You can hop up into blasting barrels (it’s a Barrel Blast! Get it?) for shortcuts, and even pull off style moves by shaking the Wii remote in the indicated direction to get a bigger boost. The stages have themes like jungle, ocean, volcano and temple – but other than that, there isn’t much variation. You can also do single races or time attacks, and there are, of course, single and two-player modes. You can play in the “Jungle Grand Prix,” which features several different competition cups and one build-your-own, and you unlock additional stuff by coming in first overall in the average score from the three races. I have a phone, but Nex is the only person who calls me, so it’s like a new kind of illegal torture. As a result of playing this game for only a few days, I am proud to report I have developed swollen, fearsome guns capable of crushing tons of barbed wire and aluminum – unfortunately, Linde renovated my holding pen to compensate, and I am now coming to you from an adamantium chamber in the Earth’s mantle.
It’s simple, and it’s pretty damn aerobic. Shake either the Wii remote or the Nunchuk by themselves to move right or left. Rapidly alternate the Wii remote and the Nunchuk up and down – like drumming, duh – to accelerate, and give ‘em a jerk in tandem to jump. Gameplay’s pretty simple think of how it might have coordinated if you had bongo drums. At first, you’ve only got Rookie Mode, a few of the Kong family, and a couple of the crocodile Kremlings, to play with, but as you win more races, you’ll unlock more modes and more racers.
I love the old Rare fashion of simian rendering, and it’s been pretty faithfully reproduced here – you’ll even recognize the familiar theme song of one of my old favorites, Donkey Kong Country, in the tutorial screen. Racing game fan or not, Metroid rapist or otherwise, when Linde dragged me out of my wicker cage to review DK Barrel Blast – and here I was thinking I’d get a new ration of zwieback, perhaps a new canister of lye to wash my face with – I was heartily eager, because if I have to look at one more Mario game I’m going to apply a nail gun to my eyes. Don’t you dare walk away from me, Samus Aran. You’re like, “yes,” right? The first five minutes you’re in her presence, it’s just totally rad, and then she’s like, “what do you wanna do?” And you’re like, “why don’t we play a game, baby,” and she’s like, “alright! I brought Mario!” Come on! Don’t be like that, baby. But it’s like, picture this: Samus asks you out on a date. Mario Blood Drive? Mario Car Wash? And yeah, you don’t need to tell me there are other things to play on the Wii, like Mario – I mean, Metroid and Zelda. But when will the madness end? Mario Shuffleboard? I mean, to be sure, one can expect many a Mario title to crank out on the Wii. At first, this was just because I never got into it now, it’s because I’m sick to death of hearing about Mario-anything. Let me preface this review by making a bold statement: I don’t like racing games in general, and that includes Mario Kart. Is this awesome? Hit the jump to find out. It features monkeys flying on rocket-powered bongo drums. Instead, it’s been being reworked and picked at all this time, and now it’s finally knuckle-dragged onto the Wii, where instead of playing video game bongos, we can now flail video game remote controls. If you’re unfamiliar with the backstory, we’ve been promised the game for quite some time – it was actually supposed to be a GameCube title, using the accompanying bongo peripherals. Donkey Kong Barrel Blast is the latest racer for the Wii.