They put the Viva Piñata franchise on TV to reach a broad audience, they put it on PC to reach a different broad audience, and they're doing the same thing with the DS. They're trying to widen the audience of the franchise, basically... They see DS as a very viable platform.

Honestly, if Microsoft wants better odds at cracking the Japanese market, it really should release its exclusives on the DS. We hear the DS is popular in Japan. Xbox 360, not so much so.

MS sees DS [Eurogamer] [Pic]

A ton of new releases coming out this week with a little bit of everything from RPG's and strategy games to racing and sports titles. The PS2 gets quite a bit of love this week with five games on it's dance card. The rest of the titles are pretty evenly distributed amongst all the portables and consoles, with the exception of the PS3 which is strangely absent from this list.

• Diddy Kong Racing DS DS Diddy Kong makes a bid for the Mario Kart throne.
• Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia PS2
  Pure, unabashed Japanese RPG goodness.
• Final Fantasy VI Advance GBA
  The classic RPG is given a facelift for it's re-emergence on the GBA
• UFO: Afterlight PC
  Be an intergalactic space strategist!
• The Sims Life Stories PC
  Enjoy controlling the lives of your tiny minions with a new story mode.
• Capcom Puzzle World PSP
  Five classic Capcom puzzle games including: Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo , Buster Bros., Super Buster Bros., Buster Buddies and Block Block
• Fuel PC
  An around the world race on ATV's.
• Lunar Knights DS
  Battle space vampires from beyond the grave.

• Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI PS2
  Eleventh game in the long running strategy sim series.

• Winning Eleven: Pro Evolution Soccer 2007 X360, PS2, Wii, PSP
  Pro soccer debuts on the next gen consoles.
• MVP 07 NCAA Baseball PS2
  More baseball on the PS2, now with a new pitching style!
• SnoCross 2: Featuring Blair Morgan XBOX, PS2
  Blair Morgan is kicking it olde school on the PS2 and Xbox.

Flynn De Marco

I both love and hate Diddy Kong Racing DS.

On the one hand, I've played Mario Kart so much that I've pretty much burned myself out on it and have been jonesing for some new tracks, new weapons, new drivers to play with.

On the other hand Diddy Kong Racing is no Mario Kart, and it's not meant to be.

I can deal with that. I understand it's a different game with its own aesthetic, but there are still some issues.

For instance, if you bump into things, you tend to get hung up, or at least can. Worse still, reversing is atrocious. I found that if you hit the reverse button at the same time as the D-pad in any direction the two actions cancel each other out and you just sit there. Which can be quite frustrating.

The graphics bug me too. They're chunky and a bit too childish for my tastes. Nintendo has character creation down to a fine art, so I'm not sure why they decided to dumb this particular game down.

If you can get past all of that the game can be quite fun.

Races are very much not like Mario Kart, there isn't any power sliding, thank god, nor do you have to worry about turbo starts. Well, at least not the turbo starts that involve button timing. Instead you have to fondle your DS' touchscreen to get the motor running at the start line.

The game also offers not just car racing, but the ability to race in hovercraft and planes. Unfortunately, planes really suffer from the getting stuck to the terrain issue, so it's not quite as fun as it could be.

I'll make sure to bring my DS and copy of the game with me to Barcade so I can play it with the readers who show up.

I was supposed to play against other media today, but the race time was during the middle of my flight and I don't think the pilot would have appreciated me using a latop, cellcard, DS dongle and DS during the flight. Brian Crecente

There was some talk yesterday when I posted that Diddy Kong Racing DS clip about what the weapons were like in the game. They're tricky, that's what they're like. Check this clip, for instance, to get a good gander at how precise you need to be to smack someone down with a missile. And yes, the cars seem to get stuck on things awfully easy. Arrrgh.... and I don't mean that in a piratey way. Brian Crecente

Look what the nice FedEx guy just dropped off in my leathery hands. I plan on playing this up to and through the official Kotaku party later this week, so bring your DS. I hope to post up some impressions between now and then.

Oh, and they included a cool shirt that I'lll be giving out at the party too. Brian Crecente