*********Lots of Spoilers Ahead*************
Before Diddy Kong Racing was Diddy Kong Racing it went by a couple other names. The first of those was a strategy game by the name of Wild Cartoon Kingdom. The game didn't get very far and quickly was remade into a sequel to one of Rares NES projects, R.C. Pro-Am. R.C. Pro-Am 64 was to feature Timber the Tiger as the lead character. While the game was in development, the would be smash hit Banjo Kazooie was also in development. Banjo Kazooie would have to be delayed so Rareware decided that they needed to do something to save the 1997 Christmas season. The decision was made to change Pro-Am 64 once again. This time around Diddy Kong would become the main character and the game would be renamed one final time to Diddy Kong Racing. The game was developed by Rareware and hit store shelves in North America on November 24th, 1997.
Right off the bat, Diddy Kong Racing does something not frequently done in racing games. The game actually has a plot. Somewhere near Donkey Kong Island and the now sunken Crocodile Isle lies another island called Timber's Island. It is here where Timber the tiger, his parents, and his friends all live doing their favorite thing, racing. The plot begins where Timber's parents go on vacation leaving Timber in charge. It is then that the evil Wizpig lands on the island, enslaves it's guardians and claims the island. The islands greatest racer, Drumstick the rooster challenged Wizpig, but never returned. Following Drumstick's disappearance Timber calls on Diddy Kong to help rid the island of Wizpig. Diddy quickly enlists the aid of soon to be heroes in their own right, Conker the Squirrel and Banjo the bear. Fearing that Diddy was up to something, Krunch the Kremling follows Diddy to "help" him in his quest. Other residents of Timber's Island such as Tip Tup the turtle, Pipsy the mouse, Bumper the badger, T.T. the stopwatch, and Taj the Indian elephant. The group sets out to free the island's guardians and defeat Wizpig at his own game, racing.
Now you might be thinking to yourself that the plot is a little ridiculous. Well believe it or not, it actually works really well and for a racing game, is really really good. It's much better than just racing through the same tracks again and again at faster speeds. It gives the game a feeling of progression and accomplishment which I feel is pretty rare in racing games. I can't really think of another racing game that did a story as well as this game did. Crash Team Racing on the Playstation had an alright story I guess, but nothing quite like Diddy Kong Racing.
I talked about the graphics as well as the sound department in the blog that compared this game to Mario Kart 64 so I'm not going to go into much detail on them as I really want to look at the gameplay more. As far as graphics go, they are great for the Nintendo 64 and honestly, they are great for a game that had to be rushed out due to Banjo being delayed. It's the Nintendo 64 so you can still make out some polygons and what not, but the color scheme of the game does a great job at hiding most of it. That's because this game is bright. When I say bright, I mean bright. Even the grey and black Bumper stands out brightly. It's hard to exactly pinpoint a perfect description of the graphics, but I like to say they are Rareware graphics, which means they are probably really good.
In the sound department you've got yet another soundtrack by the legendary David Wise. It's frantic, it's fast, it's fun, it's another brilliant soundtrack. There really isn't much else to say. The music in Snowflake Mountain sounds like winter tunes, Dino Domain's tracks are generic, but fun, while Dragon Forest, Sherbert Island, and Future Fun Land all have a mixed bag of generic and really well themed music. All in all the soundtrack is simply great.
Now for the time I've been waiting for. It's time to look at the gameplay aspects of this game. I apologize ahead of time as this could be lengthy. I love to talk about this game, so it's possible I may ramble a bit here. Diddy Kong Racing features a few different game modes. The main game is Adventure Mode. Additional game modes include Tracks mode and Adventure Two. For this part of the two part blog I will focus on Adventure Mode.
Adventure Mode is the main game mode and it is largely a single player mode. There is a password that will allow for a two player adventure to be possible. Upon starting this game mode you will be in the overworld. Be sure to take the time to explore it and not just because it will help you progress through the game. It's just incredibly colorful and fun to look at. The game consists of five main worls, Dino Domain (1), Snowflake Mountain (2), Sherbet Island (3), Dragon Forest (4), and Future Fun Land (5). Within each world there are four tracks and a boss race. In order to enter a race you must have a number of balloons equal to or greater than the number displayed on the door of the track. Balloons are earned by winning races and are also scattered about the overworld. Hidden in each world in one of the tracks is a key. The key will open the door to the battle stage of the world. Upon completing the battle stage you will obtain a piece of the T.T. Amulet.
The battle stages take on one of three different themes. In Dino Domain you will be attempting to hatch dinosaur eggs by keeping them in your nest long enough. The competition will be out to steal your eggs and you can certainly steal theirs as well. It's a high flying battle as you will compete in planes. Snowflake Mountain's battle is a more traditional battle. You start with eight bananas and use items to blast your foes. It's very similar to battle mode in Mario Kart, but instead of balloons you have bananas. With each hit though you will lose two bananas. Sherbet Island's battle is similar to Snowflake Mountain's but instead of a battle in a car you take to the seas in a hovercraft. Finally, Dragon Forest's battle involves picking up bananas and delivering them to your respective crate. The first car driver to reach ten bananas wins. The thing is you can only carry two at a time and if you get hit by an item, you lose whatever you are carrying. The battle stages are all a lot of fun and are a nice change of pace after doing some hard racing.
