Diddy Kong Racing DS shows just how far portable gaming has come in the past few years, demonstrating incredible wireless networked gameplay in a form factor that would have been unthinkable until only recently.
<Gameplay is fairly standard “kid racing” stuff: There are increasingly challenging tracks, opponents, and power-ups. Like most titles in this genre there are “comical” weapons that are used to slow down opponents. The remarkable aspect of Diddy Kong Racing is the implementation of true over-the-net racing via the DS’s built in wifi connection. That’s right; this isn’t just racing between people in the same room: with Diddy Kong Racing you can put your pedal to the metal over the internet. It wasn’t that long ago that a networked PC capable of playing on-line would have cost thousands of dollars and involved hours of frustrating set-up. Nintendo has changed the economy, scale, and reach of multiplayer gaming with the Nintendo DS.
