Diddy Kong Racing

Diddy Kong Racing is a racing/adventure game developed and published by Rareware for Nintendo 64. Featuring gameplay elements equivalent to the Mario Kart series, the game includes the use of airplanes, hovercrafts, and cars. The game features a story mode, a multiplayer mode, and two characters who would eventually receive their own franchises, Banjo and Conker. It received a remake for the Nintendo DS in 2007, titled Diddy Kong Racing DS.

Diddy Kong Racing has sold 4.5 million copies upon release. It even received the Guinness World Record for the fastest-selling game of the time, with 800,000 copies before Christmas 1997. The game was even successful enough to become a Player's Choice title.

Two sequels were planned, but both were subsequently canceled in the aftermath of 's acquistion of Rare in 2002. These included Donkey Kong Racing for the Nintendo GameCube and Diddy Kong Pilot for the Game Boy Advance, the latter of which was eventually converted into the Banjo-Kazooie title, . Around 2004, Climax pitched their own sequel idea to Nintendo, Diddy Kong Racing Adventure, but it was ultimately rejected.

Story
According to the instruction manual, the story begins with Diddy Kong sitting on the porch of his tree house opening a letter delivered by a carrier pigeon. The note reads, "Dear Diddy, Help!!!" The message is from his old friend, Timber, the son of the Kongs' guests, the Tigers. Diddy reads the note and invites his friends, Banjo and Conker to join him in the fight against Wizpig. Diddy calls Squawks to deliver the message to his friends.

While Diddy is in the jungle, two Kremlings watch him from behind a boulder. One Kremling, Krunch, suggests they follow Diddy, but the other Kremling ignores him; Krunch eventually follows Diddy Kong.

Meanwhile, Timber is trying to calm Pipsy, where she exclaims that she had just seen Taj the Genie, who said he would help. TipTup, confused, protests that Taj has been missing for 50 years. Afterwards, the group thinks about the Wizpig face that was carved onto the mountainside overnight and the race courses that were magically sealed. The group knows they need to solve the problem before Timber's parents return. Bumper then concludes the conversation by telling his friend that everybody needs to start practicing. Agreeing with Bumper, Timber and his friends leave, hoping that Diddy Kong does not mention this to Timber's parents.

When the first four worlds are completed, the carving of Wizpig's head on the mountainside opens and allows one of the characters to race Wizpig. After beating him, the group has a party along the beach. However, Wizpig interferes in the party before a spaceship arrives and takes him into space. The lighthouse on the beach is a disguised rocket ship that takes them to Future Fun Land.

After the character completes all the tasks in that world and gets the whole T.T. amulet, Wizpig can be faced again, racing against him in their plane, while he rides a rocket. After winning, Wizpig's rocket short circuits and blasts him into an unknown planet. Once again, the characters celebrate their victory without Wizpig interfering and with the carving of Wizpig's head on the mountainside turned into a golden carving of Taj's head.

Right before the credits roll, one of Wizpig's spaceships appears, and Wizpig's laughter is heard, leaving the game on a cliffhanger.

Gameplay
Diddy Kong Racing features ten playable characters—eight of which are available by default, and two unlockable—and three different types of vehicles for different terrain: cars for land, hovercrafts for water or land, and planes for air. Each character and vehicle has different strengths and weaknesses, sometimes in combination. For example, Krunch normally has low steering, but his steering is higher in a hovercraft due to that vehicle's emphasis on weight.

In the Adventure mode, the player is placed on Timber's Island and tasked with collecting Golden Balloons to access various challenges. There is a total of five worlds that can be accessed from the main Timber's Island hub, and each has four main racetracks, a trophy championship, a boss track, and—aside from the last one—a special battle minigame. Different vehicles are sometimes required for different tracks, and the player can change them at any time by speaking with Taj the Genie, located in the center of the Timber's Island map. Each of the smaller worlds, meanwhile, instead has T.T. walking around the hub, and he tells the player's progress when approached.

