Diddy Kong Racing

Diddy Kong Racing is a game for Nintendo 64. Like the Mario Kart series, Diddy Kong Racing is a racing game, but made use of airplanes, hovercrafts, and wheeled vehicles. The game had a story mode, muliplayer modes, and a variety of characters, (many from the Rare Series) such as Diddy Kong, Banjo, Tiptup, and Conker. The game takes place on Timber's Island. Unlike most video games with Diddy Kong, the player can't play as Donkey Kong.This is also the first game of the Donkey Kong Racing (series)

Adventure Mode
In adventure mode, the player must find a number of balloons. In order to find them, they must win races. After they win all the races in one of the five worlds, they will race a boss. After beating the boss, the player will be given the challenge of collecting eight coins in each course and then win. If the player completes the challenge, they will face the boss again. If they win, they will get a piece of the Wizpig Amulet and the boss will tell them to try the Trophy Challenge.

After having all four pieces of the Wizpig Amulet, the stone Wizpig head will open and the player can race Wizpig. In order to beat him, the player must go over every zipper, but missing one will cause the player to lose no matter what. After beating him, the characters will have a party. However, Wizpig crashes the party and chases everyone. A spaceship/UFO then comes and takes him into space. The credits will them roll, but will say "The End?" and if the player continues playing, the lighthouse on the beach will turn into a rocket and will take them to Future Fun Land. After they complete all their tasks in that world and get the whole T.T Amulet, they will face Wizpig again, except this time in their airplane. If they win, Wizpig will be blasted far into space and hit into a planet(Or possibly the moon).

Keys are also hidden in each world(Except world 5) and if found, the player can play special battles against CPUs or friends.

Adventure Two Mode
Adventure Two is played the same as Adventure One, however, the tracks are backwards, making them harder to get used thus making it much harder than the first adventure. This mode is very similar to Mirror Mode in the Mario Kart (series).

Tracks Mode
Here the player can freely play all the race tracks they have unlocked. They can also race T.T, unless he has already become playable character.

Areas
Key:
 * C = Car
 * H = Hovercraft
 * P = Plane

First Wizpig Battle
Once the racer clears all the levels and challenges and gets all the pieces of the Wizpig Amulet, he/she can fly up into the newly opened mouth of the Wizpig Head in the courtyard of the Island and defeat Wizpig.

Challenges
The player will have to race Taj the Genie in three different races. Each race uses a different vehicle. After winning a race, the player will be awarded a balloon. They can only get three balloons from Taj.

Challenge Names
Car Challenge

Hover Challenge

Plane Challenge

Hidden Balloons
The player will come across four hidden balloons throughout the overworld in the game:


 * The first one is right in the entrance to Dino Domain.
 * The second is to the left of the stone Wizpig's head.
 * The third is in the ocean behind Sherbet Island's entrance to the left.
 * The last balloon is behind two trees east of Snowflake Mountain's entrance, nezt to a waterfall.

Balloons (Items)


Balloons seen on the racetracks will give the player items. There are five different balloons and each one will give the racers a different item depending on which color balloon they grabbed.

Zippers


Zippers can be used to give the player an extra speed boost. They are found in every track. Letting go of the A button before hitting one will make the player go slightly faster.

Types of Zippers
Each vehicle has a different kind of zipper.


 * The Car Zipper


 * The Hovercraft Zipper


 * The Plane Zipper

Sequels
Rare planned to make a sequel for Diddy Kong Racing entitled Diddy Kong Pilot, but the game was canceled and replaced by Banjo Pilot.

Rare and Nintendo also planned to make a game called Donkey Kong Racing for the Nintendo GameCube, but this game was apparently canceled as well.

Finally, a remake for Nintendo DS was released, Diddy Kong Racing DS.

References to Other Games

 * Donkey Kong Country- The introduction to the story found in the instruction booklet has an opening on Donkey Kong Island the setting of this game, also Squawks is mentioned.
 * Mario Kart 64- This game came out a short time before Diddy Kong Racing and it seems that Diddy Kong Racing was likely inspired by it, and it has been mentioned that it's popularity rivaled that of Mario Kart 64.

References in Later Games

 * Donkey Kong 64- All Kritters in this game physically are identical to Krunch.
 * The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages- Another (Possibly the same but unlikly) island called Crescent Island appears.
 * Diddy Kong Racing DS- A remake of Diddy Kong Racing.
 * Super Smash Bros. Brawl- There is an event in which the player must fight 15 small Diddy Kongs on a Mario Circuit stage and the little description is "What's the matter? Did he loose a race or something?" possibly a reference to Diddy Kong Racing.
 * Banjo-Kazooie- Banjo returned in this game.
 * Conker's Pocket Tales- Conker returns in this game.
 * Banjo-Tooie- An answer to a question in a quiz near the end is Diddy Kong Racing.
 * Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts- Another character named T.T. appears.
 * Sabre Wulf- In this other game by Rare after completeing the story Sabre Man is given a camera and has to take photos of certain areas, he finds these by clues given to him, one of the clues is Jungle Falls.