As I mentioned earlier, Wizpig has enslaved the four guardians of Timber's Island. In order to free them, you must beat them in two races. Each guardian has his own unique track that is only available during these races. Upon beating all the tracks in a world once, the guardian's door will open enabling you to race him. If you beat him he will challenge you to complete the silver coin challenge of the world. This is probably the most frustrating part of the game. The silver coin challenge requires that you collect eight silver coins on each of the worlds' tracks and win the race as well. Some of the coins are in very tough to reach places and some will take you well off your normal route. You need to have a decent understanding of each track before trying the silver coin challenge because they get tougher and tougher as you progress through the game. Luckily, the ai racers are not overwhelming in this challenge, but they can certainly take advantage of you struggling to collect coins and bananas (more on that soon). Upon finishing the silver coin challenge, the boss door will again open and you will race him again. This time around though the bosses race for real. There are far more hazards on the track and the guardians themselves move much quicker as well. Good luck keeping up with Tricky, the guardian of Dino Domain for a good chunk of his round two. Upon beating the guardian for a second time you get a piece of the Wizpig Amulet. Upon collecting all four pieces of the Wizpig amulet you will be able to race Wizpig.
After defeating Wizpig your adventure does not end. After Wizpig retreats back to his world, Timber and the gang pursue him to Future Fun Land which hosts by far the toughest tracks in the game. Complete the regular races and the silver coin challenge here as well as collect all pieces of the T.T. Amulet and the door to one final race against Wizpig will open. It all sounds simple enough to do, but as you get deeper and deeper into the game you will notice the tracks do have a difficulty curve and the silver coin placement causes the second round of races to become more difficult. If you thought the Adventure mode goodies ended there you would be wrong. Upon completing the final boss of each world you can enter the Trophy Race of the world. This basically acts like Mario Kart. You race against much harder computer opponents for points. Win the trophy race, win the gold trophy. Upon completing Adventure Mode you will unlock Adventure Two. In this mode the tracks are flipped, the difficulty is higher, and the silver coins are in different locations. Those are pretty much the only changes from Adventure Mode.
Overall, Adventure Mode is a great experience. Honestly, I think that it is one of the most enjoyable experiences in a racing game. Another awesome touch on it is that all of the characters have voice overs. I'm not just talking about Diddy making noises either. Taj, T.T., the area guardians, etc all actually speak. It's only a couple sentences, but it's still something that hadn't really been seen in a racing game. It's also something that really hasn't been done since then either. The Mario Kart franchise for example has yet to have an entry where speaking actually had an impact on the game. That's probably just because Mario Kart has no Adventure Mode, but still, for the late nineties it was really cool to hear. Probably the most frustrating thing about the adventure is the silver coin challenges. I know I said it before, but I feel like they were not really needed. I get that Rare wanted to extend the game and throw in new challenges on the tracks, but I wonder if simply increasing the difficulty a good deal for the second time around would have had a similar impact challenge wise that the silver coins do. That being said I personally do enjoy the silver coin challenges and there are still tracks to this day I have to do a few times to finally finish in first with all coins in tow.
Something else that I feel like I should mention here involves the characters. When you begin your adventure you pick a character. You can play through the whole game with that character if you'd like, but the game will save after each race which allows you to quit and pick a different character if you want. There are tracks where you may just want to do this. For example, I love to play as the lightweights, however they are just terrible in the hovercraft. So bad in fact that if you try to turn too sharply they can actually stop dead in the water. Heavyweights control so much better in the hovercraft than they do in the car or plane, so it only makes sense to switch over to a heavyweight for those water races.
Another thing I really like about the game is that it has that sense of accomplishment within the Adventure Mode. You get the little balloon prize for winning a race which is nice and all, but what you can see real easily is your improvement. As you become familiar with a track you'll see your time become faster and faster. Of course that is nothing to really not expect from a racing game, but here is what is and what in my mind sets it apart from other racers. The first time you're on the track it's not hard. The computers are not fast, you can ignore things like bananas and speed boosts on the track and generally get familiar with the track. The second time around it's a bit harder due to the silver coin challenge and the computers racing a bit harder. The silver coin challenge kind of teaches you other ways to get around and how important advanced mechanics such as drifting are. Then you run into the trophy race of each world and it's a culmination of everything you learned the previous races on the tracks. When you finally chase Wizpig off of Timber's Island you feel like you liberated everyone (you did). Then the game gives you one final challenge as you chase the evil pig into space and go on the offensive in his very own tracks. It's a feeling you just don't get in most other racing games. Rare did just an incredible job of turning a racing game into a unique adventure that doesn't need much more than a basic plot. Then again, I guess that was one of the things Rareware was best at (looks at Donkey Kong Country).
Thanks for reading! As I said at the start of the blog, this will be a two part affair. I wanted to get the plot and the features of Adventure Mode out there first before going over some of the more generic racing game features that the game has. Still it will be worth checking out part two because this game is far from ordinary and generic and there is still plenty more to talk about. In the next blog I will be looking more closely at the characters, the items, as well as Tracks Mode and multiplayer. Expect part 2 very soon!
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