What two-character setup did Mario Kart: Double Dash!! introduce?

Mario Kart: Double Dash!! introduced two riders per kart.

In this GameCube entry, each kart carries two Mario characters working as a team. The front rider drives, steers, accelerates, and drifts, while the rear rider handles items and attacks. Players can switch positions during a race, so success depends on coordinating driving and item use.

The arrangement also created a distinctive cooperative mode. With two players, each person could control one rider in the same kart; in single-player mode, one player managed both characters. Character pairings mattered because each racer had a special item, and matching two characters could produce different tactical possibilities.

Double Dash!! was released in 2003 and was the fourth main Mario Kart game. Its two-person system is sometimes confused with team racing, where separate karts compete as a group. That is not the key innovation here: the defining change was placing two riders inside one kart. The game also supported LAN play with up to 16 players arranged in eight pairs.