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Who says you have to grow up? Here at SI.com's Game Room, our staffers review the latest sports video game titles to hit the market and welcome your feedback.
  
2/15/2007 01:56:00 PM

Review: Diddy Kong Racing (Nintendo DS)

By land, sea or air.
Race by land, sea or air.
NINTENDO
By Jake Luft

Batman has Robin, Radioactive Man has Fallout Boy and Donkey Kong has Diddy Kong.

First introduced in the raucous Super Nintendo title, Donkey Kong Country, little Diddy is all grown up now. (At least, he's grown up enough to have a licence to drive a go-kart, a hovercraft and an airplane.) Diddy trades in his sidekick status for marquee billing in Nintendo's latest addition to the Mario Kart family of go-kart racers, Diddy Kong Racing.

It's a worthy successor in what has become a video game racing dynasty on par with Gran Turismo and Project Gotham. At its core, Diddy Kong Racing isn't much different than a typical Mario Kart game. You hop in a horsepower-starved go-kart and try to turn and burn your way through the tracks, picking up weapons and power-ups and hitting the speed-burst arrows.

What sets Diddy apart is the free-roaming adventure mode that lets you take the story at your own pace as you explore an exotic tropical island. You can swap out your go-kart at any time in favor of the hovercraft or the single-engine prop plane. Each of the three vehicles are distinct enough that you'll have to adjust your racing style to accommodate them. For each race you finish, you are awarded a golden balloon. The more of these you collect, the more of the island is unlocked. But if you proceed to quickly, you'll end up over your head and find yourself getting dusted right from the starting gun. The key is to advance gradually and upgrade your various vehicles with the coins you collect from the racetracks.

The touch pad on the DS, the bottom screen that allows you to interact with the games on a tangible level, adds a subtle dimension to the gameplay. At the start of each race, for example, you can give yourself a boost by rubbing a pixelated wheel (for the go-kart), a propeller (for the plane) or a fan (hovercraft) furiously back and forth. You can also use the pad to unlock secrets as you roam around the island -- just stop and experiment when you see a hand icon pop up on screen. Perhaps the best use of the touch pad is in the magic-carpet-ride levels, where you use the stylus (the stick the DS comes with) to "pop" balloons and collect coins as you progress through the level on the track. (This was a big hit for my 3-year-old daughter.)

The use of the weapons, which you unlock by driving into floating balloons, is where most of the strategy in this game can be found. There are offensive (e.g. missiles) and defensive (e.g. oil slicks) weapons. You can either use them right away, to minimal effect, or save them and try to "upgrade" with power-ups by finding coins or simply driving into another balloon of the same color. Upgrade a missile twice and you get a level-three missile, which will seek out the race leader and knock him silly.

Ratings System (1 to 10)
Game Play: 8.5
If you are looking for realistic racing, this isn't it. As is the norm with Nintendo games, they trade in realism for simple, rewarding fun. All three vehicles will feel like they are plodding at first, but they improve markedly as you buy new parts. Diddy has a nice, gradual learning curve, though when you get to the advanced levels you will have to exercise some grey matter and memorize where all the power-ups are on each track to have a chance.
Graphics: 6.5
"Functional" is about the best thing I can say for the look of the game. The landscapes are blocky and there isn't much detail anywhere in the game. The one exception may be when you "draft" behind another race and you get a cool, streaks effect.
Replayability: 9.0
The variety offered in the online play is a feather in Diddy's red baseball cap. The game offers single-cartridge support, which means you can play against a buddy who doesn't own the game. Plus, you can play up to six players at a time with the Wi-Fi multiplayer races. Frankly, the only thing that keeps me from playing this game more is that the small buttons make my hands feel so grubby. Sometimes Nintendo is too much like Trix -- just for kids.


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Posted: 10:39 AM, February 16, 2007   by Anonymous Anonymous
You speak as if this is a new game franchise being created. I believe this is just a reissue of the 1997 version for N64, which was phenomenal by the way.
Posted: 3:12 PM, February 17, 2007   by Anonymous Anonymous
Just thought you might be curious to know that this is EXACTLY the same game as Diddy Kong Racing for Nintendo 64. I mean EXACTLY down to every track and the graphics of the game. They didn't change anything.
Posted: 8:37 PM, February 02, 2008   by Anonymous Anonymous
I just want to know if anyone realized or if it seems that you can only use one of the upgrades at a time. If you bought all the speed and handling upgrades you have to pick a fast driver with a handling upgrade or vice versa not upgradindg both and whippin ass. thaat is kinda lame
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