On the surface these games are very similar. Both are kart racers that see the players battling it out on the track by collecting powerups and racing to victory. Both games feature eight racers per race and a default roster of eight characters (Diddy Kong Racing has a total of ten characters thanks to two unlockables). One was made based off the massive success of it's previous installment on a previous system and the other was originally slated as a sequel to the NES game R.C. Pro-Am. Not hard to tell which one is based off the success of it's predecessor, but it is not a well known fact that Diddy Kong Racing came to be out of a Pro-Am sequel after Rare had to delay Banjo Kazooie. So the fact that both of these games have some kind of history (not directly in Diddy Kong Racing's case) and that the roster is similar in size about sums up the similarities.
When you go to a party and there is a Nintendo 64 in the room, Mario Kart 64 is usually near by. That is not always the case for Diddy Kong Racing and here is my thoughts on why. Mario Kart 64 is a very easy to pick up and play game. The courses aren't especially difficult (except for a few), the characters are all well known, and the game's battle mode is actually quite good (something that can't be said about recent Mario Kart games). It's a user friendly pickup and have a blast game. Anyone who can at least keep pace in the race has a chance to win thanks to last lap, race breaking items such as stars that cause your speed to increase and make you invulnerable, and lightning bolts that shrink and slow down all the other racers on the track. Of course first place is not even safe thanks to the introduction of the infamous blue shell. Yes Mario Kart 64 can get real dirty, but that helps to make it such a great party game. You can be head and shoulders above everyone else as a driver, but a well timed item could see you in big trouble late in a race. In Diddy Kong Racing though, the odds of that happening are much less.
The way the item system works in this game is that players need to hit three of the same colored balloon to fully upgrade a weapon. For example. Pop a red balloon and you'll have a missile. Pop a second and that missile upgrades to a homing missile. Pop a third red balloon in a row and that missile becomes ten non-homing missiles. That being said, the items, even when fully upgraded, are not all that game breaking. There are no major items like stars or lightning to really screw with other players from afar. It's just as safe to be in the lead as it is near last place. You are able to get the same items, which is really not the case in Mario Kart 64 when getting a star in first place simply does not happen. So in Diddy Kong Racing, the name of the race really is skill. That's not to say that it doesn't take skill to win at Mario Kart 64, but again, there is no aid from weapons. Another thing in Diddy Kong Racing that is kind of a call back to Super Mario Kart are bananas. In Super Mario Kart you needed to collect coins in order to reach max speed. In Diddy Kong Racing bananas serve the same purpose. Coins however, do not appear in Mario Kart 64 and you can hit max speed from the race start.
As I mentioned earlier, Mario Kart 64 has a very familiar cast to gamers and even non gamers alike. All of the characters in this game have had at least one major title that they have been involved in and one both of the mega stars of the Super Nintendo era are in play in Mario and D.K.. It's also easy to take a guess at what the different weight classes are. You can probably guess that Bowser, D.K. and Wario are heavy weights and that Mario and Luigi are middle weights and that Toad is tiny. Compare this to Diddy Kong Racing's roster and you'll probably quickly realize why Mario Kart 64's is more appealing.
Taking a quick glance, Diddy Kong himself is the only really recognizable character when the game came out. Krunch, the Kremling on Diddy's right I would venture to guess was also recognizable from the Donkey Kong Country trilogy despite Krunch not being an actual character in the series. That being said, there are a couple more now well known characters that are in this game. Conker, the star of Conkey's Bad Fur Day actually made his debut in Diddy Kong Racing on the lower left part of the screen. Banjo from the then delayed Banjo Kazooie is also playable and stands on the top right of the screen. The rest of the characters are fresh new faces and outside of a DS remake of the game, have not been seen since. Originally, Timber the tiger was supposed to have the lead role in the game, but Nintendo suggested that Rare go with a more familiar character, thus Diddy Kong entered and became the star of the game. So the roster was not something that Diddy Kong Racing really had going for it popularity wise, but it still featured heavyweights, middleweights, and lightweights. It also had a kind of grey area in Bumper, the badger looking character next to Banjo, who is more of a middle/heavyweight.
Based on the rosters and items, many people call Mario Kart 64 the better of the two games and it is the more popular of the two. As I mentioned earlier, the game can usually be found at a party where a Nintendo 64 exists. Beyond the pick up and easily have a chance at winning if not by skill then by luck, does Mario Kart 64 beat out Diddy Kong Racing? If you look beneath the surface of both games you might be in for a surprise. Both are racing games, both can be challenging, and both offer very different experiences.