In races, bananas can be picked up to increase speed, while Weapon Balloons provide items to use in the race. The color of the Weapon Balloon determines what item it will be, and collecting multiple of the same color in sequence improves the item's effects by up to a total of three levels. Collecting a balloon of another color cancels it out and replaces it with the new item.

Golden Balloons can be found scattered on Timber's Island or won from races, either from tracks or from Taj on the island. All of the standard tracks have two Golden Balloons available: one from a standard race, and one from completing a Silver Coin collection challenge. The standard races must be completed first to race the world's boss, who then challenges the player to complete the Silver Coin races; after they are completed as well, the player can rematch the boss for a piece of the Wizpig amulet. The boss then challenges the player to complete the Trophy Race championship. Each of the first four worlds has a key hidden in one track that opens a gate to the respective world's battle minigame, which awards a piece of the T.T. amulet.

When all four pieces of the Wizpig amulet are gathered, the player is able to race Wizpig himself to banish him from the island. Upon losing, he throws a tantrum and retreats to his own planet (the final world), and the player must have all four trophies to reach it. To race him again, the player must complete all races and Silver Coin challenges in this last world (itself requiring every Golden Balloon in the game) and collect all four pieces of the T.T. amulet from the battle stages. The adventure is complete once Wizpig is defeated here.

The game also has a time trial mode, where the player needs to race to beat T.T.'s best times. This is optional in the main game, but it is required to unlock T.T. himself. Additionally, "magic codes" can be used to affect the game in various ways, with one being told to the player after they complete the adventure.

Playable characters
There are 10 playable characters in Diddy Kong Racing, with eight available from the start and two being unlockable. All of these characters except Diddy Kong debut in this game. Some characters have discrepancies depending on the vehicle they use; TipTup and Pipsy have the same speed as Diddy on a car when they have 4 to 10 bananas and have the same speed as Diddy on a hovercraft and a plane, while T.T. has the same speed and acceleration as Krunch on a plane. This is the first game to introduce Banjo, TipTup (later renamed Tiptup), and Conker, three characters who appear in other Rare games with Banjo being one of the main characters in Banjo-Kazooie and Tiptup appearing as a minor character in Bubblegloop Swamp inside Tanktup's shell. Conker would appear in Conker's Pocket Tales and would've appeared in Twelve Tales: Conker 64 until it was reworked into the adult-oriented title, Conker's Bad Fur Day. Banjo and Conker would be removed in Diddy Kong Racing DS, replaced by Tiny Kong and Dixie Kong respectively. However, Tiptup still appears in both versions.

Non-playable characters
A single non-playable ally appears in the game; the remainder of the non-playable cast are bosses.

Bosses
Diddy Kong Racing has five bosses, all of which are raced twice. The first four, the Island Guardians, have been enchanted by the final boss, Wizpig, into racing on his behalf. For the Island Guardians, the only difference between the first and second race is a slight increase in difficulty, though Wizpig's races are completely different from each other. Each boss cheats by beginning before the starting countdown ends, with this becoming more and more obvious the further into the game it happens.

Vehicles
There are three different vehicles:

Adventure Mode
Adventure mode is the main mode of the game. While exploring Timber's Island, the players must find a number of golden balloons to defeat Wizpig. In order to find them, they must win races. After the players win all the races in one of the five worlds, they will race a boss. If the players beats the boss they will be given the challenge of collecting eight silver coins in each course of that world and then win simultaneously. When the challenge is complete, the player will face the boss again. After beating the boss again, the racer receives a piece of Wizpig amulet, and the player can participate in a world's Grand Prix mode, the Trophy Race, which the boss even suggests. The player obtains a gold trophy if they win first place, a silver one for second place, and a bronze one for third place.

Adventure Two Mode
Adventure Two is played the same as the standard Adventure Mode, but harder. The balloons are silver, the tracks are flipped (very similar to Mirror Mode in the Mario Kart series), and the locations of the silver coins are different, often in hard to reach places. It is unlocked by defeating Wizpig at Future Fun Land in Adventure Mode.

