Read the review and win the toys!

Developer: Black Lantern Studios
Publisher: GameMill Entertainment
Release Date: November 8th, 2011
Score: 2.5 / 5

Take an interesting racing game, Uniracers and mix it with a few elements from Marble Madness. Once you do, you’ll get DaGeDar. A fast paced racing game using “supercharged ball bearings” according to the box. Fun this game may be, it borders on extreme frustration while the excitement keeps you interested.

When beginning DaGeDar, you can play through a Championship, try to best your fastest times in Time Trials, or brush up on tracks you’re having difficulties with in Practice Race. There are three championship modes, seven zones, and one-hundred DaGeDar balls to the game. Starting in Novice, you’ll work your way to unlock more tracks and balls, though the road is paved with many hurdles. To begin, you have a choice of ten balls of varying speed, acceleration, and control. Although there are certain stats for all the balls, I found throughout playing that you’ll want to forgo control and grab either speed or acceleration pegged DaGeDars. The reason for this is the unforgivable AI. Due to the difficulty of the game, I wasn’t even able to get to the Master League and barely managed to finish a few races in Pro League, even after 4 hours of play.

Once you begin a race, it’s quite hectic and fast-paced. Several loops, falls, traps, and slow downs make for hazardous travel. At the Novice level, I expected the computer player to be a bit forgiving for the first few tracks I played. Instead, I received asthma from all the dust the CPU kicked up as they went flying by as if I wasn’t even moving when I would make the slightest error. The losses made me extremely bitter to the point of wanting to throw my system across the room. There were even races which would show me ahead of the CPU by a long shot, but when the results came in, I somehow lost. When you do move onto a new zone and opponent, the balls you’ve unlocked don’t mean squat. The new CPU racer will always have a better ball than you and it makes it that much more frustrating. To keep up, you’ll have to utilize the Turbo Boost, which unfortunately doesn’t help all that much. Still, even with these challenges, the track designs for the most part are fun and diverse. When you do eventually get those points in the win column, it’s extremely satisfying.

Although the game doesn’t feature online play whatsoever, it does have local multiplayer using both single-card and multi-card methods. Since I didn’t have another copy of the game, I was only able to test the single-card mode. In this mode, there are only the base balls to choose from for both players. When it comes to the track selection, players are limited here as well with the choice of the first zone tracks and nothing beyond. You can choose to do a Championship, which you’ll play all five tracks, or Single Race. While playing, it was smooth, though when I played with another, we complained that the other was behind. This may be due to a glitch or lag of some kind. This mode feels more akin to a demo than true multiplayer with the lack of selections, but the fact that it’s included is a plus considering the lack of DS games that do.

Although the backgrounds for each zone were fitting, none in particular stuck out. The background music however was a big hit in my book. There were many techno melodies throughout each race that kept my head bobbing even through my teeth gnashing at the CPU player. Another bright spot is the unlockables which come in the form of different balls. These designs look close to their physical toy counterparts, though it’s too bad the motion of the game blurs them while you race.

After playing DaGedar, I’m under the impression this might be more enjoyable in toy form. It can be fun, if you can get past the nearly unforgivable AI. Having grown up on some real tough NES games though, I can’t help but think a few kids out there might want a decent challenge however.

A big thanks to GameMill for providing a copy of the game.

GIVEAWAY

We’re giving away a DaGeDar medium track, a set of two DaGeDar balls (random), and a copy of the game!  All you need to do for an entry is comment here about your favorite childhood toy!  This contest is open to those living in the US only (for shipping reasons, sorry to those living elsewhere!). One entry per person. To win, you must leave a comment as stated above and have valid contact information. If your name is drawn and I cannot contact you, your prize is forfeit and another name will be drawn. NintendoGal.com is not responsible for lost, stolen, or beat up prizes that arrive at your door and you consent to this when you enter this contest. One entry per person per contest.  This contest is scheduled to end on December 27th, 2011 at 10:00PM PST.  A winner will be picked at random and notified within a week of the contest end.