Diddy Kong Racing DS

Gameplay

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 hovercraft is designed for both sand and water areas, but lacks in acceleration and manoeuvrability. The aeroplane is designed to access aerial areas; it is good at acceleration and manoeuvring, but has the slowest speed. Each racetrack has a set of boosters known as "zippers" that temporarily boost the player's speed, as well as featuring regenerating balloons of various colours that provide power-ups. There are five different types of balloons: red, blue, green, yellow, and rainbow. Red balloons grant missiles to attack racers ahead, blue balloons grant a speed boost, yellow balloons grant shields to protect the player from attacks, green balloons grant deployable traps to delay other racers, and rainbow balloons grant a magnet ability that brings the player closer to the nearest racer. If multiple balloons of the same colour are picked up, the power-up is upgraded to a more powerful version. A total of two upgrades are available for each balloon. Additionally, racetracks contain non-regenerating bananas that add to speed when they are picked up. A maximum of ten bananas will improve the speed, but can also be obtained to prevent other players from gaining speed. If a racer gets hit, two bananas are deducted.

In "Adventure Mode", players control the racer of their choice to progress through the story. Players begin in the hub world, which links five interconnected worlds; Dino Domain, Snowflake Mountain, Sherbet Island, Dragon Forest, and Future Fun Land. 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. Each world contains four racetracks, an unlockable battle stage, and a race against a boss character. If the player defeats Wizpig in Future Fun Land, obtains all amulet pieces and collect all the gold medals, the player will be able to play in a mode called "Adventure 2". In this mode, all the balloons change colour to platinum and the tracks are inverted from left to right. The game also features four battle modes which consist of two deathmatch maps, a capture-the-flag-style battle and a mode which involves opponents capturing eggs. The battle modes are not initially selectable, and must be unlocked by collecting special keys hidden in each of the worlds.

Plot

The plot of Diddy Kong Racing is detailed in the instruction booklet. 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.

Timber hires a team of eight racers: Diddy Kong, the first recruit; Conker the Squirrel and Banjo the Bear, recruited by Diddy; Krunch the Kremling, Diddy's enemy who follows after him; Tiptup the Turtle, T.T. the Stopwatch, Pipsy the Mouse, and Bumper the Badger, all inhabitants of Timber's island. Aided by Taj, an Indian elephant-like genie residing on the island, they eventually complete all of Wizpig's challenges and confront Wizpig himself in a race and defeat him. Shortly afterward, Drumstick is turned back into a rooster, and Wizpig leaves for his home planet, Future Fun Land. Fearing that Wizpig will again attempt to invade Timber's Island, the islanders travel to Future Fun Land for a second challenge. When Wizpig loses the second race, the rocket he rides on malfunctions and launches him to the moon. However, an additional cutscene reveals Wizpig's spaceship flying through the sky, unscathed.

Development

Development of the game began after the release of Killer Instinct 2, in which a team was split into making Killer Instinct Gold for the Nintendo 64 and a new racing game for that console. 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. According to Lee Schuneman and Bayliss, the Pro-Am 64 project had Timber as the main character, and featured three-wheeled trikes in contrast to radio-controlled cars. Other characters created for the project included Tiptup the Turtle (whose name was repurposed from a different turtle character in the canceled Project Dream), 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.

With Banjo-Kazooie being delayed until the summer of 1998, the team was adamant for a release of an AAA video game in time for 1997's Christmas season. With the change in release schedule, some at Rare felt that Pro-Am 64 did not have a strong enough intellectual property. Thus Rare changed the licence to feature Diddy Kong. According to Lee Musgrave, Rare chose to use Diddy Kong rather than Donkey Kong, and Nintendo "enjoyed" the decision. Once the intellectual property was changed, the team was left to adapt the visual aesthetics of the game and packaging before it could be released. Krash was slightly altered to be a Kremling, and was renamed "Krunch". Musgrave recalled that the ultimate goal of the game was to make it "run as fast" as Mario Kart 64, which proved difficult during development as the latter game utilised 2D character sprites whereas Diddy Kong Racing used fully 3D models. Musgrave later attributed the success of the overall project to the "small team" of 14 people who worked on it. In an October 2012 interview, Musgrave said that Timber would have been the main character of Pro-Am 64 had the intellectual property for Diddy Kong Racing not been conceived. 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.

Release

Due to most of the Nintendo 64's planned 1997 Christmas season line-up being delayed until 1998, Diddy Kong Racing became the main Nintendo 64 release for the holiday shopping season, and a majority of Nintendo's $200 million advertising budget for the entire year was allocated to promoting the game. 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; which included 3.78 million copies sold in the United States and PAL regions, 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, and broke one million units sold in the United States within three weeks of its release.

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. Jeff Gerstmann of GameSpot disputed this, saying that the game has both pop-up and distance fog in amounts comparable to the average Nintendo 64 game. He nonetheless stated that the game was a "pleasure to look at" and praised the detail of the tracks. 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", most reviews compared the two games. Gerstmann suspected Nintendo of rushing Diddy Kong Racing to market in order to fill a quarter left vacant by delays of other Nintendo games, and argued it was much too soon after Mario Kart 64's debut to release such a similar game. Other critics, including Boyer's EGM co-reviewers, focused on Diddy Kong Racing's perceived superiority to Mario Kart 64. Dan Hsu of EGM said it "beats Mario Kart 64 in every department", particularly mentioning the superior balance and level designs. Edge praised the adventure and progression aspect of the game, stating that the game's single-player mode is "everything Mario Kart 64 should have been." 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.

Legacy

Cancelled sequel and spin-offs

After the release of Diddy Kong Racing, Rare refined the racing engine for use in their subsequent N64 racing game, Mickey's Speedway USA (2000). Rare then 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. Development of Donkey Kong Racing was cancelled when Nintendo turned down the opportunity to purchase its remaining 51 percent stake in Rare, and the developer was bought out by Microsoft for £375 million in 2002.

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. Musgrave stated that the concept was essentially "built from scratch" and featured a limited multiplayer version at one point. The concept was in development over 18 months and evolved from being an animal-orientated racing game to an open-world game with Tamagotchi-style features, in which nurturing animals was a "key mechanic". By this point, Donkey Kong Racing had evolved into Sabreman Stampede, part of Rare's Sabreman series. Sabreman Stampede was set for release on the Xbox 360, but was cancelled due to a lack of focus and Rare's unfamiliarity with the hardware.

Aside from Donkey Kong Racing, two other sequels to Diddy Kong Racing were in development. One, named Diddy Kong Pilot, with planes as the only vehicle, was planned for a release on the Game Boy Advance. Originally announced alongside Donkey Kong Racing at E3 2001, the game became Banjo-Pilot after Nintendo sold their share of Rare to Microsoft. 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 in 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".

The "Diddy Laugh"

In the game's opening sequence, the sound of children laughing can be heard when the Rare logo is displayed. This stock sound effect is part of a library called The Premiere Edition Volume 1 released by sound producer and distributor The Hollywood Edge for use of stock sounds in media. Although it had been used previously in various films and television shows, this sound effect has come to be commonly referred to as "the Diddy laugh" due to its association with the game. 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.