In 1998, Nintendo and Rare worked together to cook up Diddy Kong's very own game. I... did not have the opportunity to play this game. Well, own it anyway. More on that later. This is my Review on the DS remake of Diddy Kong Racing, and it's apparently a letdown to some.

Rating: E for Everybody and their Grandma
Genre: Life Simulator? No, seriously, Racing.
Platform: Stop asking stupid questions!

Now, as I was saying, I have been able to play the original DKR on my cousin's 64. I'll be able to tell a few things that changed, not to make this a comparison, but to warn y'all who are verterans of it. Lots o' differences.

Since this is my first Review, I'm gonna tell you now... everything is getting rated on a 1-5 star scale.

Story: ***

I liked the story. Basically an evil pig from outer space invades Timber the tiger (possible relation to the Frosted Flakes mascot?)'s Island and he and his friends call upon Diddy Kong to help save the wonderful land. The only way to defeat Wizpig is to compete in races and collect shards of the Wizpig Amulet, which when complete, will reveal the path to Wizpig's challenge. Loser leaves the island! (Well, if Wizpig is the loser. If you lose then you don't win.) However, why did Wizpig come? Why did he lock up the characters in the Wish Doors? What is the origin of Taj the elephant genie? Unanswered questions, and I want to know more.

Characters: **

The majority of this cast was original, although we don't learn much about them. We have Diddy Kong, the star of the game and the hero; his friends Dixie Kong and Tiny Kong; Timber, the tiger who called upon the Kongs; and Timber's friends, Pipsy the mouse, Tiptup the turtle, and Bumper the badger. Also, mishchievously joining them is Krunch the Kremling. There are four other characters, but they're secret, and I ain't spoiling them. Sadly, there's no more Conker or Banjo. As for the important non-playable characters, there's Taj, your guide who resides on the center of Timber's Island; Wizpig, the main antagonist of the game; and T.T., a magical clock who you must beat in a race when you open a Wish Door. The reason this section got a two was because there's no real story behind the characters. This is the first time we see Timber contact Diddy. Why don't we see this in, say, DK64? We know about four characters (Diddy, Dixie, Tiny, and Krunch, although Krunch is actually a newly created Kremling). That's it.

Difficulty: ****

Some of the races are seriously hard. Just when you're about to cross the finish for the Dino Domain trophy, Dixie, Krunch, and Timber zip right by you. What the?! It can get incredibly hard sometimes, to the point where it gets ridiculous. Still, it's worthwhile, because the more races you beat, the more goodies you'll receive. Plus, y'alls love a good challenge, right?!

Gameplay: ***

The Banana System from the original isn't in the game anymore. I don't really like the balloons, because if you memorize the colors you know which item you'll get, and that's no fun. I do like driving/flying/uh... hovercrafting... around the island to pick all the tracks an' stuff. Plus the creative ways to find the secrets around there!

Sound: *

The sound and music is getting a different rating for certain reasons. The sounds and voices were utterly pathetic. Taj lost the good old Arabian accent. If I heard right, there's one guy that does ALL of the voices in the entire game. Unbelieveable. Dru- I mean, one of the secret characters, doesn't sound like he should anymore. By which I mean chickeny. And another secret character... his voice is so antagonizing, I wish I could gag him or whatever and throw him off a cliff into an alligator-filled river. Or, a Kremling-filled river.

Music: *****

The music in this game was marvelous. I liked the new Spaceport Alpha music, as well as the music in Frosty Village. It sounds... uh... cheerful. Yeah. Oh yeah! I also liked the Wizpig battle music. It's not like good music or anything (by that I mean music that's happy), but it's well conducted. Not much else to say. I was really pleased with the music.

Replayability: ***

Once you beat Adventure and Adventure 2, playing them again gets pretty dull. However, when you progress far enough, you'll unlock additional modes, such as the Wish Race, where you can actually make your own tracks! Either way, this is a sorta medium category.

Secrets/Goodies: ****

No, I'm not telling you what secrets you can get. This is just a rating of the secret unlockables. Frankly, I was very happy with them. The characters, the modes, the... ah... some other thing. I forgot. However, I think it could be better. They put Dixie and Tiny in, but they could have made Donkey Kong a secret character! It's bad enough his own racing game was cancelled (the incredibly orginally named Donkey Kong Racing). Plus, maybe they could've had us put a little more effort into getting some of the secrets, like, not just having to buy them from Taj. Anyway, the secrets were pretty good.

Wi-Fi: **

I was really displeased with the Wi-Fi. You have to decide how many people you race against, which makes it less likely to find opponents than in, like, Mario Kart. Plus, the disconnectors are really annoying. It'd be nice if you could chat with your fellow racers to decide on things like... who plays as what characters, or what course you race on. Also, maybe congratulate them on a good race (or trash talk them). They could probably put in default censors for bad swears, like they did in AC: Wild World. Then again, I never was a big fan of Wi-Fi in DS games.

Fun Factor: ***

This game, despite what many people say, is really fun. I like racing T.T. in Wish Race, and Coin Challenge constantly keeps me occupied. I still think it could be improved, though. Maybe choose a difficulty for the CPUs in Single Race? Nonetheless, the game is very fun.

OVERALL (dun dun dun): ****

I am not quite a huge veteran of the original game, but those who are may feel different than me about this game. It's actually really good. I like the additional two characters, the Wish Race (that's the last time I'll mention it in this Review, kay?), the beating up T.T. in Wi- um, that one mode... and, of course, mocking the horrible Wi-Fi. Yes, I have one character left to unlock, and I look forward to that. That's another advantage: There's constantly good stuff that's waiting to be unlocked. Reaping the rewards is one of the most fun things to do in DKRDS. If you really liked the original, I say rent this game. If you think it's worthy of being the sequel to DKR, then buy it afterwards. If you're a Diddy Kong Racing newcomer, just buy the game. In a way, it's (gasp) better than Mario Kart.

Okay, that's the end of the Review. Please get out and find Diddy Kong Racing.