Diddy Kong Racing is a 1997 kart racing game developed and published by Rare for the Nintendo 64. The game revolves around Diddy Kong and his friends' attempt to defeat the intergalactic antagonist, a wizard pig named Wizpig, through winning a series of races. The player takes control of any of the featured characters throughout the game. Diddy Kong Racing features five worlds with four racetracks each, and the ability to drive a car, hovercraft, or pilot an aeroplane.
Development began after the release of Killer Instinct 2 (1996), and was intended to be an adventure game known as Wild Cartoon Kingdom in its early stages. As time progressed, the focus of development shifted from a Walt Disney World-influenced racing game to a unique title named Pro-Am 64, in which Nintendo had no involvement. Due to the delays of Banjo-Kazooie, Rare felt that they needed a stronger intellectual property to attract a wider audience for a game scheduled to release before Christmas 1997, thus making the decision to centre the game around Diddy Kong.
Diddy Kong Racing received critical acclaim upon release. The graphics, audio and gameplay were among the most lauded aspects, while some criticism was directed at the game's repetition. It sold 4.8 million copies since release and stands as the Nintendo 64's eighth best-selling game. A sequel named Donkey Kong Racing was in development for the GameCube, but was abandoned in August 2002, one month before Microsoft purchased Rare for £375 million. An enhanced remake for the Nintendo DS titled Diddy Kong Racing DS was released worldwide in early 2007; it is the most recent Nintendo-published game to be developed by Rare.
Gameplay
thumb|left|Timber the Tiger racing in Fossil Canyon. From left to right clockwise, the interface displays the player's current position, number of laps, bananas, time, track outline, and held power-up.|alt=In this screenshot, Timber the Tiger is racing in Fossil Canyon. From clockwise, the game's interface displays the player's current position, number of laps, bananas, time, and a map of the track.
In Diddy Kong Racing, players can choose one of ten characters, who have access to three different vehicles: car, hovercraft and aeroplane. The car is an all-round vehicle, but it is the slowest on certain surfaces like sand and water. The aeroplane is designed to access aerial areas; it is good at acceleration and manoeuvring, but has the slowest speed. The worlds are opened up by collecting balloons, except for Future Fun Land, which is unlocked after defeating Wizpig for the first time and rank 1st place in all four Trophy Races of the original worlds. The battle modes are not initially selectable, and must be unlocked by collecting special keys hidden in each of the worlds. Timber the Tiger's parents go on holiday and leave their son in charge of the island they live on, prompting him and his friends to organize a race. Their enjoyment is interrupted when a sinister intergalactic pig-wizard named Wizpig arrives at Timber's Island and attempts to take it over after having conquered his own planet. He turns the island's four guardians (Tricky the Triceratops, Bluey the Walrus, Bubbler the Octopus, and Smokey the Dragon) into his henchmen. The only solution available to the island's inhabitants is to defeat Wizpig in an elaborate series of races that involve cars, hovercraft, and aeroplanes. Drumstick the Rooster, the best racer on the island, fails this challenge and is transformed into a frog by Wizpig's magic. During development, the game (initially a prehistoric time-traveller real-time strategy game) became influenced by Walt Disney World and soon evolved into an adventure game called Wild Cartoon Kingdom and later Adventure Racers, with which Nintendo had no involvement. The game would have allowed the playable characters to wander around outside of their vehicle in a theme park-inspired hub world. Some elements from the game's prehistoric time-traveller phase were retained, including its wooly mammoths. Around this time, Kevin Bayliss and programmer Chris Tilston worked on an adventure game prototype inspired by Disney's The Lion King, which had Bayliss' character Timber the Tiger (inspired by Kellogg's' Frosted Flakes mascot Tony the Tiger's son Tony Jr., Simba, and a tiger cub that he pet with his girlfriend at the time) clambering around over terrain, which was folded into the Adventure Racers design concept. In June 1997, the game was altered to Pro-Am 64, an unrelated follow-up to the NES racing game R.C. Pro-Am. and featured three-wheeled trikes in contrast to radio-controlled cars.), Bumper the Badger (originally colored blue), Drumstick the Rooster (inspired by the "Cosmic Cockerel" mascot in Software Farm's logo in the 1982 ZX81 video game Forty Niner, Foghorn Leghorn and the chickens from The Muppet Show, and originally without overalls), and Krash the Crocodile. A kangaroo character named Roo was planned to be included, with her boxing gloves reused from a Thai boxer character that Bayliss had modelled for an unmade Killer Instinct game, but was eventually replaced with Pipsy the Mouse. Pipsy's design (initially with pink fur and yellow attire) was a modified version of the main character from the canceled game Astro Mouse. The characters were planned to have expressions in-game, but this idea was dropped due to polygon limitations. Krash was slightly altered to be a Kremling, and was renamed "Krunch". Two of the characters who featured in Diddy Kong Racing, Banjo the Bear and Conker the Squirrel, starred in games (Banjo-Kazooie and Conker's Bad Fur Day, respectively) which were unveiled to the public before Diddy Kong Racing, at the June 1997 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), but ultimately not released until after Diddy Kong Racing. Rare stated that they chose not to exhibit Diddy Kong Racing at E3 because of the proprietary animation technology used in the game. while a version of the album was released in Europe with the same number of tracks. For its United States release only 16 tracks were featured. The disc itself was specially shaped in the form of Diddy Kong's head, which was unplayable in certain CD players. The sound effects were created by Graeme Norgate. Voices were provided by Kevin Bayliss (Bubbler, Wizpig), Johnni Christensen (Tiptup, Smokey), Keith Rabbette (Bluey), Lee Schuneman (Bumper), Dean Smith (T.T.), Joe Stamper Jr. (Timber, Kid Background Voices), Kimberly Stamper (Kid Background Voices), The game had a $20 million marketing budget in North America. Diddy Kong Racing also held the distinction of being the only game in the North American Christmas season line-up for which development was contracted by Nintendo; the other two first-party Nintendo 64 games in the line-up, Bomberman 64 and Mischief Makers, were both licensed from Japanese third-party publishers.