Tracks Mode
Players can freely play all the race tracks unlocked. Tracks with a Taj symbol are completed tracks, and players can choose any vehicle that is compatible with the track. Tracks with a Wizpig symbol have not been cleared, and players will be unable to play that track at all.

Trophy Races and Battle Stages are also accessible through Tracks mode, however players will always use each track's default vehicle, regardless if a Taj symbol is present.

Normal races
During standard races, eight characters travel three laps around the track in the same type of vehicle as each other. Each world has four standard race tracks, and a Golden Balloon is the prize for winning.

Boss races
Races against bosses are always one-on-one, and depending on the track layout may be three laps or a single end-to-end run. The four Island Guardians must be raced twice, once after each normal race and once after each Silver Coin challenge in their world is completed; winning the second race earns a piece of the amulet needed to reach the first Wizpig race. Both Wizpig races lead to endings when completed.

Silver Coin challenges
Silver Coin challenges are much like normal races, except that the eight Silver Coins scattered across the track must be collected before winning. For the first four worlds, they are recommended after the boss is defeated the first time and are necessary to rematch them. In Future Fun Land, they are simply done after all the normal races with no boss race in between. As with normal races, a Golden Balloon is earned by beating them.

Trophy races
Trophy Races are a grand prix-style challenge where the player goes through all four of a world's normal tracks back-to-back (sometimes in an order different from unlocking), trying to get a higher ranking than the opponents. Winning within the top three earns a different trophy for each placement. Collecting a trophy in each of the first four worlds is necessary to reach the final world.

Challenge Levels
Challenge Levels are challenges that appear in each of the four main worlds. Each world has a single Challenge Level that matches the world's theme, and has a unique objective and layout. Each Challenge Level's door can be unlocked by a key located a specific course of that world. The player obtains a part of the T.T. amulet when they win at a challenge.

Fire Mountain
In Fire Mountain, the players, using planes, complete to be the first to gather three dinosaur eggs from the center of the arena into their respective nest.

Icicle Pyramid
In Icicle Pyramid, players, using cars, battle each other directly using items, with each player getting four hit points (represented by a total of eight bananas). It is functionally equivalent to the Balloon Battle from the Mario Kart games.

Darkwater Beach
The gameplay in Darkwater Beach is identical to Icicle Pyramid, but uses hovercrafts instead of cars.

Smokey Castle
In Smokey Castle, players, using cars, complete to gather ten bananas into their respective treasure chest, with only two at a time being able to be carried.

Taj's challenges
After the player collects enough Golden Balloons in Adventure Mode, Taj the Genie will appear and challenge the player to a race in a specific vehicle. The player has to race Taj, who rides a flying carpet. The racetrack is marked with red flags showing the Nintendo 64 logo and the player has to follow them. If they leave the set track by too far a margin, they will be disqualified. After Taj is beaten, he will reward the player with another Golden Balloon. There are three different challenges and each of them can be repeated at any time after they have been unlocked (the player will only obtain one Golden Balloon per challenge however).

Car Challenge is a relatively easy race done in a car. This race goes around a dirt road right in front of Dino Domain and reaches into a tunnel. This should be very easy for the player because of Taj's slow movement.

Hovercraft Challenge is the second of Taj's races and is somewhat more difficult than the Car Challenge. The track is mostly in water and begins next to the bridge which leads to Dino Domain. In the race the player will hover into a waterfall that is on the far east of the river. Here, they will be in a cave leading to Snowflake Mountain and eventually fall down two small waterfalls taking them to the ocean. Going east will take the player back on shore where they need to go through a small tunnel leading to the finish line.

Plane Challenge is considered to be the hardest of Taj's three races and a plane is used in it. This race begins at the same place where the Car Challenge begins. From the start the player must fly up to the tunnel leading to Snowflake Mountain and then move east, going over a long river. From there, the player must glide to the beach and go east again. After going through a small tunnel, the player should end up at the finish line.

