Shadow Wolf TJC
Smash Rookie
I completed both games and raced on both of them online, and I'd now like to see what you thought about these two games. I'll provide my thoughts on both games, which of the two I liked better, and my reasons why, starting with my thoughts about MKDS. If somebody else has already made a topic like this, please link me to it as I've already made a search for this topic with questionable results and no sign of any related topics.
MKDS was a pretty great game when I 1st played it, despite being disappointed with a few things (see below). I had already played Mario Kart: Double Dash!! before, so I was already familiar with the controls when I 1st started playing MKDS. I tried out all the different karts and found that my favorite karts before I went online for the 1st time had average-high acceleration, low drifting, high handling, and high item power; in other words, my favorite karts were the Streamliner and the Cucumber before I went online for the 1st time. I liked some of the new gameplay elements such as moving terrain, (like those spinning gears in Tick-Tock Clock and the spinning bridge and shifting panels in Bowser's Castle) missions that tested your skills, the ability to drive on various courses from past Mario Kart games, and the ability to use the Bullet Bill item (which is basically similar to MKDD's Chain Chomp item for the most part) and the Bob-omb item.
However, there were a few things that disappointed me though. I didn't like the Blooper at all, as it was very useless to me, and I was also disappointed that the Fireballs and those gigantic Bowser Shells from MKDD were not featured in the game. I was also disappointed that not all of the 72 courses (20 from Super Mario Kart, 16 from Mario Kart 64, 20 from Mario Kart Super Circuit, and 16 from Mario Kart: Double Dash!!) from past Mario Kart games made it to MKDS (especially Mario Raceway, Yoshi Valley, and Bowser's Castle for MK64, and Wario Colosseum, Mario Circuit, DK Mountain, and Bowser's Castle for MKDD) And then there was the fact that only 20 of the 32 playable tracks could be played online without the aid of something like action replay or whatever that's called (which stunk as some of my favorite courses, such as Bowser's Castle, Airship Fortress, Tick-Tock Clock, and Banshee Boardwalk, were not available online).
However, what really got me disappointed with this game was soon after I went online, which happened after I had unlocked everything that could've been unlocked in Single Player. I discovered a well-known exploit known as "snaking" as soon as I went online; to "snake" in MKDS is to do a series of drift-turbos on a straight path, which makes the kart appear as if it was zig-zagging like a snake much faster than it was supposed to be. While I may've quickly mastered this technique, and while it has helped me greatly to achieve my win/loss record of 935/165 on Nintendo WFC Matches, I hated it for two reasons. #1, snaking constantly throughout a course (shakes fist at Figure-8 Circuit) was unbearably painful for my steering hand (left hand). #2, it was an exploit that was probably not supposed to have been in the game in the 1st place, which made the Dry Bomber the kart of choice for most top players, including myself. I wished that Nintendo could've applied patches to their games through the WFC, as this was the reason why I now prefer to play DKRDS online much more than MKDS.
When I 1st heard about Diddy Kong Racing DS, I was as hyped about it as I was with Mario Kart DS. Compared with Mario Kart DS, I didn't get as disappointed with DKRDS as I did with MKDS. While I do miss seeing Conker and Banjo on the track, I'm not so disappointed, as I had already known that Microsoft now owns Rare. Dixie and a newly-redesigned Tiny Kong (didn't expect her to grow into a teenager at this game, though I still welcomed the change) made good replacements, and Taj and Wizpig as playable characters was also welcomed IMO. The return of all 20 racetracks and 4 battle tracks from the original Diddy Kong Racing (with some tracks redesigned) was a nice relief, along with the introduction of 4 brand-new tracks. The inclusion of special "upgrade coins" on each track that can be used to upgrade your item to a unique, usually very useful item (such as a barrier of 3 homing missiles, 5 bombs disguised as coins, and this game's version of the Mario Kart series's blue winged shell of doom) was nice. The ability to do an extra-sharp drift turn with the car and the ability to get an even bigger boost from zippers and Blue Balloons by keeping my thumb off of the A button until it's done boosting make a return, but without Taj providing the hints. There's a shop where you can trade in the hard-earned coins, that you can pick up from racetracks as you're racing, for upgrades to your car, hovercraft, and plane, new tracks, and various other things. Finally, there's a rather simple track editor that you can use to make your own tracks (which is a bit of a disappointment to me since I expected a track editor that the developers of this game would've used to make the game's tracks instead).
