Dear Reader:
Even more Diddy Kong Racing DS info
I have seen tibits of info since we posted the screenshots of DKR DS, but now reader Juno Reactor was nice enough to summarize all the important info.
* Characters Banjo and Conker have been replaced by Dixie Kong and Tiny Kong. Other characters include Pipsy, Tiptup, Diddy Kong, Timber, Bumper, and Krunch. Four additional blank spaces are on the title screen for unlockable characters, for a total of 12 characters overall.
* “All of the great character animation that you remember from the old game is in the new version, and it looks even better than you remember it: the textures — often supersaturated and blurry on the N64 — are crisp and bright on the DS.”
* When boosting off the starting line, players must rub the touchscreen for the car and plane, and blow into the microphone for the hovercraft.
* The speed-boosting bananas that littered tracks in the N64 version are gone; players will now have to rely on power-ups and skills alone to win.
* The Silver Coin Challenges from the N64 game are gone. Replacing them is an on-rails target-shooting minigame, where you fly through each course on Taj’s magic carpet, popping balloons from a first-person perspective.
* Before, two red balloons snagged you the homing missile power-up, then a third red balloon gave you ten rockets. Now the missile power-up goes single rocket –> five rockets –> homing missile.
* As reported in an earlier GoNintendo update, every track you unlock in single player mode can be played in single-card multiplayer mode. There is an online mode as well.
* All of the courses from the old game, as well as the bosses and the overworld, have returned, and NP hints there is more still to come. The game hits North America this February.