Tricky the Triceratops

Tricky the Triceratops is a large Triceratops and one of the fastest inhabitants of Timber's Island. His hometown area on the island is Dino Domain.

During the events of Diddy Kong Racing, Tricky was brainwashed by the evil pig wizard Wizpig into becoming one of his servants. Tricky was also given a piece of Wizpig's Amulet to guard. Tricky would only accept a challenge from a racer if they managed to beat all the challenges in his area, Dino Domain.

The mountain that the player had to race on gradually turned left, and there were many red and blue balloons littered around the course. However, the balloons weren't required much to beat Tricky. If the player ever collided with Tricky, he or she would get squished down, giving Tricky an opportunity to speed ahead. Near the beginning and the middle of the race, boulders will roll down the mountain and could squash the player as well. Also near the middle of the course, there is a cave covered by five bushes. The cave is a great shortcut up the mountain, and has a Zipper in it as well.

Once Tricky is defeated, the dinosaur will open up Dino Domain's Silver Coin challenges. Once all the Silver Coin challenges are completed, Tricky can be challenged to a rematch. In this race Tricky is twice as fast as before, and giant pillars of rock will fall and flatten the racer. The player must make full use of the balloons to win this race.

Once Tricky is defeated, Wizpig's spell on him will break. As thanks for freeing him, Tricky will award his opponent the piece of Wizpig's amulet he was guarding.

Tricky later appears in Diddy Kong Racing's end-of-game cinematic.

Tricky also reappears as a boss in the Nintendo DS remake Diddy Kong Racing DS where he is relatively unchanged.

Continuity Conundrum
There has been some confusion over this Tricky and Prince Tricky, another dinosaur from the Star Fox series of games. In Rare's August 2007 edition of Scribes, it was confirmed that both characters were orignally intended to be the same, but their connection now is questionable.

Trivia

 * Tricky is the only boss in Diddy Kong Racing who can squish racers who touch him directly.
 * According to Kevin Bayliss, former character designer at Rare, the Star Fox Adventures Tricky used the same model as the Diddy Kong Racing Tricky when the game was to be known as Dinosaur Planet and was not a Star Fox game.