Jeff's Gaming Blog

Today I’m taking a look back at Diddy Kong Racing, which was one of the best racing games on N64. But it’s not just a typical kart racer, it has a number of adventure game elements. Not only are there are boss battles and many unlockables, but there is a large hub world that connects all of the courses, and it’s fun to just go around exploring.

You weren’t limited to just using a car; you could also control a hovercraft or a plane. To change vehicles, you would honk your horn at the genie.

You could choose from a number of characters, including Diddy Kong (naturally) and Banjo from Banjo-Kazooie. Conker the squirrel was also included, although this was before Conker had his bad-guy makeover in Conker’s Bad Fur Day. Some of the characters have some hilarious voices; Krunch sounds just like Krusty The Clown from The Simpsons. I had a lot of fun just playing around with the voices at the character selection scene. Here’s a short video to show what I mean.

As with most of Rare’s N64 games, Diddy Kong Racing also has some great music. Not only was the adventure mode outstanding, but the multiplayer games are also a lot of fun. My favorite was Fire Mountain, where each player has to steal eggs and take them to their own nest. Hatch three eggs first to win. Players can steal other players’ eggs, and of course you can still use power-up weapons to attack each other as well.

The race courses are well-designed and fun to play. Diddy Kong Racing wasn’t just a Mario Kart clone; it took the genre to a new level and I think it even outshined Nintendo’s own Mario Kart 64.

 

One of the more interesting apps that came with a 3DS system is one called AR Games–the AR stands for augmented reality. It uses six physical playing card-sized cards that came with the 3DS. One has a “?” question mark block, and the others show Nintendo characters such as Mario, Link, Kirby, Samus Aran, and the Pikmin. When you start the app, the outer-facing cameras on the 3DS are used. You put the question block card down on a flat surface, and then a 3D block seemingly pops up out of the card.

From there, you can select from different games and apps. At first, you can only choose Archery or Star Pics, but more are unlocked later on. Naturally, Archery is a game in which you shoot at targets. But the targets are in 3D, so you may need to rotate around the AR card (or rotate the card itself) to hit all of them. As for Star Pics, it’s an app that lets you bring Nintendo characters into 3D and take pictures of them. Just like the question block, they will pop right out of the AR cards.

You can move the characters around and pose them in different ways. You can add some real-life objects to the picture and make it look like the characters are interacting with them. Pictures can be saved to the system’s SD card.

Clearly, Mario is an Arrested Development fan.

One of the other unlockable games is called AR Shot, which is like a mini-golf game. Move the 3DS to the correct angle to hit the ball into the hole. After you complete all the holes, you then have to fight a dragon boss.

There is also a fishing game where you can catch different types of fish, Animal Crossing style. Curiously, it also has a dragon boss at the end.

Yet another app is called Mii Pics. It works the same as Star Pics, except instead of posing Nintendo characters, you can pose your Mii characters and add them to a picture.

And then there’s Graffiti. It is a drawing tool reminiscent of Mario Paint. You can use drawing tools of different sizes and colors, as well as use “stamps” of Nintendo characters and other icons such as music notes, stars, penguins, and so on. The pictures you draw appear to hover in mid-air (they even have shadows) and you can rotate the 3DS to view them from different angles.

There are even more apps that are unlocked with Play Coins (the coins you get for using your 3DS as a pedometer), but I still have not seen all of them yet. But AR Games is a very cool app that has some fun mini-games and lets you use your creativity in drawing and in taking interesting pictures that combine the virtual and physical realms.

Here are a couple more pictures I took in the Star Pics mode.