Watch your step, for you’ve just entered theGraveyard. Inside, we’ll be digging up games that have long been without a pulse. You’ll see both good and bad souls unearthed every month as we search through the more… forgotten…parts of history.
Rare’s N64 output was some of the greatest of the era and one of their best releases ever that hasn’t gotten nearly enough love since then is Diddy Kong Racing. It was something of a surprise game coming so close after Mario Kart 64 in the holiday season of 1997 and was very much a game that quickly gained a ton of word of mouth support. Magazines gave it high marks in previews and reviews, but it was an unproven IP that felt like a retread in theory – but wound up being ahead of the curve in several ways in execution.
Before Diddy Kong Racing, kart racers were usually just that: limited to a go-kart-style vehicle for every character and mode. DKR went with alternating planes, hovercrafts and karts for different stages and optimized each track for the vehicle type it would use. The game also featured an overworld area ahead of Crash Team Racing and there you may choose between different crafts to explore the world and find secret areas. Some will hold balloons that are used to gate the progress of the player, while other areas appear well-hidden and just hold new tracks to race on.
The playable roster is full of unknown characters, but does have well-known ones including Diddy Kong, Conker and Banjo – so there are instantly-recognizable characters to enjoy using alongside ones like a stopwatch, a mouse and a badger that are just kinda there. DKR was all about changing things up in interesting ways and it feels like Rare at their creative peak for the genre given how many things they threw in to mix up the genre’s norm. Beyond an overworld and different vehicle types, players could also unlock more content by re-completing tracks in first place alongside a first place finish after a boss victory.
While boss fights are still not the norm for the genre even 25 years later, they are well-crafted here and feel far more natural than say Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz shoe-horning them in. Here, the boss battles serve as skill challenges and allow the player to learn things like the benefit of shortcuts in a slightly-more relaxed environment since there’s only one enemy to worry about and not a field full of them trying to take you out. The AI for both boss battles and regular races is fair and doesn’t go out of their way to attack you, but will do things like boost as much as possible to get the win or in the case of some boss battles, jump the gun before you can even with the instant-start turbo ala Mario Kart.
There isn’t much in the way of rubberband AI to deal with here beyond a bit if you fall really behind. It’s refreshing because even in Mario Kart games today, races often feel like the first couple of laps don’t matter and only the third one does – but that isn’t the case in DKR. If you’re trouncing foes, you’ll know it and if you’re being lapped, you’ll feel the panic of being behind the pack and needing to have the right combination of power-ups like boost and rockets come into play on your behalf. Another area DKR was ahead of the ball on was having power-ups stack in power as you build up each weapon – so you have three levels of each power-up to test your skills.
While multi-level power-ups are more common now, they still aren’t standard even in industry-leading games like Mario Kart 8 and they add a lot of strategy to a genre that is usually thought of as lacking it. Here, being able to choose between keeping a level one boost or holding out for a level two or three boost adds a risk/reward factor to things. If you’re ahead, then it’s usually not worth trying to store up bigger boosts – but if you’re behind, then it can mean the difference between a victory and a restart. The same goes for missiles, which can be stored as a single straight shot, an aiming shot or ten straight shots – offering a big reward if you’re in second place and use a homing missile to get to first. One could also be behind the pack and catch up quickly with ten missiles ready to roll.
It’s a riot to play 25 years later and has held up nicely visually as well. The characters all have robust animation that helps get across their characters with vivid body language. It’s also one of the few kart racers that shows any characters outside of their vehicles and that helps give you insight into them on the select screen as they bop around a bit. Environments look sharp and the N64 blur on things isn’t all that bad and winds up delivering one of the best-looking kart racers on the platform period even with this being a 1997 release.
The soundtrack is good and catchy although I wouldn’t put it on par with most of Rare’s other ’90s work. It’s not as epic as the DKC trilogy, but does have a lot of depth and instrumental variation for a kart racer while still being fun to listen to and light-hearted. The sound design has held up well too and having things like missile zoom past you or rivals helps drive the intensity up a few notches and keeps you engaged in the race no matter if it’s the first or last lap.
Diddy Kong Racing is a classic and needs to be re-released on the Switch online service at some point. It did receive a DS re-release with roster changes, but the original has never been re-released and would feel at home on the NSO with Mario Kart 64. It’s a first/second-party treat that needs to be experienced by modern gamers and a remake wouldn’t be a bad idea either.