The usage of the touch screen and microphone are essential in unlocking all the content in this game, including hidden characters and the Future Funland courses, which several people don't like to do sadly. The usage of the touch screen and the microphone for boosting at the starting line was a nice change from having to time your button-presses for me (especially since I keep my stylus held between my fingers, ready for some more touch screen usage during several races, while racing instead of having to drop it or throw it away like several other people
), though several people may not like having to do this. There's this touch-screen challenge that challenges you to pop enough balloons with the stylus to pass (which shouldn't be a problem if you're accurate and quick with the stylus like myself) that you need to complete in order to get enough balloons to challenge Wizpig. One of Taj's newest challenges requires you to blow out several torches by blowing into the microphone in under a minute. (It took me a day or 10 before I discovered that I had to blow into that little slit below the bottom-left part of the touch screen that said "MIC." next to it in order to use the microphone in DKRDS. I was spitting at the touch screen while my cheeks were aching trying to complete that challenge.
) Finally, there are these touch screen challenges that can be done after you collect a piece of the Wizpig amulet from a boss that are, fortunately, not essential for unlocking everything in the game (which is good for me, as a couple of these challenges are too tough for me for now).
Online multiplayer, I'd have to say, puts MKDS's multiplayer to shame. Players can race against up to 5 other players, battle with up to 3 other players, or do this new mode called Token Tussle with up to 5 other players where you need to collect tokens that appear around the track. Unlike MKDS, there's no such thing as snaking in DKRDS, which makes this game a little more newbie-friendly and much less painful for the pro player's hands (and which is the reason why I'm still playing my copy of DKRDS while my copy of MKDS is collecting dust). Use of the touch screen and microphone are still essential for getting those rocket starts online, so any professional MKDS player who snakes in MKDS for wins, but can't deal with the need to use the touch screen and microphone for rocket starts, would probably be seen as a noob in DKRDS online and may decide to go back to snaking in MKDS for more wins.
I realize the fact that some people prefer to play MKDS over DKRDS anyday, while others (including myself) prefer to play DKRDS over MKDS. I'd guess that players who fall into the former category are either people who see the ability to "snake" as something that separates the noobs from the leets, or people who can't deal with the touch screen or microphone usage for many parts of DKRDS such as the rocket start. And I'd guess that players who fall into the latter category are people who can deal with using the touch screen and microphone throughout the game and/or people who hated "snakers" and the "snaking" technique in MKDS.
Oh and for anyone who's interested in racing against me in DKRDS, my friend code is 296445-784213, and my username is "FLASH FIRE."
MKDS was a pretty great game when I 1st played it, despite being disappointed with a few things (see below). I had already played Mario Kart: Double Dash!! before, so I was already familiar with the controls when I 1st started playing MKDS. I tried out all the different karts and found that my favorite karts before I went online for the 1st time had average-high acceleration, low drifting, high handling, and high item power; in other words, my favorite karts were the Streamliner and the Cucumber before I went online for the 1st time. I liked some of the new gameplay elements such as moving terrain, (like those spinning gears in Tick-Tock Clock and the spinning bridge and shifting panels in Bowser's Castle) missions that tested your skills, the ability to drive on various courses from past Mario Kart games, and the ability to use the Bullet Bill item (which is basically similar to MKDD's Chain Chomp item for the most part) and the Bob-omb item.
However, there were a few things that disappointed me though. I didn't like the Blooper at all, as it was very useless to me, and I was also disappointed that the Fireballs and those gigantic Bowser Shells from MKDD were not featured in the game. I was also disappointed that not all of the 72 courses (20 from Super Mario Kart, 16 from Mario Kart 64, 20 from Mario Kart Super Circuit, and 16 from Mario Kart: Double Dash!!) from past Mario Kart games made it to MKDS (especially Mario Raceway, Yoshi Valley, and Bowser's Castle for MK64, and Wario Colosseum, Mario Circuit, DK Mountain, and Bowser's Castle for MKDD) And then there was the fact that only 20 of the 32 playable tracks could be played online without the aid of something like action replay or whatever that's called (which stunk as some of my favorite courses, such as Bowser's Castle, Airship Fortress, Tick-Tock Clock, and Banshee Boardwalk, were not available online).
