For those of you that didn’t read the instruction manual for the Nintendo 64 version, the basic premise of Diddy Kong Racing DS is the evil Wizpig has invaded Timber’s Island and is causing havoc for its populace. Annoyed by this, a small group of animals send letters to Diddy Kong and inform him of the trouble. Being the hero he is, Diddy Kong sets his sights on besting Wizpig and arrives on the island to assist his new found friends.
Diddy Kong Racing DS is similar to Super Mario 64 DS in the sense that at heart, it remains a port of a Nintendo 64 classic, while at the same time it implements new features that take advantage of the Nintendo DS’ capabilities. The touch screen is used for two main purposes: a bird’s eye view of the race in a similar style to Mario Kart DS and a new means of giving your vehicles a speed boost at the beginning of the race. As apposed to the usual “press A before the green light” method, Rare have implemented some rather gimmicky (and we use that word with caution) uses for the touch screen and microphone. During the countdown at the beginning of the race, you’ll be required to move the stylus up and down the touch screen rapidly to give your car a boost or in the case of a plane, move the stylus around in circles turning the propellers of the plane. The hovercraft on the other hand sees you blow into the microphone as if pumping up the hovercraft.
Some farmiliar scenery to be found in this game.
The touch screen’s uses don’t stop there though. In Adventure mode, when you explore Timber’s Island, you can tap at coconuts and frogs – flicking them away from your vehicle. The same method is used to talk to people and to interact with other objects scattered across the island. It really brings the next step of interactivity to the game but to be quite frank, it isn’t needed for a racing game and will most likely get boring for players overtime.
Additionally, once again like Mario Kart DS, you will be able to draw your own character icon for easy identification during online play however, the icon isn’t painted on your vehicle and can’t be seen in anyway during single player mode. Designing your icon is basically the same as Mario Kart DS with the system being slightly more accurate and the option of saving up to six different icons included. Vehicles can also be upgraded and customised using a variety of options including selecting the colour of your vehicle and given it a performance upgrades. Performance upgrades are unlocked as you progress through adventure mode and can be purchased using coins, which have replaced bananas on the racetracks. At this stage, not too much is known about the upgrades but it’s a fair assumption that they’ll increase your speed and perhaps give you better defence when characters ram into you.
You can now create your own racetracks using the “Wish Race” unlockable in the game. Information has revealed that the Wish Race feature will offer two modes - one for single-player and one for multiplayer suggesting that you can show off your designing abilities to your friends as well as create a sort of training course for yourself.
We never did complete all of the T.T. time trails in the original.
The final changes to the game are known are the exclusion of two characters from the original game: Banjo and Conker. This is presumably due to Microsoft buying out Rare and obtaining their respected licenses, however, four new racers have replaced them: Taj (the elephant guy from the original), Dixie Kong, Tiny Kong and Wizpig himself. As well as this, there are four exclusive courses that have been added to the DS version to be the icing on the cake, as it were, for the single player experience. Multiplayer has been included with support for up to eight players via single card download play and eight on Multicard. Nintendo’s Wi-Fi Connection Service has also been brought to the mix and will allow a maximum of six players to join in.
Apart from what we’ve mentioned, everything else retains its form from the original right down to the battle tracks and weapon/power up system where picking up multiple balloons of the same colour would upgrade your power up. With the inclusion of online support and a few other new features, Diddy Kong Racing DS appears to be as enjoyable as its Nintendo 64 counterpart. It’s currently scheduled for an April release in Australia and a Q1 2007 in Europe.
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6 people can play each other online. The online system for the game is meant to be really good.
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