Diddy Kong Racing DS [DS]

Let's take a little cruise in the wayback machine, shall we? It's 1997: Prodigy is setting fire to the music charts, Buffy the Vampire Slayer moves to the small screen, and Nintendo 64 is the new hotness. A cartridge called Mario Kart 64 has taken the gaming world by storm with its 3D tracks, familiar characters, and infectious multiplayer modes. Following hot on its heels is Diddy Kong Racing -- a blatant clone that flips the script as a single-player focused racer.

History has repeated itself 10 years later on the Nintendo DS, and Diddy Kong Racing is back. Once again, this game embraces the single-player lifestyle. Originally developed by Rare, DKR's Adventure mode melds racing with the company's platformer trademarks of exploration and collect-a-thons. This means you get an overworld to tool around in, bosses to conquer, and you'll be using coins to unlock upgrades. New on the DS are challenges that require the stylus.

While the character list is a virtual "who's-that?" of cartoony animals (buh-bye Banjo and Conker; welcome back Tuptup and Pipsy), you'll be taking to land, sea, and air in three distinct vehicles: car, hovercraft, and airplane. Useable items come in the form of different colored balloons which allow for upgrades: Shoot missiles, become surrounded by an energy shield, or magnetically attach yourself to karts further down the course.

Winning is, in fact, everything in DKR. You need to take first place to get the golden balloons that act as gatekeepers for every other course. It's easy early on, but the difficulty ramps up significantly -- requiring multiple attempts to earn that balloon. Beat all the courses in a section, and you take on the boss. Beat him, and you must complete each track's Balloon Touch challenge -- which replaces the beloved silver coin goals on N64. Here, you control carpet-riding elephant Taj in first-person and must touch as many balloons with your stylus as possible in one lap. It technically works as a mechanic, but doesn't really fit the context of the game. Boss battles where you drive with the stylus fare worse, and using the touch screen to try for pre-race boosts just makes you uncomfortably hold the stylus the whole time. Courses themselves are designed well, and take advantage of all three vehicle types.

It may not be completely fair to compare Diddy Kong Racing to Mario Kart DS, but that's what we're going to do. Most of the deviations DKR makes on kart themes have mixed results. Getting different vehicles is novel and handling is tweaked in clever ways, but the plane and hovercraft aren't any more fun than the car -- in fact, they may be less entertaining. Dropping a racing game this open-ended world full of goodies is innovative, but the rest of the content is too reliant on unlockables -- forcing you to wade through Adventure mode before doing other things. Why not just let us build our own course from the get-go? Great ideas should be embraced, not hidden away.

Multiplayer -- which was never a strong suit in the N64 version -- is hindered by the need to be unlocked as well. DKR on DS allows for Wi-Fi races and battle modes, but the initial selection is shockingly tiny. Once you get up to speed there's good fun to be had via either Wi-Fi, multi-cart, or single-cart download play; but the hoops you need to jump through are annoying.

While personal tastes dictated which kart held your heart in '97, the motoring monkey has fallen behind in the DS race. While Mario Kart has upgraded significantly (mission mode, more tracks), the mixed bag that is Diddy Kong Racing today can be seen as a sidestep at best. The stylus aspects were better left out, fun is barricaded by a need to complete Adventure mode, and the overall vibe is even more painfully sugarcoated today than it was a decade ago. Diddy even put on weight at this 10-year reunion! Diddy Kong Racing is not bad by any stretch, but the brilliance of Mario Kart DS makes its reappearance a bit unessential