This game departs from the previous, and even future entries in the series by sticking two characters in one kart. This gives players the ability to hold two items at once, and swap the characters who are holding the items for another layer of strategy. Each pair of characters has their own special item; for example, Mario and Luigi have fireballs. What's great is that you can pair up any two characters, so you could have two different special items at your disposal. With the ability of having two items existing, there is also the addition of a double item box, which have designated spawning spaces in rows of item boxes, and can sometimes appear where single item boxes normally would. The 16 tracks provided, while few, are all pretty good. There are a lot of repeat songs used, but the soundtrack is good overall. All of these elements combine for quite possibly the craziest Mario Kart gameplay yet, while somehow managing to not be extremely frustrating despite the enormous amounts of items that will come your way. Despite this game being almost 20 years old, it's honestly aged really well.

Unfortunately, having only 16 tracks is a pretty big flaw; the previous entry, Super Circuit, had 40 tracks, and every game after this one had at least 32. This 16 track selection is probably the biggest reason why I can't give this game 5 stars, because it's pretty content-light despite it's amazing gameplay. The irony here though is that the game does contain 6 new battle stages, which remains unmatched by any newer entry in the series.

Overall, this game is a fantastic time, and is probably the Mario Kart that's most worth your time going back to if you've only played newer entries in the series. I really hope this mechanic returns as a mode or something similar in a future title, because it's too good not to.