Thursday 21 February, 2008

GAME ENTRY #1
SUMMARY
Diddy Kong Racing is a racing game, like that of Mario Kart, but with a slightly different main objective; to rid the land of Wizpig, the antagonistic alien pig wizard. The levels progress in difficultly as you play and change in methods of transportation from a car, hovercraft, or plane. A world is complete once you've completed your tasks and the boss has been beaten.

GAMEPLAY
The first level starts at the Dino Domain. The objective is to hatch three dinosaur eggs, which is a pretty difficult task when your friends think its hilarious when they steal your eggs; you ultimately want your egg to hatch. Having never played this game before, it was a delightful change to play a game where your able to explore the land instead of being in constant competition. I enjoyed the fact that I had the option to choose what kind of vehicle I was using while exploring, though it was predetermined for some levels.

The game was fairly easy to play for the most part, except for it was frustrating when I would bump into things and my vehicle would slow down. By the time I regained speed, my opponents had sped passed me. As I played more, I realized the importance of the boosts in those situations and how to use them effectively.

GAMEPLAY #2
The second round of gameplay was more comfortable than the first because I was familiarized with the controls. I liked the fact that the every world contained multiple levels that were different from the others, but they started getting repetitive because they contained the same objective. Racing around the track three times is exciting, but not as exciting after the hundredth time.

I noticed the intensity of the game started decreasing amongst my opponents as well, as they grew tired and frustrated with its repetitiveness. We switched to single player mode and took turns between all of us playing. Single player, or adventure mode, gives the player more freedom and control as opposed to multiplayer.

DESIGN
The design of the game is brilliant, as many others would agree, making it the fastest selling video game in 1997 according to the Guiness Book of World Records. The vibrant colors in the game make it enjoyable to play as well as to watch. The fact that there are three different vehicles keeps the game intriguing because unlike Mario Kart, where you simply ride in a kart throughout every track, you have variation. The levels aren't extremely varied, apart from their visual aspects. They all contain the same objective, to come in first place and rack up the most points. The game would be more interesting if there was a different task for every level.

This game gave me a few ideas for my game, which is a racing game as well. I would like to add boosts and points to my game, as well as give it a time constraint per each level. Though this seems repetitive after a few levels, it keeps the track and level interesting for the time being. I just need to figure out how to make my boosts disappear in the collision.

This assignment was supposed to be on a game from the classics list, which Diddy Kong Racing is not. Otherwise this is a somewhat lackluster gamelog.

- Ian Rickard, your TA who's a few days behind on grading