Diddy Kong Racing DS (Review)

Back when it was released on the N64, Diddy Kong Racing was one of only two games that came close to reaching the addictive high quality of the Mario Kart series (the other was Crash Team Racing). The game was unique due to it's mixture of Mario 64-ish adventuring and kart racing. The game was updated for the DS in 2007 in an attempt to make a great game even better....and they failed miserably.

The basics of the game are still in place, you go around and race in cars, planes and hovercrafts to win balloons that allow you to access other races and locations, and you still have to race the boss of each world twice to get your reward. Even though you're given three different modes of transportation, none of these vehicles are particularly fun to use. The original game made excellent use of the N64's analog stick to make the controls seem more fluid and responsive. For the DS, the controls have been transferred to the D-Pad with shoulder buttons used for drifting and weapons. These controls are slightly unresponsive and sluggish at best which make racing far more of a chore than it should be. The hovercraft in particular is terrible in the controls department and makes me wonder how something like this made it through testing. This problem is slightly balanced out by the truly pathetic A.I. Most of my races were blowouts as my opponents seemed to be even worse at navigating the game's cramp and poorly designed racktracks than I was. True to any kart racer you're able to blast your foes with weapons and unlike in the recent Mario Kart games, everybody has access to all the weapons and there is no cheap over-powered weapon for the A.I to spam. This is the only thing this game has over Mario Kart, although the choice of weapons aren't as inventive.

Even worse is the needless and poor implementation of the DS's abilities. To do a boost start in a race, you have to use the stylus to rotate wheels or propeller. When driving the hovercraft, you'll be forced to blow onto the screen. It's unbelievably awkward to use the stylus to rev up the vehicle, and try to get your hands back to the regular controls when the race abruptly starts. After defeating a boss for the first time, they'll tell you to complete another set of objectives to complete an area. This challenege is a horribly designed rail shooter mini-game. With the stylus, you'll float along a race track and pop all the balloons drifting in your way. Both the popping and the aiming are done with the stylus and with many of the balloons off in all directions, you'll have to first drag the stylus to get a good viewing angle, then tap it again to bust your target. I found that one misplaced touch can foil screw you over. After that's done and the area boss is beaten again and you complete the area's trophy race challenge (racing through the same tracks...again), there is an optional third boss race. In this third encounter, any semblance of quality racing gameplay is thrown out the window. The screen switches to an overhead perspective and The D-Pad and buttons are replaced with the stylus. In order to get your vehicle to move, you'll have to use the stylus to spin a wheel in the touch screen, and then draw a path for the vehicle to follow. This fails like everything else as your kart doesn't follow the stylus path accurately and when your kart slows down, you'll have to spin the wheel again.

This game could have been good, even great. All of the element were present: a variety of playable characters and vehicles, a lot of tracks to go through, and an online multiplayer mode that's actually better than Mario Kart DS. Unfortunately, this game is marred by far too many problems to save it from its mediocrity. The controls, A.I, touch screen, and nearly everything else are poorly implemented. Instead of allowing the new features to be "enjoyed" at leisure, you're forced to endure all of them before finishing the adventure in its entirety, making the game's replayability aggravating. I highly recommend that those looking for a racer on the DS get Mario Kart instead, or if you have an N64, stick with the original Diddy Kong Racing.