Diddy Kong Racing Revisited

    Have you ever had a game that you know isn't the most popular and often times is forgotten about when talking about the great games of a console? That one game that you have played time and time again yet a lot of people say that it's just not that good. I have a few of those games. One of them is Diddy Kong Racing. I know I've blogged I think three times about this game already, but now being fresh off yet another run through the game, I find myself wanting to talk more about it. Some of this stuff I sure is repeats from my previous blogs, but some should be new too.

****Possible Spoilers Ahead****

    I've said it once and I will say it again. Diddy Kong Racing is one of the best racing games on the console. I'd put it in the top two along with Mario Kart 64, but who wins the crown really depends on what's going on. If it's just me playing or me and a friend playing. I give the crown to Diddy Kong Racing, but when it comes to four player madness, I have to give it to Mario Kart 64. The games are just so different. Both are fantastic, and both have their advantages and disadvantages. I find myself more enthralled with Diddy Kong Racing thanks to it's single player modes, characters, story, vehicles, and honestly the weapon system. I've always felt that the game required a higher level of skill than Mario Kart 64 did to succeed. This rings especially true if you are a fan of heavyweights

    This time around I took a break from my lightweight favoritism and explored some middleweight and heavyweight options. All I can say is the difference in weight class is immense. In Mario Kart 64 I main Bowser and Toad. Two complete opposite weight classes. I play them the same way. Foot on the gas and power sliding. It's a totally different game here though between playing Tiptup and Bumper or Tiptup and Drumstick. It's such a big learning curve and one I'm going to keep working on now because the speed of these heavyweights is great. I can only imagine that becoming comfortable with the lackluster handling that the heavyweights have will improve my skills in the game all around. At the end of the day I wound up switching back to Tiptup to take care of a variety of different tracks as well as boss battles. My extra exploration in the game led me to take on a challenge I never bothered to do before. Unlocking T.T.

    Unlocking T.T. is probably one of the hardest things in a racing game on the Nintendo 64. What you have to do to unlock him is beat all of his times in Tracks Mode. Before you can race him though, you need to beat a certain time on each track. Upon beating that time T.T. will challenge you on that track. In order to beat him you need to be significantly better than the time that you needed to make him appear. Some courses this was no big deal. Even in Future Fun World there was a track or two that I felt no pressure. Other tracks like Crescent Island and Darkmoon Caverns found me beating him by the skin of my teeth. I wish the game showed a time comparison after the race. On some of these I would have loved to had seen how close I was to not beating him. With each failure though I could feel myself getting better. I kind of have a new appreciation for Tracks Mode now. The tracks are nowhere near as complicated as the tracks in Mario Kart 64, but I feel like I get more of a reward from practicing on them. I never really felt like I completely mastered a track until now. I felt like I was able master Mario Kart's tracks just by playing 150cc. For whatever reason I could not do that in Diddy Kong Racing.

    At the end of the day, this latest run through of Diddy Kong Racing to me was really just a ton of fun. I did something new with the game in unlocking T.T. and really had zero complaints. Even the silver coin challenges were fun, which a lot of people would not agree with. I don't know if it's because I know where they are at this point or what. I still feel like this is one of the best racing games on the system and in a lot of ways I do think it is the best. I get people's issues with it. Believe me, it is not a perfect game. It has a few issues here and there and it's difficulty can honestly be a bit of a turn off for some people and the less chaotic multiplayer is not as entertaining as other racing games on the system. If you are looking for a good, challenging racing game with some hidden goodies scattered about, look no further than this game. It is worth every second of playtime and will reward practice on a level not seen in other racing games.