Mario Kart on November 14th

Nintendo has press released the release date for Mario Kart: Double Dash, confirming what it said previously - that we'll be getting our hands on it in Europe on November 14th. The game launches in Japan and the US the same week.

Nintendo also sent out a list of characters and tracks that made it into Double Dash. You'll no doubt be interested to hear that the final line-up of pairings (remember, "Double Dash" has two characters per kart) is Mario & Luigi, Diddy & Donkey Kong, Princess Daisy & Peach, Paratroopa & Koopa, Baby Mario & Luigi, Yoshi & Birdo, Bowser & Bowser Jr. and Waluigi & Wario.

In terms of competitions, we've obviously got the Mushroom, Flower and Star Cups. Mushroom comprises Luigi Circuit, Peach Beach, Baby Park and Dry Dry Desert, Flower is made up of Mushroom Bridge, Mario Circuit, Daisy Cruiser and Waluigi Stadium, while Star consists of Sherbet Land, Mushroom City, Yoshi Circuit and DK Mountain. Over the course of the E3 and ECTS demos, we've sampled Luigi Circuit, Mushroom Bridge, Waluigi Stadium, Mushroom City and DK Mountain - and we know those are all extremely enjoyable, which bodes well for the rest. And then of course there's the prospect of Battle Mode, with its various alternate game modes.

We've also seen screenshots of Double Dash showing off a Rainbow Road track, so we won't be too surprised if we find an unlockable championship after a few days with the starting Cups.

Unfortunately though we'll have to wait a while to test that supposition, as review code is understandably being closely guarded. As you can imagine though, we'll be bringing you impressions and/or a review as soon as humanly possible - and we also plan to get stuck in over the Internet using Warp Pipe, assuming Kristan can fathom his IP address in time...