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Monday 5 September 2011

Diddy Kong Racing [Game Review]


Its been a busy weekend for me and i havent had the time to watch any new films or purchase any new video games to review, with nothing too contribute i figuired, hey! I'll review some classic video games as there are countless titles i can think of that have carried me through childhood that i'd love to give my opinion on.
So without further adieu heres my review of the Nintendo 64's racing classic Diddy Kong Racing.

Diddy Kong Racing was Rares competition to the N64's Mario Kart 64 in 1997. The game was pre-ordered 800,000 times in the weeks leading up to christmas, making it one of the fastest selling video games of all time with the accolade being more than well deserved as Diddy Kong Racing is possibly one of the best N64 games ever released. The game featured a distinctive game mode that very much had similarites with super Mario 64 except for . . . You're in a vehicle of course! You'd begin the game in an open world map kind of lobby with passages to areas full of doors which led to a certain race track, which over time you would have to unlock via winning races.

The characters in this classic racing game are possibly the reason why i loved the game so very much. I think i could name you them all today even though i've not played the game for over ten years. There were familiar characters such as Diddy Kong (From Donkey Kong Country) Crunch (Also from the same title) Conker (From Conkers Quest & Conkers Bad Fur Day) and the ever recognisable Banjo (From the hit N64 classic Banjo Kazooie which is another game i'd like to review soon). Each track in game was littered with power-ups too use mid race to thwart your rivals with a whole host of different weapons too collect throughout the track, although all in all they were very much the same as Mario Kart.

The fact that in Diddy Kong Racing you would race on unique tracks that relied a certain vehicle made this game stand out for me as it was exciting to get out of the standard go-kart style car and get into a Plane or a Hovercraft, especially in multiplayer where you could all drive something different. Another thing that made DKR different from Mario Kart was the fact at the end of each set of races you would have a boss fight which didnt include racing at all, but instead you would have too complete certain tasks against other computer controlled players in a certain ammount of time and be the last player standing in for example collecting dinosaur eggs.

All in all this game is bloody brilliant! It had some of the most aesthetically pleasing graphics for a Nintendo 64 game and had a whole host memorable characters and tracks which i can still picture today. Countless hours of my childhood were wittled away whilst playing this game and to be quite honest i'd go back and do it again! As back then i was too young and naive to beleive that i had to complete the game and i'd just have fun messing about racing random tracks all day. Now i've got the urge to challenge myself again and complete it all . . . So watch out Diddy Kong, i'm coming for you soon.

Ovcrall Grade: A+

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