Diddy Kong Racing DS, announced just last year, is Rare’s first foray into the DS market. Sadly, critics have not been so kind to this game, nitpicking every minor discrepancy and making the game appear worse as a result. After a decent amount of playtime, I can attest that this is not the case at all, even moreso if you’re a Rare fan and/or have played the original Diddy Kong Racing for the Nintendo 64.
When you start the game, you find Bumper, Diddy Kong, and Tiptup flying their planes on the top screen while the Nintendo and Rare logos are shown on the touch screen. The title shows up while the three options for the game are shown: Single Player, Multiplayer, and Options.
The Single Player has two options available from the start: The Adventure Mode, which should be familiar to N64 veterans, and Single Player Race, in which you can race on any track you’ve beaten for practice and also to beat the best times on the course.
When you start Adventure Mode, you are treated to an on-screen story of Wizpig menacing the characters of Timber’s Island. Timber calls Diddy Kong (along with Dixie and Tiny Kong) for additional help. Krunch overhears what’s going on and decides to tag along as well, and the game begins. Then, you are told by Taj to make an icon using the touch screen. You can then select your character. Fans of the N64 version who have come to know and love the character’s voices will be quick to note the change in voice for every character. The voices are different, but it’s a minor nitpick.
While not deserving of a bad score, I personally don’t like the option to just use the touch screen to make an icon. Animal Crossing DS (and Mario Kart DS to a lesser extent) allowed you to make icons with the use of the control pad and face buttons. It’s a bit disappointing to not have the same opportunity here, and yet, it’s nothing that deserves to bring the score down an undeserved notch.
Adventure Mode, while providing the same main content as the N64 version, has a few differences to the DS version. For one, on the overworld map is a tent in which you can call Taj (by rubbing his magic lamp) to change your character, challenge him in a race, customize your vehicles, and buy unlockable content. In addition, there are other new surprises to find, including using the touch screen to unlock balloons and scratch cards (being cards that give you a certain amount of coins depending on which square you scratch off).
The gameplay is still the same as it was in the N64 version. With the right amount of Golden Balloons, you can enter a race in an attempt to win more Golden Balloons. New to the DS version are two additions to normal races. The first being that bananas (items in the N64 version) have been replaced by coins that can be used to purchase unlockables a la Banjo Pilot. The second addition is that before a race, you must either use the touch screen or blow into the microphone to boost before a racer. If there’s anything DKR DS is at justified fault with, it’s this. The touch screen boosting adds nothing to the game, is rather difficult to do and then rapidly go back to the face buttons to race, and overall, it just feels like it was added for the sake of adding it.
When you’re gained all the Golden Balloons you can open the boss door, allowing you to race one on one against Wizpig’s hypnotized henchmen. After you win, a new option is available, in which you can enter the same races with a twist. In the N64 version, a Silver Coin Challenge was unlocked. This time, with the touch screen in hand, you control yourself on a magic carpet around the designated track in an attempt to pop as many Golden Balloons to complete the race, collecting coins along the way. It’s an interesting diversion, but it doesn’t feel like a race in a racing game, of all things. When this is done for all tracks in a world, you once again race against the boss. When you win, you unlock the Trophy Race, which is your standard racing on the racetracks and getting enough points to win the trophy.
New to the DS version is the option to race against the boss yet again, yet this time, you must use the touch screen in the way they dictate to win a hefty amount of coins. To be honest, some of the boss touch races are easy, but others are not worth the trouble in doing due to a lack of decent explanation or difficulty.
Fans of the N64 version may remember one racetrack in every world having a key in which, when found, unlocks a door in said world to play a battle mode in hopes of winning a part of the T.T. amulet. While Battle Mode is unlockable, it’s not in the main game. Instead, you get T.T.’s Wish Races. T.T. guides you on making a track using the stylus in which you must beat him to get the amulet. Making custom tracks is a rather fun distraction, yet it’s nothing complex or rewarding in the long run as far as the single player mode goes.
The Multiplayer mode is, refreshingly, the part of the game where DKR DS shines. Unlike other Wi-Fi games, you can see from the start if your friends are online and whether or not you can join a game in progress. It has the most advanced options for a Wi-Fi Connection game to date. In my first experience, when racing against 3 other players in a standard race (in which the host must first unlock in the single player mode to play online), there was no lag and all fun. It’s great to play a game that entirely depends on skill and not items to win a race.
The Battle Modes from the N64 version (closed areas in which you must pop everyone’s ballons, hatch eggs, or get the maximum amount of coins) play perfectly on the Wi-Fi connection. New to the DS version is a coin hoarding game, in which you must get 5 coins scattered around the designated track before any other player does. It was surprisingly a very fun mode to play online.
Wish Races, which are unlockable in both single and multiplayer, is one of the greatest Wi-Fi offerings to date. There's so many variations depending on the number of players. You can make an intensely small flat track, or a challenging bumpy track. It's truly an unlockable you should purchase if you have close friends online or off as the entertainment value lasts very long.
The graphics, while not as good as the N64 version, still stand up there as one of the best looking DS titles out there. Rare managed to replicate everything that was in the original title to extent. For example, gone are the lasers that tried to hit you in Spaceport Alpha and Darkmoon Caverns. Thankfully, not all of the little details are gone from this version, the best example being the ghastly Wizpig head ghosts from Haunted Woods.
The music in this game is, put short, as good as it ever was on the N64. Rare has kept nearly all of the tracks from DKR N64 intact, along with some remixed tracks like Darkmoon Caverns and added completely new tracks for those tracks that had the same song as another race such as Pirate Lagoon. It’s a perfect mix of old, new, and remixed, and David Wise should be commended for keeping true to Diddy Kong Racing’s rather cute genre of music.
When it all comes down to it, Diddy Kong Racing DS is a fantastic game regardless of whether or not you’ve played the original. As mentioned, there are a few problems (and one legit problem) with the game, yet nothing compared to the big deal(s) critics are still making it out to be. Diddy Kong Racing for the N64 had a fantastic single player and decent multiplayer, but with the dawn of online play, the reverse is true for DKR DS: it has a fantastic multiplayer and the same (to an extent) single player mode we knew and loved.
It’s still Diddy Kong Racing in the end, and that’s what a lot of Rare-hating critics fail to see these days. It’s a real pity. This is the first game since 2003’s Grabbed By The Ghoulies that definitely doesn’t deserve the scores it has. Diddy Kong Racing DS overall doesn’t disappoint, and is definitely worth a purchase and your time.
"DKRDS is fantastic, regardless of whether or not you’ve played the original"9 out of 10
