Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

10 Hours or Less

The Bottom Line:

"All flash, no substance"

I am tired of critics' constant "fair" reviews of this game, as well as Mario Kart 64 (the bishop and king of N64 racing), and I do not care if it may freely carbon copy from MK64. I am super-happy that it got a Guinness record for selling unbelievably fast in the time of Christmas 1997, and believe it or not, the game runs aground on a rather reasonable storyline. But when I took a look at the game, I realized that they were right.

THE GOOD
- It has its own pizzazz and flair to make the game its own. -Groovin' music with awesome environment.
- Crisp humor.
- Epic cheat codes make the experience better than usual., -Legitimate character models.
And don't forget the SUPER CUTE racers. No, not super cute, SUPER CUTE. Examples of SUPER CUTE racers are Conker and Pipsy.

THE BAD

- Racing against Taj starts out super easy, but slowly gets more and more tedious.
- Opponents are pesky at times.
- Jungle Falls only has one boost balloon.
- Only ten racers (including T.T.), and four more in the DS version.
- Occasional freezes.
- Let's say this happens: You just won a race at Snowflake Mountain when your console freezes. You reset it, go back into your adventure, but you start out as a car again, have to honk for Taj, turn into a plane, and fly back into Snowflake Mountain. That's almost a minute!
- Even if his top speed is blazing, Krunch's acceleration is awfully weak.
- The challenges can start out a little hard, but slowly become a little too easy.
- Frosty Village. Hands down. Frosty Village is the most competitive course in the game...in a bad way.
- No instructions for newcomers in-game. You have to show them the controls and what to do instead of going somewhere to learn them.
- Adventure Two. Does anyone have an explanation for that? Didn't think so. Race the course backwards? What was Rare thinking?!?!


Score: 7 1/2/10 (B+)
If you dated to back in the day, this game must've been a home run, but to date, it's just a little foul play. If racer junkies know what's good and what ain't, DKR probably ain't. But for those never-ever-played-a-good-racer type of people, DKR might be your target. Just beware some horribly tedious racing.

(Score: 7.5/10 = Good)