Gamers are used to hopping into speedy vehicles with four wheels, but not so in Mad Dash. Anyone who has played Running Wild on the PlayStation will feel right at home; each character’s arms and legs are what will help them win the race. This has given Crystal Dynamics an opportunity to design environments in a different manner than other racing titles, seeing as how there really is no singular road that characters need to follow for most of the game. Mad Dash’s gameplay is then much more focused on exploring the environment on the hunt for shortcuts, rather than wondering if that sharp corner coming up will take too long to skid around. The gameplay hazard this presents is that once all the integral shortcuts have been discovered, winning becomes a simple memorization process. Some of the shortcuts are cleverly hidden, but mainly take a bit of luck and hardly any skill to discover them.

The Xbox has been put to good use with Mad Dash’s expansive, colorful environments. There is nothing here that could not be accomplished on the GameCube or PlayStation 2, but the fact that running through any of the game’s stages at full speed takes nearly five minutes without it feeling repetitive is a testament to the amount of work put into making each unique. This is especially impressive when considering that there are shortcuts in nearly every viewable area of the track at any given time. Everything in Mad Dash has a distinctly wacky Disney-on-crack look to it, and since each stage has plenty of visual treats, the first couple of runs are fun even if only viewing the scenery.

Everyone can’t access all shortcuts, as ach character has one of three special moves assigned to them: Glide, Dash and Bash. In the upper left hand corner of the screen there is a meter next to the selected weapon that gauges how much special move “juice” is left. Collecting the Coca-Cola-esque cans throughout the game’s tracks will increase that gauge, allowing each move to be used for longer periods of time. For example, on the left might be a large gorge that can only be crossed by using a character’s Glide move, while the right side has a series of moving platforms for the Dash and Bash characters to cross. Nabbing ten green meteor chunks can give characters the ability to use any of the three special abilities, but sadly, that is very difficult to make happen. Each time your character is hurt from a track obstacle, they loose seven or eight meteor chunks. The problem lies in the fact that losing meteor chunks happens at regular intervals from unavoidable track elements - argh!.

The AI doesn’t cheat to catch up in Mad Dash; the game’s environments work feverishly to stop every opponent collectively. It is near impossible to stay in first place for more than a few seconds. The sheer number of unavoidable obstacles (boulders being the worst offenders) makes navigating the track without coming to a complete stop within fifteen seconds or so a rarity. At first, this seemed like a terrific balance, as it meant that the race stayed competitive all the way through, instead of one person leading the pack while the others play catch-up. When the finish line approaches, however, any Dash-enabled character can simply use their ability and speed ahead. Great for those who have the ability, but it unbalances the gameplay for the Glide and Bash characters, unless you had the superhuman powers to hold onto ten green meteor pieces.

As homage to Konami’s Track and Field titles, there are certain button mash fests on the racetracks. Swimming in the water, climbing a ladder, maneuvering rails – all of these require that the second analog stick be rotated in a circular motion while navigating direction with the leftmost analog. At first the controls scheme seems confusing, but after a few races it becomes natural and since the periods where it is required do not last for more than five or so seconds and they can significantly improve your position in the race, they are a good diversion. After seven or eight races of constant use your thumb can become a little sore, but just chalk it up as giving ya a lil’ exercise.

Nearly every unreal racer nowadays has some sort of weapons system, and Mad Dash is no exception. It is a good thing that the weapons are sparely used during the race, though; most of them are completely useless! In one hand, there are the semi-useful items like Psycho Chicken (homing missile), Ribbon of Pain (floating trail that hurts anyone that touches it) and Disco Ball (burst of speed and invincibility). Then you have the most common weapon in Mad Dash, Bouncy Fruit (impossible to aim and move at snail pace speeds) and Steal Chunks (takes five meteor chunks from each player). Sure, the semi-useful outweigh the useless, but the useless are far more common pickups. Eventually the weapons become almost completely ignored in favor of concentrating on shortcuts.

Mad Dash fits in the normal expectations for a launch title: visually pleasing with repetitive long-term gameplay. Crystal Dynamics has taken an already used spin on the racing genre and added a couple of twists of its own, but ultimately, with Halo, Dead or Alive 3 and the Xbox’s secret weapon, Shrek, on the market, Mad Dash is simply second tier.