Krunch

Krunch is a Kremling playable character in Diddy Kong Racing and Diddy Kong Racing DS. He wears a purple leather vest, similar to the Kritters' jacket in Donkey Kong 64 and both versions of the cancelled Diddy Kong Pilot. The back of his vest has a skull-and-crossbones design in Diddy Kong Racing, but it is omitted in Diddy Kong Racing DS, possibly due to graphical limitations.

In the 2002 acquisition of Rare Ltd., the rights of many franchises and characters were passed on from Nintendo to Microsoft. Nintendo sought to keep all characters directly linked to the Donkey Kong series, with the exception of the cast of Donkey Kong Racing. Due to the nature of Krunch being a Kremling, which is a Nintendo-owned fictional species, Krunch was the only Diddy Kong Racing cast member, besides Diddy Kong, whose rights were kept with Nintendo.

Diddy Kong Racing
In the backstory for Diddy Kong Racing, Krunch was sent by King K. Rool to investigate why Diddy Kong and his friends are at Timber's Island, and to see if they were plotting against the Kremlings. Instead of antagonizing them, Krunch ends up helping the racers on their journey to expel Wizpig from Timber's Island. Krunch has the worst acceleration and handling of the racers, but has a very high top speed, making him the third-fastest racer. Krunch's top speed without bananas is 60 mph.

Diddy Kong Racing DS
In Diddy Kong Racing DS, Krunch's turning and acceleration were slightly increased, although his top speed was slightly decreased. In the intro cutscene, Krunch is seen with another Kremling (who has the same model as Krunch). As they watch Diddy, Dixie and Tiny run by, Krunch tells the other Kremling, "Where are thosssssssse Kongssssssss going? I will follow!". The other Kremling then leaves.

Trivia

 * Footage of the early pre-release build 1.964 of Diddy Kong Racing shown in the German Nintendo 64 promotional VHS tape "Wieviel 3-D hältst du aus?" reveals that Krunch was named "Krash" at some point in development, though this name was already taken by another Kremling in Donkey Kong Country.
 * The Kritter character in both versions of the cancelled Diddy Kong Pilot bear an almost identical appearance to Krunch. In addition, in the 2001 version of Diddy Kong Pilot, the internal name for the Kritter is "Krash". Whether the Kritter was at some point intended to be Krunch is unknown, but all of the remaining information and screenshots for the cancelled two games simply refer to this character as "Kritter".
 * Krunch has four fingers in Diddy Kong Racing–for the remake, Diddy Kong Racing DS, his new appearance now has five fingers.
 * Krunch would have been included as part of the cast to Diddy Kong Racing Adventure, a rejected video game idea pitch that never came into fruition. It was planned that he would use his jaw to chase down other racers as a special move.