It's not all bad. I think some people are a little hard on this game, but I still think Mario Kart is the way to go.
STORY
A message comes to Diddy Kong that the evil Wizpig is taking over their world. So Diddy Kong, Tip Tup, Dixie Kong, Trixie, Timber, Tiny Kong, Bumper, Drumstick and Taj must stop him by driving their car, airship or plane around the Adventure Arena. In the Adventure Arena are doors that you drive through to race against the rest of the gang and by winning you are getting closer and closer to beating Wizpig. I can't give Diddy Kong Racing much credit for the story line - it's pretty simple.
GAMEPLAY
The arrows are turn, A is go, B is reverse and L is release your item. There are some other uses of the other buttons but they're not worth mentioning. The Adventure Arena is pretty big and quite fun to explore. There are a lot of little secrets around you can unlock, and Taj has got a little shop there where you can upgrade your vehicle. But in some parts Taj won't let you race because he wants you to beat one of his stupid challenges. All boss levels are unlocked by beating all the races in a specific area. The boss levels aren't all that challenging though because they are all just races. The real fun you'll have in this game is just racing in these colouful tracks but every now and then you'll come across such a tight turn that every time you do the race you will crash into it. You wonder if the makers had planned this to happen. Just remember that most of these races can be a little dodgy.
GRAPHICS
The graphics aren't as good as they could have been. It's kind of like The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass - the cutscenes have bad graphics but when you're playing it doesn't look too bad.
SOUND
The whole reason I play this game is to hear the sound. My favourite tracks are Strangled Shrine and Greenwood Village and why? Because of the music! It's sensational. The music is new, entertaining and fun to listen to. I'm playing these tracks every day just so I can hear the music!
MULTIPLAYER
It doesn't matter if you do wireless play or download play. I can't find a difference! You may know that in Mario Kart in download play you could only do 8 tracks and had to be Shy Guy. Well, in Diddy Kong Racing DS your downloaded friends can choose any character and any track. Amazing!
Overall, Diddy Kong Racing is a "poor man's" version of Mario Kart. Yes, it's got a story line but the races are too dodgy.
STORY---------------------------------6/10
GAMEPLAY---------------------------6/10
GRAPHICS---------------------------6/10
SOUND-------------------------------10/10
MULTIPLAYER----------------------9/10
OVERALL------------------------------7.5
Check out my blog for other reviews on other great (and not so great!) DS games!