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Second Best Selling Game!

DKR was the second best selling Christmas game! Now all can have the joy of having fun with DKR! GoldenEye ranked first, DKR second, and I think Super Mario was third.


N64.com

Diddy Kong Racing is Nintendo’s biggest winter holiday release for '97. The game beams with bright primary colors and cute characters, and it screams to be compared with the game from which it originated, Mario Kart 64. Everyone with their head screwed on will do just that, and frankly we’re glad. Diddy Kong Racing is an excellent follow-up to the somewhat controversial Mario Kart, improving on all of the game’s weaknesses and inventing a few new additions of its own.

Diddy Kong's main drawback is that it's numbingly cute, certainly too cute for its own damn good. It feels almost cynically calculated in its look, feel, delivery, and even, ironically, in its timing. It’s Rare’s version of Disneyland, just in time for the winter holiday. The game lacks the originality of Rare’s Blast Corps, and is deep down, a Mario Kart 64 clone. That said, it’s the best kart game we’ve ever seen.

What’s most exciting about Diddy Kong Racing is its consistent, organized, strategic gameplay. All 30 courses (five worlds) are built perfectly into a giant Overworld, and although many of the courses are short, there are lots of objectives besides just straight racing that make them versatile and deep.

For a start, there are boss characters. These are accessed by winning straight races. Success reveals a boss, who is then raced against. Once beaten, the boss grants a second new mission -- a Silver Coin Challenge. Here, you collect the eight silver coins dotted around the track and take first place. And as if that isn’t enough, once you've beaten all the bosses, you go back and race them a second time to win pieces of an amulet. This time, the bosses are much, much harder. And then (yes, there’s more), you have to beat all of your opponents in a sequential series of races (called the Trophy Race), which later on helps you to seek out new worlds.

This is certainly a big challenge. Helping out is an arsenal of stuff -- power drifts, a cool new Sharp Turn Technique, various weapons, provided by multicolored balloons, and bananas, which actually aid, rather than hurt you. What’s more, you have the brilliant addition of two new vehicles, the plane and the hovercraft, each of which are easy to learn, but hard to master.

Graphically, the game is the most spectacular of its kind. All of the glitchy polygons that flickered in a game like Super Mario 64 are gone. Rare has managed to master Realtime Dynamic Animation, which enables polygons to span larger surfaces and to be more flexible than before -- without substantial loss of frames. It should be noted that, just like Goldeneye, the frame-rate is not 30 frames per second, but since the game is so enjoyable, this detail is less annoying. Specular highlighting, light-sourcing, and sweet looking transparencies are used to great effect, all providing the game with a clean, shiny-looking appearance that even the most critical Japanese gamer will look upon with smiling eyes. It must be noted that nearly every object, save a few flowers and shrubs, are polygons. That includes the characters, which move at a smooth frame rate, and perform funny little animation sequences like looking at other characters as they drive by.

In the audio department, the comical voice reactions of the characters is also heart-warming, even if some of the characters are just too cute and are certain to annoy older gamers (Pipsy, Timber, Conker stand up and take a bow). The music is charming and dynamic, which is standard to most games, but is somehow more coordinated and well-timed in this game. For instance, driving around the Overworld and choosing characters in the character select menu provides different musical environments. In fact, each character has his or her own music, most noticeable by flipping from character to character in this aforementioned menu. Sound effects are all appropriate and well produced.

In the end, Diddy Kong Racing is a calculated, copy of a game that Nintendo, not Rare, originated. But as is the case with Rare, the company has that amazing knack for taking an idea and crafting it into something beautiful. Diddy Kong Racing is a deep, colorful game with an overly kiddy feel and look. But after a few minutes, you’ll be compelled with subtle details, blissful gameplay and graphics, and the full, rich world that makes Diddy Kong Racing an even better game than Mario Kart.

