Diddy Kong Racing is a racing game for the Nintendo 64 developed by Rareware. It was released in 1997 and 800,000 copies were ordered in the two weeks before Christmas 1997 according to Guinness Book of World Records.
A karting game like Mario Kart, DKR also had a distinctive adventure part. The game featured characters from Rare games, some of which had yet to be released. Diddy Kong Racing was partially intended to help introduce some of Rare's future franchise characters at an early time, so gamers would recognize them when they appeared in future titles later on.
In Diddy Kong Racing, a player can choose to be in either a car, hovercraft, or plane. However certain levels have certain restrictions. For example, in the course Hot Top Volcano, a player can use a plane or a hovercraft, but not a car.
Plot
The plot of the game centred around an evil intergalactic pig wizard named Wizpig who attempted to take over the peaceful Timber's Island .
Characters
The re-occurring characters were:
The other playable characters were:
(Note that in order to play as Drumstick, the player must beat Dragon Forest and then squash a frog with a red feather on the beach. To get T.T., the player must beat all of T.T.'s times in all 20 courses.)
The other non-playable characters were:
- Bluey the walrus (a boss character)
- Bubbler the octopus (a boss character)
- Smokey the dragon (a boss character)
- Taj the genie (an ally character)
- Wizpig the genie (the final boss)
One additional character, known only as "the Yellow Dinosaur", appeared only in the introductory FMV and not in the actual game, and has become a minor injoke due to this obscurity.
None of these characters have appeared in any other Rare or Nintendo games to date, although Taj was scheduled to appear in a GameCube sequel, Donkey Kong Racing. The game was aborted when Rare was bought by Microsoft in 2002, although it's rumored to reappear as an Xbox title called Sabreman Stampede . A portable sequel to the franchise, Diddy Kong Pilot , was also in development, which would have seen the return of Krunch. It too was redesigned following Rare's buyout as Banjo Pilot, which now stars Banjo and characters from his franchise.
Courses
There are 4 main courses in each of the 5 worlds, plus a trophy race:
Dino Domain
- Ancient Lake
- Fossil Canyon
- Jungle Falls
- Hot Top Volcano
- Trophy Race
(Dino Domain Boss: Tricky)
Snowflake Mountain
- Everfrost Peak
- Walrus Cove
- Snowball Valley
- Frosty Village
- Trophy Race
(Snowflake Mountain Boss: Bluey)
Sherbet Island
- Whale Bay
- Pirate Lagoon
- Crescent Island
- Treasure Caves
- Trophy Race
(Sherbet Island Boss: Blubber)
Dragon Forest
- Boulder Canyon
- Greenwood Villiage
- Windmill Plains
- Haunted Woods
- Trophy Race
(Dragon Forest Boss: Smokey)
Future Funland
(This world must be unlocked by getting the Wizpig Amulet, which you must get by coming in 1st place in all the races. Once this is done, the player must go over to the lighthouse, which will blast off into outer space.)
- Spacedust Alley
- Darkmoon Caverns
- Star City
- Spaceport Alpha
- Trophy Race
Battle Stages
In addition, there are several battle stages, each of which must be unlocked by obtaining a hidden key frome each world:
- Dino Domain: Fire Mountain (find the key off the road in the Ancient Lake course)
- Snowflake Mountain: Icicle Pyramid (find the key in Snowball Valley, immidiatley to the left of the start line)
- Sherbert Island: Darkwater Beach (find the key on Crescent Island, just beyond the first fork in the road in a small cave that can be found by hovering on the water to the left)
- Dragon Forest: Smokey Castle (find the key in Boulder Canyon. After going over the moat, hit the bell, turn around and then use multiple rockets to boost up the lifted bridge)
Future Funland does not have a battle stage.
Note that if the player beats Wizpig in Future Funland and obtains the amulet pieces and gets all of the gold metals, the player will be able to play in a mode called Adventure 2. In this mode, all of the balloons will be silver and the courses will be mirrored.
Codes
Under options, there will be a magic codes section. In that section, many codes can be entered that allow occurances in the game that do not usually happen. A few of those codes are listed below:
- ARNOLD - Large players
- BLABBERMOUTH - Changes horn sounds
- BODYARMOR - All balloons are yellow
- BOGUSBANANAS - Bananas reduce speed
- BOMBSAWAY - All balloons are red
- BYEBYEBALLOONS - Weapons are disabled
- DODGYROMMER - Rom checksum
- DOUBLEVISION - Two players can use the same character
- EOLAOBFENRLONE - Free Balloon
- FREEFORALL - Fully powered-up balloons
- FREEFRUIT - Start with 10 bananas
- JOINTVENTURE - Two-player Adventure
- JUKEBOX - Adds Music Test to the "Audio Options" menu
- NOYELLOWSTUFF - Bananas are disabled
- OFFROAD - Four wheel drive
- OPPOSITESATTRACT - All balloons are rainbow
- ROCKETFUEL - All balloons are blue
- TEENYWEENIES - Small players
- TIMETOLOSE - Computer is better (Ultimate Artificial Intellegence)
- TOXICOFFENDER - All balloons are green
- VITAMINB - Unlimited bananas
- WHODIDTHIS - View Credits
- ZAPTHEZIPPERS - No zippers
Glitches
Few glitches have been found in Diddy Kong Racing, which is in contrast to other games from its time period. However, there is one prominent glitch which can acutally launch the player up out of the game's boundaries. It can be done as follows:
- Go to "Magic Codes", and enter the codes "FREEFORALL" and "ROCKETFUEL".
- Go to the course "Greenwood Village".
- Before coming to the first zipper, use a rocket. Any combination of rockets and zippers may be used, as there are two balloons in the area.
- Aim for the well at an angle.
- The moment that kart hits the well, pushing the joystick very far to one direction.
If it worked, the player will hit the well hard enough to bounce off the its edge and into the air over the buildings. After going over the buildings, the player will fall into an infinite blue pit, and automatically be sent back to the beginning of the stage.
(Note: The best player for this glitch is Tiptup.)
Legal ambiguities
The legalities of Diddy Kong Racing are now open for debate due to the situation involving Rare and Nintendo. Nintendo retained the rights to Diddy Kong and Krunch, while Rare owns Banjo, Conker, and Tiptup. The ownership of the other characters is unknown, although most assume Rare made off with them. Tricky is the biggest mystery, as his younger self became a character in Nintendo's Star Fox franchise, while the older version that was in DKR may belong to Rare.
See also
Banjo Pilot
Last updated: 10-11-2005 02:26:05
