N-Philes

Diddy Kong Racing DS

Posted February 5th 2007 by Jared Thomas.

Once again, Diddy Kong Racing is Johnny Come-Lately to a crowd that's already met and fallen in love with Mario's most recent kart offerings. Last time around, Diddy, Conker and crew found their niche and built a modest following with an admirable adventure mode and a variety of vehicles to choose from in Diddy Kong Racing for the N64. In this incarnation for the Nintendo DS, the stage is set for them to go the whole nine yards and really impress. It's an uphill battle that isn't made any easier by the loss of fan-favorite characters Conker and Banjo, who joined the Dark Side when Microsoft bought Rare, but the result is an impressive drive.

It doesn't help things that the main beef of the game -- the adventure mode that set Diddy Kong apart from other Mario Kart clones -- is essentially a port from the N64 version. Woefully lacking is a good part of the voice acting that gave the adventure its personality, as are the Silver Coin Challenges, which have been replaced by somewhat more lame on-rails challenges where you ride Taj's carpet and tap up to 50 balloons while simultaneously trying to adjust the camera so that you can actually see the balloons. Because, you know, there's a touch screen there, and maybe people would complain about porting an eight year-old racer if they didn't jam some touch screen gameplay in, right?

Speaking of which: to get a turbo boost at the start of a race, now you have to use the touch screen and spin a wheel as fast as you can, your boosts power depending on how fast you can spin it. With the planes it's the same deal, only with a propeller that needs spinning. I'm not entirely sure how Rare thinks gamers should do this -- perhaps with the thumb strap? Regardless, I have absolutely no idea why Rare thinks gamers would want to do this. I really can't imagine their R&D group had such a blast coordinating touch screen spinning with D-pad steering that they wanted to share it with us. With the hoverboat you only have to blow into the microphone to spin the boat's turbine which is much more welcome, but you have to blow so forcefully that you'll probably end up with spittle on your DS screen.

Once actually in the race, you'll notice that the game plays about as well as on the D-pad as it did with the analog stick, though your hands will probably cramp even if you have a Lite. It's not really the developer's fault; the DS just isn't built well for keeping one's forefingers on the shoulder buttons at all times. But if you liked the game way back when, or if you just aren't as enthralled with Mario Kart's mechanics as I am, you'll find that the racing is as solid as you'd expect from late-'90s Rare work and as goofy as you'd expect in a race with generic cartoon animals.

Now, for the record, I've never been much of a fan of Diddy Kong Racing -- I'm much more of a Mario Kart man. The control in the Kong kartfest always felt too loose, the courses rarely impress or even stand out, and the items aren't very useful. Oil slicks to slip up opponents, magnets to draw you closer to someone ahead, and shields to protect from damage or inflict it on others just aren't very interesting to me, and rarely help much in the big picture.

The turbo boost and the rockets are solid if not terribly original, and I do have to hand it to Rare that building up the power of your items by conserving one and collecting more like it is more novel and fair than just tossing someone a blue shell or invincible star by pure chance. Of course, while there's something more rewarding about building a single rocket into a cache of ten and then trading up again for a single heat-seeking rocket, taking half a lap or more to get that shot off means items play much less of a role in the victory than hitting all the boost gates littered through the courses, which practically forces gamers to race as if they were computer players on a fixed rail.

If you're looking for a reason to buy Diddy Kong Racing over Mario Kart, you have two good reasons and they both have to do with the online multiplayer. For one thing, it's impossible to snake in a game that isn't equipped with a power slide, and none of the items in the game are capable of single-handedly turning the tide in a match. The other good news is that getting into one of these matches with a friend is easier than it was for the DS' first online racer.

Yes, the game still uses friend codes, because it would be a show of weakness for Nintendo to bend to what its fanbase would actually enjoy. But Diddy Kong Racing takes at least a few small steps toward making the WFC infrastructure something less of a Fils-Amie teabagging. Upon logging onto the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, players can immediately see which of their friends are online. Adding to that, you can also see whether they're matchmaking, hosting a game you can join, or currently racing. You can of course always just opt to let the WFC match you up against random racers, but compared to Mario Kart's puzzling, borderline-hateful online setup, Diddy Kong Racing makes it much more of a breeze to play with friends. Relatively speaking this would make Xbox Live a category four hurricane, but hey, you get what you pay for.

Steady Beat - Monkeys + online play = success!

This time around, Diddy Kong Racing's position as a late-to-the-party Mario Kart clone works to its advantage, offering up an online experience that works out some of the kinks found in Mario's handheld romp two years ago. On the other hand, its adventure mode is mostly a port of an N64 game, and the additional material is mixed bag of smiles and frowns. The game's worth largely hedges on having access to a wi-fi hotspot and a serious toon-racing jones that just wasn't satisfied quite with Mario Kart DS. For most folks that's a long shot, but fans of the N64 original and others who appreciate a second-party take on wacky racing should enjoy what Rare has brought back to the table.

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