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Setup & Timing
The main menu consists of rotating barrels, but all of the labels are visible at the same time, so navigation is pretty simple. "Vs. Battle"
is one of the primary options, followed by "DS Download Play" to begin the process. Download time is quick, but without any touch screen components,
there's less to transfer.
Menus & Navigation
While the game itself has no touch screen components, it would have been nice to have them in the menus. The menus - as they are - work, but
aren't as convenient.
Ease Of Use / Play Control
The entire game is controlled with buttons. Three of them to be precise. Jumping is the "A" button, but that's only used at the beginning of
each race in the Speed Climb mini game. Other than that, the enitre game is based on the "L" and "R" buttons. In Speed Climb, "L" causes DK to grab
and swing from his left hand and "R" causes DK to grab and swing from hir right hand. In Booster Battle, "L" steers left and "R" steers right. The
controls are obviously simple, and work as expected once you get used to them. Getting used to this control style will, however, take a little longer
than other games, partially because many Nintendo DS owners are so used to only using a touch screen and partially because the semi-realistic timing
and motions (which are programmed well) don't react in video game time (instantaneously exactly as you'd expect them to) but in a more natural motion.
Just be pateint.
Content
Despite being brought to the Nintendo DS from the originally-planned Game Boy Advanced, the graphics (character models aside) are very
impressive and have clearly been upgraded. The character models aren't bad, but they're nowhere near the level of many of the backgrounds and
landscapes. The music is alright at first, but will become more and more annoying the more and more you play. Nothing wrong with it, it's just too
repetitive with almost no variation. The only available option is which character each human plays as. And, apparently, they all play identically.
Overall Fun
Initially, my reaction to the control scheme was that it was still a Game Boy Advanced game. Upon closer inspection, I found the control
scheme to be very approprite to the theme. The graphics were also greatly enhance. The main game is fun, but isn't reviewed on this site. The mini
games, however, are far too short. The barrel racing game, Booster Battle, is almost totally without merit. The climbing racing game, Speed Climb, is
much closer to most of the main game and does a much better job of letting players that download (see: potential future owners) find out what the game
is really like. While in-and-of-itself it's not that great, it's easily the better of the two. Focusing on making Speed Climb more robust (additional
levels and musics, selectable options, differences in characters) would have been better than including Booster Battle. The single player game itself
is fine (not reviewed here), but once players have played through the two games (all four stages per game) a couple of times each, and once they've
passed a certain age (~10), the multiplayer aspect of this particular title won't be of interest any longer.
Program touch screen controls for the menus.
Assign unique characteristics to each of the playable characters - both advantages and disadvantages.
Allow players to select the time limit, number of laps, direction, etc.
Include a slightly more varied music selection (at least a second song).
Design a "Create-A-Track" option, allowing for Single-Card Download of original tracks (if they're not too large).
Add a downloadable demo of a level from the game.
Overall Single-Card Download Rating: 61 / 100 (a.k.a. 30.5/50)
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