Coins, keys, airplanes, hover vehicles, and... a rooster? Action adventure racing at it's finest.
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Adventuring and searching mixed with racing turns out to be a curious combination making it very different from most single player racing experiences. You drive around a tropical island finding open race tracks to unlock more tracks all for a crazy genie who wants to take out a giant evil pig. After finishing the areas you begin to unlock different vehicles: the hover craft and airplane. Each vehicle is different to maneuver, but you also take different paths on the race tracks with them providing surprising variety to familiar tracks.
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Through all of it, even when your not in a race track though, you're in a vehicle. For those of us with intense adventuresome hearts this becomes limiting simply because you can't get out and climb the mountain or explore the ocean depths, but it is a racing format and I was so pleased with the blending of the two genres the "limitations" weren't worth pouting about.
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Eventually you unlock the coin challenge races, and just like it's name it is definitely more challenging than just getting first place. You have to collect all 8 coins in three laps around the course and get first place. They put them in strange spots making it so you can't take the short cuts and forcing you to make up time. Though difficult it was still addicting.
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As for the multiplayer it isn't as entertaining as Mario Kart racing due to the limited amount of ammo given, but it does pick up after you get farther in single player mode. In there you unlock more race tracks and battle challenges by finding keys hidden in the levels. I found the battles in Diddy Kong racing to have a longer play value than Mario Kart because some had different tasks. One such task is using an airplane and stealing eggs from a nest, the person with the most eggs at the end wins. For me this made battle more engaging than simply getting rid of balloons.
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Of course the many things I didn't mention, such as the joy of squishing frogs under your tires, just add smiles as you play. Diddy Kong racing is great for single player and still gives you the laughs and shouts of multiplayer when playing battle.