However, what really got me disappointed with this game was soon after I went online, which happened after I had unlocked everything that could've been unlocked in Single Player. I discovered a well-known exploit known as "snaking" as soon as I went online; to "snake" in MKDS is to do a series of drift-turbos on a straight path, which makes the kart appear as if it was zig-zagging like a snake much faster than it was supposed to be. While I may've quickly mastered this technique, and while it has helped me greatly to achieve my win/loss record of 935/165 on Nintendo WFC Matches, I hated it for two reasons. #1, snaking constantly throughout a course (shakes fist at Figure-8 Circuit) was unbearably painful for my steering hand (left hand). #2, it was an exploit that was probably not supposed to have been in the game in the 1st place, which made the Dry Bomber the kart of choice for most top players, including myself. I wished that Nintendo could've applied patches to their games through the WFC, as this was the reason why I now prefer to play DKRDS online much more than MKDS.
When I 1st heard about Diddy Kong Racing DS, I was as hyped about it as I was with Mario Kart DS. Compared with Mario Kart DS, I didn't get as disappointed with DKRDS as I did with MKDS. While I do miss seeing Conker and Banjo on the track, I'm not so disappointed, as I had already known that Microsoft now owns Rare. Dixie and a newly-redesigned Tiny Kong (didn't expect her to grow into a teenager at this game, though I still welcomed the change) made good replacements, and Taj and Wizpig as playable characters was also welcomed IMO. The return of all 20 racetracks and 4 battle tracks from the original Diddy Kong Racing (with some tracks redesigned) was a nice relief, along with the introduction of 4 brand-new tracks. The inclusion of special "upgrade coins" on each track that can be used to upgrade your item to a unique, usually very useful item (such as a barrier of 3 homing missiles, 5 bombs disguised as coins, and this game's version of the Mario Kart series's blue winged shell of doom) was nice. The ability to do an extra-sharp drift turn with the car and the ability to get an even bigger boost from zippers and Blue Balloons by keeping my thumb off of the A button until it's done boosting make a return, but without Taj providing the hints. There's a shop where you can trade in the hard-earned coins, that you can pick up from racetracks as you're racing, for upgrades to your car, hovercraft, and plane, new tracks, and various other things. Finally, there's a rather simple track editor that you can use to make your own tracks (which is a bit of a disappointment to me since I expected a track editor that the developers of this game would've used to make the game's tracks instead).
The usage of the touch screen and microphone are essential in unlocking all the content in this game, including hidden characters and the Future Funland courses, which several people don't like to do sadly. The usage of the touch screen and the microphone for boosting at the starting line was a nice change from having to time your button-presses for me (especially since I keep my stylus held between my fingers, ready for some more touch screen usage during several races, while racing instead of having to drop it or throw it away like several other people
), though several people may not like having to do this. There's this touch-screen challenge that challenges you to pop enough balloons with the stylus to pass (which shouldn't be a problem if you're accurate and quick with the stylus like myself) that you need to complete in order to get enough balloons to challenge Wizpig. One of Taj's newest challenges requires you to blow out several torches by blowing into the microphone in under a minute. (It took me a day or 10 before I discovered that I had to blow into that little slit below the bottom-left part of the touch screen that said "MIC." next to it in order to use the microphone in DKRDS. I was spitting at the touch screen while my cheeks were aching trying to complete that challenge.) Finally, there are these touch screen challenges that can be done after you collect a piece of the Wizpig amulet from a boss that are, fortunately, not essential for unlocking everything in the game (which is good for me, as a couple of these challenges are too tough for me for now).Online multiplayer, I'd have to say, puts MKDS's multiplayer to shame. Players can race against up to 5 other players, battle with up to 3 other players, or do this new mode called Token Tussle with up to 5 other players where you need to collect tokens that appear around the track. Unlike MKDS, there's no such thing as snaking in DKRDS, which makes this game a little more newbie-friendly and much less painful for the pro player's hands (and which is the reason why I'm still playing my copy of DKRDS while my copy of MKDS is collecting dust). Use of the touch screen and microphone are still essential for getting those rocket starts online, so any professional MKDS player who snakes in MKDS for wins, but can't deal with the need to use the touch screen and microphone for rocket starts, would probably be seen as a noob in DKRDS online and may decide to go back to snaking in MKDS for more wins.
I realize the fact that some people prefer to play MKDS over DKRDS anyday, while others (including myself) prefer to play DKRDS over MKDS. I'd guess that players who fall into the former category are either people who see the ability to "snake" as something that separates the noobs from the leets, or people who can't deal with the touch screen or microphone usage for many parts of DKRDS such as the rocket start. And I'd guess that players who fall into the latter category are people who can deal with using the touch screen and microphone throughout the game and/or people who hated "snakers" and the "snaking" technique in MKDS.
Oh and for anyone who's interested in racing against me in DKRDS, my friend code is 296445-784213, and my username is "FLASH FIRE."