Douglass Perry


U64


www.SIXTYFOUR.com

I was a little worried when I first fired up Diddy Kong Racing. The sounds of little children giggling--although realistic--made me think, "oh no, this game is going to be more cute than fun." I didn't think that for much longer. The intro scenes introducing the characters racing around various tracks are very impressive, and after hitting the start button and seeing the 8 characters dancing--waiting to be selected--I giggled like a little kid.

Once you get past the title screens, the cuteness dissolves and the pure fun begins. The graphics are spectacular, of course. There is a bit of clipping here and there, but you don't really notice it, and when you do, it's in the Central Area of Adventure Mode when it doesn't really matter (the other game mode is "Tracks," which is just racing by yourself or multiplayer). I do remember getting "stuck" during a race, but that was more on a wall instead of in the wall, and I did some pretty crappy driving to get in that situation. Unlike Mario Kart, your vehicles (car, plane, and hovercraft) are detailed in 3D polygonal beauty. Your character is also pretty detailed driving the vehicle. Your head looks over your shoulder when you back up, and your arms move the levers of the hovercraft when you steer--that kind of thing. But where the graphics really shine is in the scenery. Waterfalls look fantastic; the water itself seems better than Wave Race. You would think that four racetracks in a snow-themed world would bear some resemblance to each other, but because of fantastic design and tons of different textures, nothing seems repetitious. I'd be repetitious if I went on about this game's graphics. Other than the clipping here and there, the graphics are superb. Oh, and no fog; pretty impressive indeed.

Like the children giggling at the game's start, the sound in the game is, in a word, cute. But only the voices come near the line of being too cute. Each character has a few coin phrases which they shout out in certain situations: passing, being passed, etc. Though he has a nice accent, Taj's voice is a little muddled at times, especially when he says, "this is for you" at the end of a race when you win a gold balloon (at least I think that's what he says). Probably the worst voice in the game comes from the various bosses. I believe the Walrus, for example, is supposed to sound like an old man, but frankly he sounds a tad, well, to be politically correct, speech-impaired. The sound effects from skidding out to launching missiles to dropping oil slicks hit their mark, and the music sounds fantastic. The Christmas-themed music in the snow levels is great. My favorite music at the time being is T.T.'s theme. I hardly played Time Trial mode, but I'd visit T.T. just to listen to his music. In any case, none of the voices, sound effects, or music become annoying or repetitious.

From the car to the plane to the hovercraft, the controls work on a nice learning curve. Power sliding in car is different than Mario Kart, and takes a little getting used to. The hovercraft takes the most getting used to, and you'll be all over the place at first, but once I got used to it I had some of the most fun in the hovercraft--the above mentioned Walrus course is a blast. The plane handles like a plane, but my one gripe is that the instruction booklet tells you nothing on how to control the vehicles. Since this was a rental, I'm guessing/hoping that the game comes with a fold out like Mario Kart to instruct you on how to control the vehicles, what the items are and how they work, etc. In the plane I accidentally figured out how to do barrel rolls and loops, In the hovercraft I found out you can lean forward and back to affect performance. It was a nice feeling being surprised by performing these tricks, but it made me wonder how many more maneuvers there are out there...damn if I didn't try doing a Star Fox-like U-turn in the plane. I could fly upside down for a while, but no U-turn.

So what exactly is a racing/adventure? Well, the game goes a little something like this: your adventure begins in the "Central Area," a fairly large area for you to drive around/explore in. As with Super Mario's stars, your goal in Diddy Kong Racing is to collect gold balloons. The heart of DKR lies in the four worlds attached to the central area. Find one gold balloon in the Central Area, and you can access the first world, Dino Domain. Entering a world puts you in that world's lobby where you'll face four doors which lead to tracks, a boss course door, a T.T. Challenge door, and the entrance to the trophy race. T.T., by the way, is this cute little clock guy that wanders around the lobby much like Taj wanders around the Central Area. While Taj changes your vehicle to car, plane, or hovercraft, T.T. is the critter to talk to if you want to race Time Trial mode and/or check the status of your game (pieces of amulets and trophies collected, etc). Also like Super Mario's stars, race track doors have numbers on them designating how many gold balloons you need to enter that track. Diddy Kong Racing is far from a linear game. If you have enough balloons, you can hop from world to world and race whichever tracks you like. But if you were to move in a linear fashion, here's how a world "works."