Mario Kart 64 in all it's simplicity is mostly just a racing game. You race through the Mushroom, Flower, Star, and Special Cups with three different motor sizes as well as a mirror mode where the tracks are flipped around. Each motor size increases the speed of your cart and the difficulty of the computer racers. 150cc races tend to be hectic and a bit of luck is usually needed to come out on top, especially if another human player is in the race. There is also a Time Trial mode where you can race without opponents and see how quickly you can make it through a race. You can also race "ghosts" in this mode (the ghost is the current best time on the track). Lastly there is the battle mode which is available for 2-4 players. In this mode players battle it out and the player with the last balloons wins. That is a quick overview as to what Mario Kart 64 is. As a single player game, it's a lot of fun, but once you've unlocked mirror mode, there really isn't much else to do besides practice the tracks for future multiplayer experiences. Graphically the game isn't bad by any means and the soundtrack is a lot of fun
Diddy Kong Racing on the other hand is quite complicated in comparison. The game has two default modes, Adventure Mode and Tracks. In Tracks you can race any of the tracks, battles, or trophy races that you have visited in Adventure Mode. Speaking of Adventure Mode... Yes, Diddy Kong Racing actually has a story. Wizpig has invaded Timber Island and enslaved some of it's inhabitants. In a panic, Timber calls on Diddy Kong to race and help save the island. It sounds silly, but it actually works quite well. I'm not going to go into too much detail here about the Adventure Mode, but I'll outline it to give you a better understanding. There are 5 worlds consisting of 4 tracks. To get to a world you'll need to travel the overworld of Timber's Island. Upon completing the four tracks you will race on of the island's enslaved inhabitants in a boss battle style race, Once you defeat it, you'll be challenged to go back through the four tracks again and collect eight silver coins and win each respective race. After that you will need to face off against the inhabitant again, although it will be much tougher. Once you beat it a second time you will free it from Wizpig's grasp and a traditional trophy race will open up for the world that has a similar point system to Mario Kart 64. In this trophy race though, the computer opponents are much more difficult. Also hidden somewhere in each world is a key that will open a secret level. These levels are not races, but rather levels that are similar to Mario Kart 64's battle mode, or a pseudo battle/collectathon hybrid. Upon completing the four secret stages you'll be able to reach the final world and rid Timber Island of Wizpig for good. Along the way you'll explore a somewhat open world, race a genie, and switch between the three vehicles the game has to offer. Yes, three vehicles.
Unlike Mario Kart 64 you are not confined to kart racing. Diddy Kong Racing offers races in cars, planes, and hovercraft. Each vehicle is very different from the others. For example. Lightweights in the plane and car are able to get up to speed and turn corners better than any other class. However, in the hovercraft lightweights will almost come to a stop when turning. Heavyweights act almost as lightweights in the hovercraft. The plane is able to perform tricks and the up and down axis is inverted in a similar fashion to Star Fox. The car is well, a car. It handles similarly to a cart in Mario Kart. So in order to really get good at this game you need to be able to easily tackle all three vehicles and what makes them unique.
Upon completing Adventure Mode, you'll be invited to play Adventure Mode Two. This is similar to Adventure Mode but all the tracks are flipped around. You'll also be able to race a secret character in Tracks mode. In addition to that secret character, there is one more to find as well so that brings the roster to ten characters. For a lot of people though, all of this does not necessarily make one game better than another. Sure one is more complex, but for many people, graphics seem to make it or break it.
Before I go into detail as to why I like the way each of these games look I want to say that I don't think either of them look bad by any stretch, but I do believe one has held up better against time. The image above is from Diddy Kong Racing. The game showed the power that the Nintendo 64 had as Rare once again busts out bright vibrant colors, and plenty of environment on screen. For a racing game on the sixty four bit system, the game is beautifully bright and full. This is really shown off as you race through towns, caves, bays, windmills, etc, etc, etc.
The above picture is from Mario Kart 64. Here the colors are not as bright and vibrant, but the attention to detail is there, but for a game that came out earlier, it appears less. Take a look at the trees and backgrounds here versus the above picture. They just do not pop as much as in Diddy Kong Racing. That being said though, Mario Kart 64 is the older game. There are plenty of awesome looking tracks to behold, but for me personally Diddy Kong Racing graphically has held up better over time.
If anyone who knows me is reading this then you probably know that I love music in games. So I have to throw this in there. When it comes to the two games soundtracks I put them both on a similar level. Both have great tracks. They really do. That being said, my favorite video game music composer, David Wise, did the music for Diddy Kong Racing. Wise struck gold again with this game as I think Diddy Kong Racing has a slight edge in music. This isn't so much due to a head to head with Mario Kart's tracks so much as it is the variety. Keep in mind that Diddy Kong Racing is not just a racing game, so there is music that extends out of the tracks including character dialogue, overworld themes, and even boss music.
So the grand question which one of these racing games is the better? For me it's really, really tough to tell. Both have their upsides and downsides. Since I do not have a large friend circle, I would give the nod to Diddy Kong Racing for the following reasons. Mario Kart 64 I have always felt is best played as a multiplayer game. While I love multiplayer Diddy Kong Racing, it just, for whatever reason, does not bring out the intense friendship ending chaos that Mario Kart is so well known for. I feel like this is partially due to the item selection and ability to never really be out of a race unless you mess up big time. In addition, I love the variety of the car, hovercraft, and plane. It breaks up the monotony of having to race the same way race in and race out. Having the heavyweights get the ability to do some tight turning in the hovercraft was a great touch and something that would appear in later Mario Kart games once kart customization was introduced. The real thing though that tips the hand in Diddy's favor for me though is the Adventure Mode. The story, while simple, is actually a lot of fun to play through. Yes, the silver coin challenges can be frustrating, but having the mode gives a sense of accomplishment that simply isn't in Mario Kart 64. Sure you can collect all the gold trophies, but you can do that in Diddy Kong Racing as well. Honestly, I wish that more racing games came out with something like this. Granted, nowadays the internet takes care of not having many friends, but still, I'm sure solo players like myself would love more of this style racing game that allows them to do more than just race for trophies.
In the end, both of these games really are incredible and in my opinion, both are must have games for anyone who has a Nintendo 64. Without a doubt Mario Kart 64 is the go to to play with friends, but for those times when nobody is around or if you and a friend want a more skilled based racing experience, but still have some fun items and stage gimmicks, Diddy Kong Racing takes point. For solo play, Diddy Kong Racing is my go to. Thanks for reading and have a wonderful day!
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