Diddy Kong Racing – Advanced Controls Guide
DIDDY KONG RACING ADVANCED CONTROLS GUIDE
Welcome to the Diddy Kong Racing Advanced Controls Guide, a tutorial-style reference page that will allow you to get the most speed out of your Car, Hovercraft and Plane in order to master the game. We’ll start with a few novice abilities that cover all of the vehicles, and then we’ll detail the specific tricks that are unique to each one.
You may read this guide chronologically, or use the navigation menu below to read about a particular vehicle.
Navigation:
Basic Abilities (All Vehicles)
Advanced Abilities (All Vehicles)
Advanced Abilities (Car)
Advanced Abilities (Hovercraft)
Advanced Abilities (Plane)
BASIC ABILITIES (ALL VEHICLES)…………………………………………………..
When you start in any vehicle, pressing the A button will cause your character to accelerate. You can then use the control stick to turn left, or right, to point your character in a desired direction.
Letting go of the A button will cause your character to decelerate, and holding B will apply the brakes and cause you to come to stop after skidding.
Holding the B button while pushing the control stick downward will cause you to back up and reverse.
C-Up and C-Down will adjust your camera behind the character, and pressing C-Right will display the speedometer and toggle maps/radar where available. Pressing Z when you’ve picked up a colored Balloon will cause you to use the item inside; otherwise you’ll just honk your horn.
ADVANCED ABILITIES (ALL VEHICLES)…………………………………………
BLUE STARTING BOOST
At the start of every race, you’ll be prepared with text on the screen that tells you to “Get Ready”, followed by “GO!”. If you press the
A button as soon the words “Get Ready” are starting to fade from the screen, you’ll start the race with a blue boost that will rocket you ahead of the other racers. If you’ve mistimed the
A button press, you’ll start the race with an orange boost that isn’t as powerful, though still preferable to no boost at all.
GREEN ZIPPER BOOST
When you’re about to pass over a Zipper, or use a Blue Balloon boost with
Z, let go of the
A button just before and your boost will appear green. You’ll see a brief spectrum of colors in the jet before your vehicle starts smoking – this is an indicator to press and hold the
A button again so that you don’t lose speed.
ADVANCED ABILITIES (CAR)………………………………………………………….
A-TAPPING BOOST
If you press the
Right-C button to toggle on the speedometer, you’ll see that when accelerating by holding the
A button, you’ll reach about 60 MPH at your fastest. If you instead tap the
A button quickly, and rhythmically, you’ll be able to pass 60 MPH and rest at around 70 MPH as your fastest speed. While this trick can also be utilized by the Plane and Hovercraft, it isn’t nearly as reliable as the car.
POWER SLIDING
As you round a corner, press and hold the
R Shoulder Button to Power Slide. You won’t get receive a boost in your speed for power sliding, but you won’t lose any momentum and you’ll be able to take the turns more sharply. When executing the Power Slide, you’ll need to continuously nudge the control stick back to the center and then towards the desired direction throughout the turn. If you ignore this, and just keep pressing in the direction while holding the
R Shoulder Button you will spin out on especially large turns, which defeats the purpose of using the technique.
TILTING TURN
Pointing the control stick to the left or right while turning, and then pressing A, B and Z at the same time will cause you to perform a Tilting Turn. When this occurs, you’ll watch as your character balances on two wheels as they turn incredibly sharply on the spot. From here, it’s just a case of holding the A button again and you’ll regain your speed. This technique is especially useful when you need to execute sharp turns at right angles. It’s also possible to use this turning style while power sliding with the R Shoulder Button, just make sure to keep the control stick moving or else you’ll spin out.
ADVANCED ABILITIES (HOVERCRAFT)…………………………………………
HOP TURNING
The Hovercrafts turning ability can be abysmal when you’re just starting out, since each turn at full speed requires such a large berth. Instead, if you press the
R Shoulder Button quickly as you start to go into your turn, you’ll be able to hop and readjust your position, allowing for a much tighter turn that saves a lot of time.
SLALOM SURFING
During straightaways, it might seem like the most practical move would be to simply press the
A button until you’ve reached your Top Speed. However, if you press and hold the
R Shoulder Button as you move your control stick methodically to the left and right, you’ll be able to accelerate much more quickly and maintain a higher Top Speed as well. It’ll take some practice to get the timing down for Slalom Surfing, but once you’ve done so you’ll have a definite edge over your competition.
ADVANCED ABILITIES (PLANE)……………………………………………………..
HARD BANKING
When you’ve taken off from the ground in the Plane, you can hold the
R Shoulder Button and your contrails will appear lighter. If you turn the control stick to the left or right while holding the
R Shoulder Button, you’ll execute a very sharp turn known as a Hard Bank. When you’ve achieved the optimal turn, let go of the
R Shoulder Button and your character will level off on the new flight path. Unlike turning in the Car, holding the
R Shoulder Button for too long will not cause the Plane to spin out.
BARREL ROLLING
As you’re flying, tapping the
R Shoulder Button in quick succession while holding the control stick to the left or right will cause your character to perform a barrel roll. As they spin, they’ll gain a significant amount of speed before leveling off. Barrel Rolls can be strung together for a considerable speed boost, but your character will before more difficult to control during the spin as a consequence. To maintain a straight flight path while Barrel Rolling, you’ll need to alternate the direction of the control stick for each roll.
LOOP-DE-LOOPING
This technique is quite similar to Barrel Rolling, except that you’ll press the control stick up or down rather left and right while tapping the
R Shoulder Button. Holding up while pressing
R Shoulder Button will execute a Backflip Loop, whereas holding down will execute a Frontflip Loop. The longer you hold the second
R Shoulder Button press, the longer you’ll maintain flying upside down. When you exit from the loop, you’ll receive a boost that will rocket your character ahead. If you let go of the
A button just before you exit the loop, you’ll receive the Green Boost mentioned above.
MULTI-USE ZIPPERS
All three vehicles in Diddy Kong Racing have their own specific Zippers; Cars have a V shaped Zipper for use on land; Hovercrafts have hexagonal Zippers for use in the water; and Planes have octagonal Zippers for use in the air. If you’re flying on a course that also features land Zippers for the Car, you’ll find that they’ll still provide a boost if you can maneuver your Plane towards the ground in time. Let go of the
A button just before you nosedive onto the land Zipper and you’ll soar away with a Green Boost as well.