Race in the four tracks separately and come in first for each. Then you can race the boss. Beat the boss, and open up the silver coin challenge where you race through the four tracks again, but this time you have to pick up eight silver coins scattered around the track AND come in first. After that, race against the (more difficult) boss again and receive a piece of the WizPig amulet--WizPig is the Bowser of Diddy Kong Racing. Then there's the trophy race where you consecutively race the four tracks and must come in first after all four as in Mario Kart's Grand Prix. Lastly, hidden within one of the four tracks is a key to open up T.T.'s Challenge course. Beat that and you get a piece of T.T.'s amulet. Whew. That sounds like a lot, and it is. You might think racing the same track more than once would get old, but you would be wrong. Luckily, the courses and your opponents are challenging (your opponents do NOT cheat, which is refreshing); but more importantly, out of the four main worlds, not one single course is disappointing fun-wise. Not as many jumps as I'd like to see, but there is a loop in one and most have multiple paths to take along with a few secrets here and there. The zip-strips, speed-increasing bananas, and power-up balloons add to the excitement and strategy already existent solely from the course designs. Plus, the game mixes up which vehicles you race with quite nicely. I played a couple of tracks over and over again for more than an hour trying to win the silver coin challenge, and not once did I feel frustrated, cheated, or bored. You really get sucked into the gameplay, and you really need some skills to finish some of these tracks. Finishing the tracks does a couple of things other than reward you with gold balloons. After the silver coin challenge you can choose which vehicle to use before you enter the race--which is handy in finding the hidden key. Also, finishing a course opens up the track in Multiplayer, or "Tracks" mode.

Ahh, multiplayer. The other heart of Diddy Kong Racing. It's an absolute blast. The fantastic thing is that you can choose which vehicle YOU want. One person can race in a plane, one in a car, one in a hovercraft. Actually, the really fantastic thing is that two player multiplayer doesn't have to be just two players. You can choose the number of opponents to race against, and the "Battle Modes" add two, fairly intelligent computer opponents. You can race on individual tracks, or go through all four in the trophy race (if you open the trophy race in Adventure Mode, that is). The T.T. Challenge courses from the Adventure mode become the "Battle Modes" of DKR's multiplayer game. Two are much like Mario Kart's battle modes, but better designed and more fun. One battle mode takes place in an ice pyramid, the other on a lake/beach--they're easier to get around in and find the other opponents than in the Mario Kart battle mode tracks, which makes the battling more fast and furious. The other two T.T. Challenge tracks are more like "Battle Games" where you're trying to accomplish a task instead of annihilating your opponents. Great fun was had and much trash talking was heard at Fire Mountain where you attempt to hatch three eggs at your "base" while stopping your other three opponents from doing the same. The one downside to racing and battling are the power up balloons--but only when compared to Mario Kart's power-up items. In DKR, the power-ups just aren't as numerous and varied as Mario Kart's. When not comparing the two though, I had no problem with the power balloon items; that magnet really comes in handy.

Though it tries to be Kiddy Kong, Diddy Kong Racing is not a kiddie game. This is challenging, full blown racing at its best. You might think its replay value in Adventure mode--racing each track more than once--is a little bogus, but the game is so much fun that hours will have gone by before you even know it. And you'd do it all again in a second. The Tracks (Multiplayer) mode naturally launches this game into replay orbit, and there are also cheat codes to find to spice things up even more. Kudos to Rare, who now have the two best games out for the Nintendo 64. I just hope I can find a copy when it hits the store shelves. Diddy Kong Racing is worth every penny and all the hype.