16 differences between Diddy Kong Racing DS and N64, including video review

10 February 2007

Posted by:Ferry

Diddy Kong Racing 64 was second only to Mario Kart 64 when it came out in 1997 (depending on who you ask, of course, but for us it was more of a rental). I remember Alan coming over about four years ago and bringing an N64 copy. Personally I think he did it to kick my ass, or maybe I kept bumping into walls. Still, we had some good laughs playing it as the game itself was fun and a solid racer, but we all noticed how dated the graphics had become, now that seems to have been addressed by Rare in the DS version… and then some!

With the release of Diddy Kong Racing DS this week it’s time to see what the added features are. But first a video review:

The list of 16 added features:
1. There’s the addition of eight-player multiplayer (download or multi-cart) and Wi-Fi multiplayer works with 2, 4, and 6-player.
2. 2-4 player Battle Modes (single-cart, multi-cart, or WiFi online).
3. Touch-screen and microphone compatible (you can record your own sound effects, see the video review above for more uses)
4. An emblem-creation tool similar to Mario Kart DS was added.
5. You have the ability to create your own tracks once you unlock T.T.’s “Wish Races.”
6. The game’s tracks have also received a fresh paint job thanks to some remodeling and retexturing treatment.
7. Dixie Kong and Tiny Kong are added as playable characters, likely to replace the loss of Conker and Banjo.
8. Changes in character voice-overs. Bumper sounds a little more mature, while Taj lacks his Indian accent — he sounds like he hails from the UK now.
9. Silver Coin challenges have been replaced by balloon-popping challenges, where the player flies on Taj’s magic carpet and uses the stylus to eliminate the balloons.
10. The homing missile is the final upgrade when you grab enough red balloons. In the 64 version, it was the second most upgrade.
11. You’ll only have five homing missiles instead of 10 when you receive the upgrade.
12. The opening boss stage is a good deal easier than in the 64 version.
13. The Ancient Lake and Whale Bay water tracks have been altered slightly, mostly to accommodate the DS control template.
14. Four tracks have new background music: Jungle Falls, Snowball Valley, Pirate Lagoon, and Treasure Caves.
15. Four tracks have also been added to the game for a total of 38 playable. Thunder Cove, Splashdown Pass, Meandering Mount, and Strangled Shrine are the newcomers.
16. Evil Wizard and Taj, Non-Playable Characters in the original game, are now unlockable characters.

Via Wikipedia & GWN

Categories: DS News, News, Retro News, Reviews, Videos

http://www.myspace.com/astrotriforce astrotriforce

sounds great to me! I never really played the original so I’d like to pick the DS version up some time. Looks like lots of fun and they added quite a bit of cool content. Enjoyable video review as well!
shadow link

I think the game looks good but it could be way more interesting if every playable character could have their own unique and individual stats that aren’t too similar. An example would be below: note that all stats are out of five

Pipsi handling:5 accel:5 spd:1

Tiptup handling:4 accel:5 speed:2

Diddy Kong handling:3 accel:3 speed:3

Tiny Kong: handling:4 accel:3 speed:2

Dixie Kong: handling:3 accel:4
speed:2

Crunch: handling:2 accel:2 speed:5

Bumper: handling:2 accel:3 speed:4

Timber: handling:3 accel:2
speed:4

Drumstick: handling:2 accel:4 speed:4

T.T.: handling:3 accel:4 speed:5

Taj: handling:2 accel:1 speed:5

Wizpig: handling:1 accel:2 speed:5

And if Conker and Banjo were on, their stats might look something like this:

Conker: handling:2 accel:4
speed:3

Banjo: handling:2 accel:3 speed:5

Thankyou very much if you actually read this. If there are any mistakes please comment on it! And if anything seems unorganized or not right tell me if you can.
shadow link

Oh and I forgot one thing, Rare this game is really good but please if you would make some more levels so it can keep us going at it! I’d say it needs about thirty levels(alot of them should be secret) that could be diverse and fun. And uh, I know it would sound kind of mean but spinning a propellor, blowing into a mic, and rotating a wheel are not fun rare! You guys could do alot better than that! Maybe even take off the boss touch challenges, and let every character have their own color car again. I’ts all screwed up! You would think that Crunch is the orange dot on the display screen because his car used to be orange, but it turns out it’s Timber. The computers or the AI need to be a little more difficult too. Sometimes it is just too easy. If rare would have taken out the ballon popping craziness this game would have scored a way higher score. With all said above I believe Diddy Kong Racing would be much much better than Mario Kart any day! Thankyou for your time.
cheerleadergirl9000

I have been wondering why every character on the game all start as yellow cars? I mean, that’s just plain out ugly! I like upgradind the vehicle, but man I wish everyone had their own color car from thr first one, Now you get mixed up with the little dots on the bottom screen! Other than that, rare you have outdone yourself once again! LOL
Julianne Kitten

My favorite character was always Pipsi and it is sad that Diddy Kong has overtaken the game when he is a rather inferior character in the origional game.