Reception
The game received critical acclaim upon release. The Nintendo 64 version holds an aggregate score of 89% at GameRankings based on 20 reviews and 88 at Metacritic based on 15 reviews, whereas the Nintendo DS remake received a score of 67% at GameRankings based on 42 reviews and a score of 63 at Metacritic, based on 39 reviews. Diddy Kong Racing sold approximately 4.5 million copies worldwide; and 653,928 copies in Japan. At the 1999 Milia festival in Cannes, it took home a "Gold" prize for revenues above €15 million in the European Union during the previous year. It stands as the Nintendo 64's eighth best-selling game,
The graphics and gameplay were the most praised aspects of the game. Some critics noted how it minimised pop-up without resorting to the use of distance fog. Doug Perry of IGN heralded the visuals as the most "spectacular of its kind", and praised Rare's ability to master dynamic animation through enabling polygons to span larger surfaces without loss of framerate. Furthermore, Perry stated that the game's technical achievements were enough to leave "even the most critical Japanese gamer [to] look upon with smiling eyes".
Although Crispin Boyer opened his review of the game for Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) with the warning "Don't dismiss this out-of-the-blue racer as a Mario Kart 64 clone", Andy McNamara and Paul Anderson of Game Informer felt that the game's standing was affected by the crowded racing game market on the Nintendo 64, with Anderson faulting its lack of innovation, though Andrew Reiner of the same publication commended the three vehicle types and boss races for adding variety. EGM named it "Game of the Month", with its four reviewers lauding the challenging gameplay and numerous objectives to tackle. Scott McCall of AllGame acknowledged its only shortcoming was its "excessive" amount of clipping, although he admitted it was not "unbearable". He praised the wide range of audio in the game, including its voice acting and soundtrack; he heralded the music as "interesting" and "fitting" to its race tracks, also considering it superior to that of Mario Kart 64. Donaldson criticised game's presentation as too "cutesy", especially in terms of the characters' voices. However, he praised the "upbeat" and "catchy" soundtrack, saying that each track had its own unique tune to suit the distinct environment.
EGM named Diddy Kong Racing "Racing Game of the Year" at its 1997 Editors' Choice Awards. Diddy Kong Racing was awarded with "Console Racing Game of the Year" by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences in 1998, beating Mario Kart 64, Moto Racer and NASCAR 98.
Legacy
Cancelled sequel and spin-offs
After the release of Diddy Kong Racing, Rare began development on a sequel named Donkey Kong Racing for the GameCube, which featured Donkey Kong as the titular character. A pre-rendered CG video of the game was shown at E3 2001, which displayed a parody of the speederbike scene from Return of the Jedi. According to Lee Musgrave, the game featured a unique mechanic which involved riding on animals rather than driving vehicles. The player could switch between different types of animals mid-race; larger animals could destroy obstacles, whereas smaller ones allowed more manoeuvrability.
After the buyout, Rare took what had been done with Donkey Kong Racing and created a prototype for the Xbox which expanded into an adventure game similar to the original setup of Diddy Kong Racing. At the time of its announcement, the game featured the ability to play using a tilt function as well as a D-pad, and contained at least five tracks. The other, titled Diddy Kong Racing Adventure, was a rejected pitch made by Climax Studios for the Nintendo GameCube around 2004. The project was never announced to the public in any capacity, and only became known after a video game archivist acquired the prototype and published a video about it in November 2016.
As Timber was bypassed as the main character in Diddy Kong Racing, Rare's next game was planned to keep Timber as the main character, according to Kev Bayliss. This game was originally planned as Dinosaur Planet for the Nintendo 64, with Timber as a time traveller to a prehistoric period and gameplay similar to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, but over time, they found it better to replace Timber with wholly new characters. This game became Star Fox Adventures for the GameCube at the suggestion of Nintendo.
Remake
Diddy Kong Racing DS is a Nintendo DS remake of Diddy Kong Racing. Developed by Rare and published by Nintendo, it was released in February 2007 in North America, and April in Europe and Australia. This version received enhanced visuals and framerate in addition to touchscreen functions and Rumble Pak support for force feedback. Four new Donkey Kong themed racetracks were included in the remake, along with several modifications to the soundtrack. Banjo and Conker were replaced by Tiny Kong and Dixie Kong, while new playable characters Taj and Wizpig were also added. The DS version also features new modes which allow the player to create their own racetracks, customise their game through recording character voices and drawing player icons, and an online multiplayer function. The battle modes were restricted to multiplayer only, with the custom racetracks replacing them in Adventure Mode. The game was met with mixed reviews upon release, with critics asserting that the new additions were "gimmicky" and the touchscreen controls felt "horribly sensitive". According to Kevin Bayliss, the team got the idea to include a laughing sound effect in the opening after seeing Teletubbies, which had just begun airing at the time. They asked Tim Stamper's children, Joe Stamper Jr. and Kimberly Stamper, to laugh and sing in their new sound booth. The Stamper children's laughter was used alongside the original sound effect.