Gaming Target - GameCube: Donkey Kong Racing

Written by D'Marcus Beatty on June 28, 2001

First (and Last) Impressions: I imagine Donkey Kong coming back slapping Diddy up a bunch and showing him how a game on GameCube is done!

In the life span of the Nintendo 64, there were many racing titles released, and among them, quite a few "kart" style games. The first was of course the beloved Mario Kart 64, and the second was a similar, yet very different, racing adventure from Rare. While many who never played Diddy Kong Racing wrote it off as a Mario Kart clone, it actually featured three different vehicles and challenges. The title was more of an action game that happened to take place on karts. It looks like the same round of events are to happen again on Gamecube, with Nintendo displaying a brief visual confirmation of a Mario Kart title, and Rare showing a trailer confirming Donkey Kong Racing and hinting as towards the direction the title is headed.

Something that should separate these two titles more drastically than the first time around is the fact that in Donkey Kong Racing you will now be riding around on various animals in the Donkey Kong world rather than on karts or planes. These animals include, but aren't limited to, rhinos, piranhas, ostriches, and bees. Supposedly there are various food items through out courses, which racers can pick up to eventually "upgrade" their animal into a thoroughbred.

Expect to be able to ride these animals with all of your favorite Donkey Kong characters including the big ape himself, Diddy Kong, Tiny Kong, and others. At this early stage the racers look to more from just the DK world, rather than having Conker and Banjo included. Perhaps Rare is just teasing us and we will get their full cast of characters. Who knows, but time is sure to tell come Spaceworld.

However, racing these animals around any old blacktop racing circuit or speedway just wouldn't be much fun, so, Rare decided to treat gamers and include full 3-D beautiful interactive "tracks." The term tracks is used loosely, because one of Rare's goals is to try and eliminate what we think of as "tracks" today, and make more of a whole racing level where there are many different paths to achieve your goals. Also interaction with the environment, including moving animals and objects, could be crucial to your racers success.

While it is hard to judge the graphical nature of the game from the pre-rendered footage, we can get a pretty good idea of what the characters will look like. If you take the pre-rendered footage, take out some of the effects and perhaps make it a tiny bit duller you're basically looking at the real-time game. Considering what graphical feats Rare has accomplished in the past, it should come as no surprise if they once again dazzle us upon the release of real in-game screenshots. The 3-D "real-world" look of the locations should do no less than knock us off our feet.

Expect to be able to play this title with up to four of your friends; how the multiplayer setting will differ from the solo-player experience is unknown at the time. Perhaps, training and upgrading your animal into a thoroughbred will only be accomplished in solo-play, but you can race them in all modes. Or perhaps you can battle it out with a friend for experience or best times. Only time will tell, and it'll be a blast to play on that surround system you should be saving for. Not only will the game feature a fully orchestrated soundtrack, but will also include full surround sound environments. Now you will be able to judge just how close that wild pack of ostriches are behind you.