigi releases a Chain Chomp that drags the cart forward annihilating all opponents in the way.

In the build we played, there was only one cup available; the Mushroom Cup which included Luigi's track, DK's track, the city track and Waluigi Stadium. Luigi's track was similar to his track from Mario Kart 64 - notable changes include a chain chomp to avoid, and a line of boosts around a winding corner.

DK's track was also similar to his N64 track, with a huge barrel that shoots you to the top of a mountain, a big hole in the ground and a swaying rope bridge. This track also has a lot of bumpy surfaces - something the N64 version couldn't do. The city track was basically Toad's Turnpike from Mario Kart 64 with lots of turns.

Waluigi Stadium was very cool, based on old Wario Stadium. This track was similar to a motorcross track with rings of fireballs above the jumps, with item blocks inside them for you to collect. And the coolest part was a line of Piranha Plants extending across the track for you to dodge.

Although we didn't get to play it, Battle Mode looked cool. The tracks are a lot more detailed than Mario Kart 64's empty field arenas, one new Battle Mode arena takes place in the Mushroom Kingdom with lots of pipes for you to drive through.

The graphics were, for the most part, varied. The game now has a very cartoony look and the courses are certainly bright and colorful.

However, the models are not quite up to par, some of them, such as Wario, are a complete disgrace for a GameCube game, especially with companies like Factor Five pulling off Rogue Leader with little or no load times. But the models are brilliantly animated - characters will now juggle and throw shells and other power-ups very fluidly.

The music was your usual Mario Kart 64 stuff. Some of the music was quite annoying, almost to the point of wanting to turn it off. We were very pleased with the sound effects however; Nintendo much to my pleasure have re-used many of the sounds from Mario Kart 64 which, for me at least, adds a lot of nostalgic charm to the game.

Many of Nintendo's recent N64 updates have failed to live up to their N64 counterparts but I can honestly say right off the bat that Mario Kart: Double Dash!! is going to be brilliant. Look forward to it.