**** SPOILERS CONTINUE AHEAD*****
I went over all the characters in my previous blog as to where they fit in within the story. Now I'm going to look into where they land as far as racers go. As is common in games of this type there are different weight classes that the characters fall into. Even within those weight classes there are differences that may push a player towards a certain character. With that being said, lets break it down a bit.
Lightweights
Pipsy the mouse
Tiptup the turtle
Pipsy and Tiptup are the two lightweights. They both excel in turning and acceleration. Where they have the advantage in those two categories, they are easily the slowest in terms of top speed. Tiptup is a little faster and heavier than Pipsy and as a result takes turns a little bit wider. As a lightweight main in this game I find the little extra speed of Tiptup can be helpful in some cases, but if you are aiming for minimal handling issues go with Pipsy.
Middleweights
Diddy Kong
Bumper the badger
Conker
Timber the tiger
Half of the default roster consists of middleweights. All of them have some differences. Diddy Kong and Timber are the literal middle of the road characters featuring balanced acceleration, speed, and turning ability. Conker gets up to speed slower than Diddy and Timber, but has a higher top speed. His handling is not as good as Diddy or Timber either. Bumper is in a similar realm as Conker. The difference here is that Bumper 's speed is in the realm of Diddy and Timber, and his acceleration is just below that of Tiptup and Pipsy. Where he excels in acceleration he lacks in handling and lands alongside Conker. As far as the middleweight class I like playing as Bumper. I like having the fast acceleration even if it means having to take corners differently to compensate.
Heavyweights
Banjo
Krunch the Kremling
Banjo and Krunch round out the default roster. They are the two heavyweights and have the fastest top speeds in the game. Where they thrive in speed they suffer in handling and acceleration. Banjo and Krunch have similar top speed and acceleration, but Banjo actually handles a little better. When it comes to the heavyweights, I don't play them often so I don't have much of a preference.
So in the end all of the characters have their up sides and downsides with Diddy and Timber not really excelling in any category, but are not weak in any either. All of them are fun to play and from what I understand, once you master the heavyweights they are unstoppable. I'm not going to say much about the fact that there are two other racers in the game that you can unlock. One of them is a heavyweight with middleweight quality handling along with high speed and low acceleration. The other is a middleweight that is hands down the best of all worlds.
In addition to the three weight classes, there are three vehicles in which you will be racing in. The first of those is the standard car. The car behaves much like a go kart in Mario Kart. It can drift and do other car things. Beware though, if you enter the water with your car you will move much, much slower as the car is not built to be a boat. Comically though upon entering the water you will notice your tires get a bit bigger to at least keep you afloat. The next vehicle you will be introduced to (if you play the tracks in order) is the plane. The plane has some unique features about it and is certainly the most complex of the three vehicles. For one the controls in regards to ascending and descending are similar to how they are in many flying games. Of course this means up is down and down is up. The plan is also able to pull off some stunts such as corkscrews and flips. Another cool thing the plane can do involves being close to the ground. As you race you will come across speed boosts on the track or in the sky. When you get real close to the ground, the plane's landing gear deploys and you can hit the speed boost on the track. It's a really awesome trick that Rareware put into the game. Lastly we have the hovercraft. The hovercraft is actually the only vehicle that can race on every track though it is mostly used in water based levels. The hovercraft behaves kind of like the car, but it cannot drift and heavyweights are able to turn as if they were lightweights.
The game's items are nowhere near as game breaking as the ones in the Mario Kart series or even Crash Team Racing. The items are hidden within colored balloons. Red balloons contain a missile, green contains an oil slick, yellow contains a shield, blue contains a speed boost, and the rainbow balloons contain magnets. Collecting multiple of the same balloon will upgrade the item. The regular missile upgrades into a homing missile and the homing missile upgrades into ten unguided missiles. The shield upgrades are just duration upgrades which can be extremely helpful in certain areas of certain tracks. Upgrading the speed boost will enable you to travel faster and over longer distances. Upgrading the magnet will increase the range in which the magnet will pull you to your target. Upgrading the oil slick will net you a spiky bomb and then a bubble. The bubble is actually pretty brutal as the racer trapped within are basically held in place for a period of time. In the end all of these items do help out both players and computers, but none are overly powerful. As much as getting hit by a homing missile sucks, it's nothing compared to running into a bubble, but if you are in first and focus on the yellow shield balloons you have nothing to worry about.
Tracks mode is pretty simple. You pick a track and you can race that track. You will also eventually be able to run trophy races and the battle stage of each world from Adventure Mode (Future Funland tracks need to be unlocked though). Your freedom sort to speak in Tracks is dependent on your progress in Adventure Mode. Tracks that you have completed in Adventure Mode will have a picture of Taj's face on them. Tracks that have not been completed will have Wizpig's face. The difference is in the tracks with Taj's face you can select which vehicle you would like to race in. Tracks mode is also host to the time trials where you can race your ghost.... Or T.T................... Tracks mode is also the main hub for multiplayer. Up to four racers can compete on any of the tracks in the game that have been played in Adventure Mode. Eventually you will also be able to select the vehicle you want to race in. Speaking of multiplayer, there is a code that will enable you to play two player Adventure Mode, which is pretty cool.
So what else can I say about this game? I guess I can easily rate it a 9 out of 10. In the end Diddy Kong Racing is an amazing single player experience. One that completely blows other racing games out of the water. The graphics are beautiful, the music and sound effects fit right in with everything Rareware at the time, and the racing itself is fast and intense. The drawbacks? The biggest one for me is the multiplayer. While it is great to be able to race on whatever track in the game with some friends, the action never reaches that of Mario Kart 64. I think this is largely the result of the items not having the power to really change the outcome of a race at any point. In the end though, Diddy Kong Racing is one of the greatest racing games that had ever come out and I say that with confidence. It's unique, fun, and contains an Adventure Mode that is way more fun than advertised. In my book, this game is a must play single player experience that has an okay multiplayer which lands it a high 9 out of 10.
Thanks again for reading. I went into some extra details in this review, but I really wanted to look into some of the major aspects of the game. In the process I was able to throw more differences between it and Mario Kart out there as well. I appreciate the patience with this blog as well. I kept typing, deleting, and trying to make sure I got everything I wanted in here. In the end it was too big to leave as one blog so I split it. I also got a bit hung up with a few things. The weather around here finally broke so I have been able to get out of the house a bit. My next blog is going to be a delicious review. The game is McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure on the Sega Genesis, but first I need to go out and get my medium number ten with a ice cold Coca-Cola.
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