Diddy Kong Racing

Now here’s an oddity — a Microsoft title for the Nintendo platform. Diddy Kong Racing was originally a superior Mario Kart clone for the Nintendo 64, which has now been ported to the DS.
Of course, what’s important isn’t the corporate backstory, but how it plays. As before, you race karts, planes and hovercraft around a series of courses and boss races, slowly unlocking more and more of the game. Despite the lack of an analogue stick, the controls work well, although manoeuvring the plane can be tricky in three dimensions. However, the added touch-screen elements (such as a balloon-popping minigame) have been rather awkwardly implemented, and are more annoying than exhilarating. Ultimately, Diddy Kong Racing follows its predecessor in falling short of the Mario Kart gold standard, but it’s a fun way to waste a few hours.

The Daily Telegraph

Formula One: Championship Edition

A slew of driving games have been released in the past few weeks, most likely to cater to the PS3 crowd, and it must be said that the game makers have created a pretty decent simulator here. One major grumble is that a lot of driver data is out of date — Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya both live on in this game.

Lovely visuals and logical gameplay partly make up for this, and you can either let the console do all the hard work in terms of gear changing and showing you the racing line, so all you have to do is steer the car, or you can utilise your time, if you have that in plenty and fuss around with the engine tuning. With quick races, time trials and full grand prixs built into the game, along with most F1 tracks, the sense of near-dangerous speed is tangible, particularly when you play in high-definition. But even without it you will get a sense of exhilaration and a burst of adrenaline as you careen along the track. Casual racing game fans will enjoy F1: Championship Edition, but it’s really tailored for the Formula One fans and unabashed petrolheads. Those simply after a bit of high-speed driving and challenging terrains would probably do better to opt for MotorStorm.

The Daily Telegraph