Screenshots :.
Diddy Kong Racing DS
DS
Matt
20-04-2007
"Well? What are you waiting for? Door with a 10 on it on a mystical island! Get involved.."
"You don't appear to be looking where you're going!"
"Bloody balloons eh? On the track eh? Not in my day..."
When it comes to the innovations that the Nintendo DS and its second, touch-sensitive screen have offered since launch, it’d be fair to say we’ve had a bit of a mixed bag. The use of it as a control stick for Mario 64, for example, was a perfectly ample use and allowed the game to retain the degree of free control the D-Pad would not have given. Advance Wars used the screen to give users a chance to accurately pinpoint moves, select troops at a simple tap and create their own maps easily. These are two fine examples of games that have been enhanced by the feature-set of their platform.
On the other side of the shiny coin, we have a few titles that have been rather spoilt by some poorly implemented stylus scribbling. Burnout Legends had a touch-screen control system which made the player feel as if the scenery was being turned around a static vehicle, as well as having no feel or intuitively whatsoever. More recently, Rafa Nadal’s Tennis attempted to make the most of the DS, but failed miserably and left players frustratingly slashing at the lower screen in an attempt to get some sort of cohesive rally going.
It’s unfortunate, then, that Rare’s first venture onto the DS with their much-loved Diddy Kong Racing game falls closer to the latter bunch than the former. We all remember it as the colourful kart racing game that gave Mario Kart 64 serious hassle back in the early days of the Nintendo 64, offering a selection of cars, hovercrafts and planes to do battle in across a number of circuits. The DS version is pretty much identical to its older brother, but has a few differences packed in.
Given the opening few paragraphs, it would be safe to assume that you’re now of the opinion that those differences are not necessarily good. You’d be right with that assumption, but let’s get one thing out of the way first: the racing is still great fun. The circuits are mostly memorable and offer a selection of challenges, short cuts and opportunities to kneecap your opponents with a cunning power-up. It also seems to be a lot fairer than Mario Kart as well; build up a hard-earned advantage through some accurate, skilful racing and unless you slip up badly you’ll probably end up winning. The great thing about Diddy Kong Racing was always that it put the onus on the player to build his lead and rewarded him, as opposed to Mario’s motorised adventures, which always seem to end up being a (admittedly fun) lottery. That core feeling remains.
For those who didn’t get around to playing the original, an explanation of the main game mode is in order. Starting off with the loosest of possible storylines – a giant evil pig invading an island – the Adventure Mode sees you choosing one of the eight racers on offer (not including Banjo or Conker this time, presumably due to them now being tied in with Microsoft) and driving around a large island hub, accessing new areas by winning golden balloons in races and challenges. The initial game sees you working your way through 16 circuits across 4 mini hubs in a variety of events as well as taking on a mini hub boss in a couple of races.
For the most part, when the game is concentrating on allowing you to race normally, this remains enjoyable. Problems quickly begin to crop up though; before the start of the race you have to spin your finger or stroke down on the touch-screen or blow on the microphone to give your relevant vehicle a boost start. The problem with doing this is it means that one of your hands is not where it should be when the race starts, meaning you either have to sacrifice acceleration or the ability to dodge other racers and objects in the immediate aftermath of the green light. This therefore makes the whole thing about as fun as slamming your head repeatedly in a fridge door.
This, however, is a minor annoyance in comparison to a couple of other uses the DS touch screen has been employed to do. Upon winning each of the four circuits in whichever mini-hub you’re in, you’re tasked with going round each on an automatically piloted magic carpet popping balloons that have been strewn about. The main problem is that swinging the camera around to look at the balloons is incredibly clunky and leaves you wrestling with your viewpoint whilst missing targets left, right and centre. There’s also the ability to tap, hold and drag coins into a purse in the bottom right of the screen, but these are often placed in positions where you can’t physically pop balloons and get coins at the same time.
The worst of all, though, has been saved for a couple of the boss battles. Switching control away from using the face buttons, the game challenges you to draw your racer’s path on a top-down map with the stylus, whilst occasionally circling the thing around frantically in the bottom left of the screen to keep your kart running at top speed. On top of this, you have to double tap the icon of either you or the boss to use a power-up. The result of the mixture of frantic penmanship is utterly frustrating and teeth-grindingly difficult, with the control over you kart’s path never actually certain and the frequent dips in speed between propeller swirling keeping your opponent in the picture through no fault of your own.
These frustrations could have sunk Diddy Kong Racing DS without a trace. It makes you realise just how smart a move it was for Nintendo to not fiddle around with the classic formula of Mario Kart and rely on simple, face button controls. Thankfully, a couple of pleasant unlockables give the player some proper incentives to trawl through even the lesser fun moments, with a track editor on offer which gives you a limited ability to create your very own mini epic circuit and a sound recorder so you can patch in your own sounds for various in-game situations.
The multiplayer mode allows up to six people to battle it out in either race or battle modes, and also allows for single cart play. The ability to race against your chums is always an enjoyable experience on arcade racers (hence why I wasted a small fortune on Sega Rally at my local arcade back in the day), and Diddy Kong Racing DS is no different.
Graphically, DKR remains pleasant enough throughout but can’t come close to the looks of Mario Kart. Bright in colour and with a selection of basic textures, the game runs at a reasonably smooth 30fps but occasionally struggles a little when there’s a large number of karts or a particularly hectic bit of action going on. The game’s soundtrack has also been given a bit of an overhaul, with some character’s voices being re-recorded or cut completely.
