Diddy Kong Racing

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.

Diddy Kong Racing - ExploringYou 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.

Diddy Kong Racing - Talking to 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.

 

3DS AR Games

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.

3DS AR GamesYou 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.

3DS AR Games: Mario sitting on a GameCube controller.Clearly, Mario is an Arrested Development fan.

3DS AR Games: Mario and Arrested DevelopmentOne 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.

3DS AR Games - Mini-GolfThere 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.

3DS AR Games: Fishing3DS AR Games - Fishing: Red SnapperYet 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.

ar-jvgsThere 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.

3DS AR Games: Link and Zelda: Majora's Mask cartridge3DS AR Games: Mario, Kart

Batman: Arkham City Update

Time for an update on my progress in Batman: Arkham City: Armored Edition for Wii U. Here’s a new gameplay video:

I had recently defeated Penguin in the museum, and I now needed to find someone named Ra’s al Ghul by tracking an assassin. But while roaming around, it’s easy to get sidetracked. There are so many side missions and subquests that’s it easy to lose focus of the task at hand. You’ll see these green neon question marks, which means there’s a puzzle nearby that unlocks a Riddler trophy. And there are tons of those, everywhere you go. You want to collect them all.

Batman: Arkham City - Riddler's question marksThere are side missions where you solve murders CSI-style by analyzing bullet fragments and trajectories, there are missions where you run around town answering pay phones, there are missions where you rescue political prisoners from thugs, and so on. The map is just littered with all these little markers, each indicating an objective of some sort; I don’t even know what they all mean just yet. The game has so much to do, and that’s a good thing. I’m enjoying this game quite a bit.

Batman: Arkham City - CSI Eventually I got back to the main quest. I headed into the subway system and ended up at an area called the collapsed streets. This is the area that you can see in the video at the top of this blog entry. The part at the Wonder Tower Foundations is an example of the stealth used frequently in this game. There are vantage points high above the floor (they often seem to be gargoyles) and you grapple from one to the next. The idea is to wait for one of the enemies to separate from the rest, then sneak down and defeat him (silently when possible), then retreat back to your vantage point. Then you can watch and listen as the enemies on the ground freak out, especially when they don’t even see you. Even though I’m generally not a fan of stealth in games, these areas are a ton of fun–perhaps even my favorite parts of the game so far.

Batman: Arkham City - Vantage Point screenshotI then went to an area called Wonder City, where I had to scan the remains of mechanical guardians to find the location of a secret entrance that the assassin used. Once I was inside, I ended my game for the day. I’m currently 32% through the main story, and I’ve completed 16% of the game overall.

Batman: Arkham City - Mechanical GuardiansIn an unrelated note, my colorblindness cost me a life in the 3DS built-in RPG called Find Mii. I needed a hero with a yellow shirt in order to break an enemy’s yellow shield. So finally I got a yellow-shirted hero…or so I thought. I attacked the shielded enemy, but the shield deflected the attack. What? I didn’t understand it, and then I realized the hero’s shirt looked slightly greenish. It was a green shirt, but it looked yellow to me. Oh well.

That’s all for this time. If you haven’t seen my new feature showing my controller collection, give it a look.