The Kong's and Kremlin's have perfected flight with jet powered bongo drums of sorts. In order to propel your rocket powered simian or reptile around the track, players alternately beat on the drums on either side of their character to cause the bongos to thrust. To steer, you bang on the drum on side you want to turn.. Although, to me the steering felt backwards, as anyone who can perceive the most basic of physics will understand that more thrust on the left of an object would cause the object to turn right, not left. All this 'Drumming' is achieved by shaking the Remote or Nunchuck. My first thought when i saw that i had to shake the Remote and Nunchuck alternately to accelerate was 'This is going to be tiring.' Fortunately 'shaking to accelerate' is exactly that. Once you have reached your maximum speed, which is different for each character, you can just sit back and coast letting you concentrate on the other necessary race elements.

Littered all over each track are bananas, barrels, and balloons. These three items are vital for you to outrace the other players, especially since the computer controlled opponents always seem to scream past you right from the get go, leaving you in their exhaust. Balloons are the most basic of the three B's. They will seem familiar to players of Diddy Kong Racing in looks, but their distribution of items is a little different. There are two types of balloons, red and blue. Any character can use any item from either colour. If you are playing as a Kong, the items found in red balloons are powered up, making the item last longer if it is a defensive item, or cause more pain if it is offensive. The Kremlin's receive the same benefit from the blue balloons. Each colour balloon contains eight items. Seven are unique to that colour and one is shared, meaning there are 15 items overall. Upon collecting a balloon, the player is given a 'random' item, although it is influenced somewhat by your position in the race. Using these power-ups efficiently helps you take and keep the lead.

Barrels are a bit more complicated. What you will see most of in a race are the barrels scattered to obstruct you. These come in 3 varieties, wood, iron and TNT. The iron and TNT barrels are there solely to slow you, the only solution is to avoid them by jumping, which is done by flicking the Remote and Nunchuck simultaneously. The wooden barrels are the real focus though. Of course they are also intended to be an obstacle, hitting them will slow you down. However you are able to use your characters attack to break them open and receive bananas. As well as inside barrels, bananas are found all over the track. From singles bananas, to bunches and even golden bananas. Collecting bananas fills up the gauge on the right of your screen. Every time you collect 50, you get one 'wild move', which is a fancy way to say 'boost'. Combining 'wild moves' with wooden barrels is where things start to speed up. When using a wild move, smashing through a wooden barrel or hitting an opponent gives the wild move an extra boost, essentially restarting it.

The art of chaining these together is what wins races. Barrels seem to be specifically placed the exact distance needed to combo boosts, maximizing the wild moves potential. Alas, this is about as deep as the game gets, considering how easy it is to chain boost, that isn't very deep at all.

Much like any video game racer, players can participate in a Grand Prix, Single Race, or Time Trial. There is also a 'Free Race' mode to practice a circuit without any pressure of other racers or limited laps. The Grand Prix is broken into different cups, each with their own selection of courses. Players can also create their own track list in the 'Selection Cup'. Winning Grand Prix's unlocks more cups, difficulties and characters to play as. Initially you can choose from three Kong's and three Kremlin's. Beating a Grand Prix as a Kong earns you a new Kong and winning as a Kremlin rewards you with a new Kremlin. In addition to the standard modes you can also visit Cranky Kong's Flight School, and engage in challenges set by Candy Kong. Flight School should be the first place you visit, it teaches you all the basics of controlling your Jet Pack. Candy provides challenges for the more experienced racer. These contain objectives such as breaking a certain amount of barrels, collecting bananas, and attacking enemies.

All things considering, DK's Jet Race is very simplistic. Winning against the CPU is hardly a challenge, you shouldn't find yourself getting any lower that gold first time in the Grand Prix's. The challenges change things up a bit, but really, they are just as easy. The game is presented well and plays smoothly, though this doesn't make up for the lack of any real challenge. The control system is fairly easy to handle but can have issues at times. I found that sometimes when i try to accelerate i would jump involuntarily, the game thinking i had shaken the controls simultaneously, not alternately. This sometimes caused for frustrations as i helplessly descended from my jump into an obstacle. DK's Jet Race would suit a younger audience, as the more accomplished gamer would become bored very quickly.