Tracks and progression
Diddy Kong Racing contains twenty race tracks split between five worlds. In most races (marked with a check mark), racers are able to choose what type of vehicle to bring into the race, which can affect the paths in the course they are able to take. For some races, there are vehicles that are not able to be taken into it (marked with a red X). Every race also has a default vehicle type to use (marked with a D), which is usually the best type of vehicle to use for the race.

Weapon Balloons
During the challenges on the different race tracks throughout the game the player can find these Weapon Balloons on the track. Similar to the Item Boxes of the Mario Kart series, these objects will give the player an Item when they break them. There are five different types of Weapon Balloons, each with a unique color and a specific type of Item. A special feature of the Weapon Balloons is their ability to power up, meaning that the player will receive stronger items if they collect more balloons of one color. An item can be upgraded two times, making a total of three items obtainable from one type of balloon.

Magic Codes
Magic Codes are game cheats, always accessible in the options menu. These cheats mostly alter only the tracks mode rather than the Adventure mode, while some others do miscellaneous tasks such as allowing players to listen to music in the game. At the end of the game credits, a random magic code is given to players.

Regional differences
The Japanese version of Diddy Kong Racing redesigned the font for the English text. One example is the start-up screen for the Rareware logo, which uses a different and larger font for the copyright information.

The English letters of the yellow-green font were redesigned in the Japanese version.

Development
Diddy Kong Racing found its root in a short-lived prototype. According to Lead Designer Lee Schuneman, a team of four at Rareware was developing a caveman/time travel-themed real time strategy game for the Nintendo 64 ; however, the idea was quickly abandoned and the developers decided to create a "fun" racing game named Wild Cartoon Kingdom using assets from the canceled RTS (3D artist Lee Musgrave denies, however, that the two projects were ever related).

The racing aspect was heavily inspired by Super Mario Kart while the concept of an "adventure" mode was inspired by  according to Schumenam. The initial concept featured a hub world based on theme parks. Development was initially slow until a larger team was brought in to help accelerate the project, and the game was renamed to Adventure Racers.

The project was renamed Pro Am 64 (in reference to Rare's NES hit ) later in development and briefly featured the characters using three-wheeled -like vehicles. The game was demoed to Shigeru Miyamoto in June 1997, who approved of it and suggested that it should feature Diddy Kong. The development team initially hated the idea, but eventually agreed with Miyamoto's suggestion as featuring Diddy Kong brought stronger marketing from Nintendo and greater visibility to the game due to the popularity of the Donkey Kong brand.

Pre-release and unused content
All objects are assigned a name according to the files. One unfinished track remains in the game, Horseshoe Gulch. It can be accessed with cheats.

Canceled sequels
Owing to the game's success, numerous attempts at sequels were made. However, each ended up canceled due to Rare's sale to in 2002, among other reasons. While no sequel ended up happening, a remake for the Nintendo DS was released: Diddy Kong Racing DS. Although a remake, it featured more characters, tracks, and some different challenges. Some music had also changed. Eventually, another Donkey Kong-themed racing game was released, the unrelated Donkey Kong Barrel Blast for the Wii.

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. In addition, Squawks is mentioned. Diddy's character select theme is an arrangement of DK Island Swing.

References in later games

 * Donkey Kong 64: The Kritters in this game are physically similar to Krunch.
 * Diddy Kong Pilot: Krunch's sound effects were reused, as was Diddy's. T.T.'s voice is also used.
 * Mario Kart: Double Dash!!: Dino Dino Jungle, internally considered Diddy's course, seems to take several cues from Dino Domain.

Staff
Software director: Software engineers: Art director: 3D artists:
 * Robert Harrison
 * Paul Mountain
 * John Pegg
 * Richard Gale
 * Kevin Bayliss
 * Lee Musgrave
 * Keith Rabbette
 * Dean Smith
 * Johnni Christensen
 * Brian Smyth
 * Paul Cunningham