In a nutshell, Diddy Kong Racing DS is a flawed but reasonable experience. One could argue that the Adventure Mode is rather simple and that the touch-screen elements are awful additions to what should have been a great racing title, and that is to an extent true. That’s not to say that the game hasn’t got its moments; the racing itself is rather fun, and given the amount of unlockables dotted around you’ll have a great incentive to keep going. However, if you are itching for a DS racing title then it’s hard to look past Mario Kart, as sadly ten years on from their original on-track duel Diddy Kong has come to this party in a slightly tired, flawed vehicle.
On the other side of the shiny coin, we have a few titles that have been rather spoilt by some poorly implemented stylus scribbling. Burnout Legends had a touch-screen control system which made the player feel as if the scenery was being turned around a static vehicle, as well as having no feel or intuitively whatsoever. More recently, Rafa Nadal’s Tennis attempted to make the most of the DS, but failed miserably and left players frustratingly slashing at the lower screen in an attempt to get some sort of cohesive rally going.
It’s unfortunate, then, that Rare’s first venture onto the DS with their much-loved Diddy Kong Racing game falls closer to the latter bunch than the former. We all remember it as the colourful kart racing game that gave Mario Kart 64 serious hassle back in the early days of the Nintendo 64, offering a selection of cars, hovercrafts and planes to do battle in across a number of circuits. The DS version is pretty much identical to its older brother, but has a few differences packed in.
Given the opening few paragraphs, it would be safe to assume that you’re now of the opinion that those differences are not necessarily good. You’d be right with that assumption, but let’s get one thing out of the way first: the racing is still great fun. The circuits are mostly memorable and offer a selection of challenges, short cuts and opportunities to kneecap your opponents with a cunning power-up. It also seems to be a lot fairer than Mario Kart as well; build up a hard-earned advantage through some accurate, skilful racing and unless you slip up badly you’ll probably end up winning. The great thing about Diddy Kong Racing was always that it put the onus on the player to build his lead and rewarded him, as opposed to Mario’s motorised adventures, which always seem to end up being a (admittedly fun) lottery. That core feeling remains.
For those who didn’t get around to playing the original, an explanation of the main game mode is in order. Starting off with the loosest of possible storylines – a giant evil pig invading an island – the Adventure Mode sees you choosing one of the eight racers on offer (not including Banjo or Conker this time, presumably due to them now being tied in with Microsoft) and driving around a large island hub, accessing new areas by winning golden balloons in races and challenges. The initial game sees you working your way through 16 circuits across 4 mini hubs in a variety of events as well as taking on a mini hub boss in a couple of races.
For the most part, when the game is concentrating on allowing you to race normally, this remains enjoyable. Problems quickly begin to crop up though; before the start of the race you have to spin your finger or stroke down on the touch-screen or blow on the microphone to give your relevant vehicle a boost start. The problem with doing this is it means that one of your hands is not where it should be when the race starts, meaning you either have to sacrifice acceleration or the ability to dodge other racers and objects in the immediate aftermath of the green light. This therefore makes the whole thing about as fun as slamming your head repeatedly in a fridge door.
This, however, is a minor annoyance in comparison to a couple of other uses the DS touch screen has been employed to do. Upon winning each of the four circuits in whichever mini-hub you’re in, you’re tasked with going round each on an automatically piloted magic carpet popping balloons that have been strewn about. The main problem is that swinging the camera around to look at the balloons is incredibly clunky and leaves you wrestling with your viewpoint whilst missing targets left, right and centre. There’s also the ability to tap, hold and drag coins into a purse in the bottom right of the screen, but these are often placed in positions where you can’t physically pop balloons and get coins at the same time.
The worst of all, though, has been saved for a couple of the boss battles. Switching control away from using the face buttons, the game challenges you to draw your racer’s path on a top-down map with the stylus, whilst occasionally circling the thing around frantically in the bottom left of the screen to keep your kart running at top speed. On top of this, you have to double tap the icon of either you or the boss to use a power-up. The result of the mixture of frantic penmanship is utterly frustrating and teeth-grindingly difficult, with the control over you kart’s path never actually certain and the frequent dips in speed between propeller swirling keeping your opponent in the picture through no fault of your own.
These frustrations could have sunk Diddy Kong Racing DS without a trace. It makes you realise just how smart a move it was for Nintendo to not fiddle around with the classic formula of Mario Kart and rely on simple, face button controls. Thankfully, a couple of pleasant unlockables give the player some proper incentives to trawl through even the lesser fun moments, with a track editor on offer which gives you a limited ability to create your very own mini epic circuit and a sound recorder so you can patch in your own sounds for various in-game situations.
The multiplayer mode allows up to six people to battle it out in either race or battle modes, and also allows for single cart play. The ability to race against your chums is always an enjoyable experience on arcade racers (hence why I wasted a small fortune on Sega Rally at my local arcade back in the day), and Diddy Kong Racing DS is no different.
Graphically, DKR remains pleasant enough throughout but can’t come close to the looks of Mario Kart. Bright in colour and with a selection of basic textures, the game runs at a reasonably smooth 30fps but occasionally struggles a little when there’s a large number of karts or a particularly hectic bit of action going on. The game’s soundtrack has also been given a bit of an overhaul, with some character’s voices being re-recorded or cut completely.
In a nutshell, Diddy Kong Racing DS is a flawed but reasonable experience. One could argue that the Adventure Mode is rather simple and that the touch-screen elements are awful additions to what should have been a great racing title, and that is to an extent true. That’s not to say that the game hasn’t got its moments; the racing itself is rather fun, and given the amount of unlockables dotted around you’ll have a great incentive to keep going. However, if you are itching for a DS racing title then it’s hard to look past Mario Kart, as sadly ten years on from their original on-track duel Diddy Kong has come to this party in a slightly tired, flawed vehicle.
6/10
