Diddy Kong Racing Review
LerakoLanche, 21st November ’09
Long after every ones favorite mustachioed plumber had stuck his bulbous nose into the world of racing, along comes a fresh new title about sticking wild animals in karts and having them race to defeat a giant pig wizard. As obscure as this idea would seem to gamers, causal links were already being made between Diddy Kong Racing and the previous Mario Kart 64 by those in opinion that Rare had simply stripped down the portly plumbers mug and pasted a bunch of woodland creatures to fill the void. However, quite similar to the comparisons that would be made later between Super Mario 64 and Banjo-Kazooie, it would be made quite clear that gamers couldn’t judge a game by its cover art.
Those willing to give Diddy Kong a fair trial found themselves delighted with the games clever integration of a full fledged free roam adventure mode – something unheard in racing titles at the time, and even today remain a rarity – and the ability to take to the skies in plane and tackle roaring rapids in hovercraft just to name a few new additions.
Diddy Kong was breaking out of the mold of what defined a racing title and in doing so incorporated elements of an adventure title into the mix as well, creating an interesting hybrid of both genres that flowed seamlessly. Suddenly the racing title wasn’t just about picking a selection of tracks and zipping through them, the overworld connected each track to another and your experience felt continuously like one huge adventure with a common goal, purpose and motivation – something that racing titles have yet to recreate!
Story
The setting of Diddy Kong Racing takes place on a tropical utopia known as Timber Island – consequently serving as the overworld for the duration of the game – where Timber the Tiger Cub is set with the task of looking after the paradise whilst his parents have left the shores to do whatever tigers do.
It isn’t long until things have gone pear-shaped as Timber Island is visited by a gargantuan swine known as Wizpig who is only interested in taking the island for himself – along with all of the inhabitants! Things look even worse as Wizpig – who is already familiar with a large selection of evil spells – decides to close down all of the race tracks on Timber Island, adding a costly fee of golden balloons to enter them once again. Wigpig allows competition however, letting anyone opposing race him in order to gain the rights to Timber Island once again.
Unfortunately for the inhabitants, Wizpig isn’t new to the racing game and after a few showdowns Timber and the island guardians are kicked out into the cold; including the island’s elephant genie, Taj.
Knowing that such a daunting foe won’t be a pushover, Timber requests the help of his good friend Diddy Kong as well as a few new faces to the racing world including Conker the Squirrel, Bumper the Badger and Banjo the Honey-bear. Once the collective group ventures onto the sun kissed shores of Timber Island they prepare for the long journey ahead of them, suiting themselves up in karts, planes and hovercrafts.
In order to take back the island, Diddy and friends will have to race in each of Timber Islands courses and face off against the big pig, all before Timber’s parents arrive back home! Yikes!
While any other generic racing title is void of story all together and instead just throws players onto the track, Diddy Kong Racing was already taking leaps and bounds unheard of for the time and actually gives a solid premise for speeding down the courses. While the story may not affect the gameplay much, it’s just that much more gratifying to win a race knowing the developments insofar, and clearing a race knowing that it takes you one step closer to facing off against Wizpig keeps the action flowing.
Diddy Kong Racing also includes several cinematic that contribute to the story and even an ending which ties up all loose ends presented, in this sense Diddy Kong Racing plays much like an adventure title.
While the story in itself is quite simple, and doesn’t shake things up much from the ‘beat big bad guy by racing’ formula, the way in which it’s been presented is sheer brilliance.
You’ll even encounter the odd twist here and there while racing, including multiple endings based how much of your campaign adventure you’ve completed.
Graphics
It doesn’t take a genius to see that a lot of the early titles in the Nintendo 64 library had an incredibly blocky look to them. Of course this was due to developers getting their first experience in a three dimensional perspective with the limited knowledge of the using the technology to its full potential.
Diddy Kong was on top of its game however, using a method called ‘soft-skinning’ which wrapped a texture map around a polygon instead of simply painting the texture onto the surface; this meant that the polygons would appear rounded, smooth and less jagged to other early titles released alongside it.
Unlike its Karting predecessor which used sprites in place of the racers and most of the objects within the game, Diddy Kong renders its characters with detailed polygon models leaving the sprites to take care of objects in the background to reserve the memory such as vegetation and weather enhancements. Even the draw distance of Diddy Kong Racing is spectacular, you’re able to stare from one side of the island to the other without any trace of visible fog or image distortion. All of the tracks are also free of any fog caused by the draw distance and considering that you can view the serene details from a vehicle like the plane, that’s saying something.
Diddy Kong also deals with its obstacles in expert fashion as well, making each object slowly fade in as your racer approaches it instead of the less convenient method of just ‘popping’ up on the track when you get too close – As anyone familiar with the snowmen on the track Frappe SnowLand from Mario Kart 64 can tell you – having ample time to make a decision or altercation in your steering is very important in a racing title as one collision could spell the end.
Timber Island itself matches an idealistic tropical paradise, complete with rolling tide, sun speckled shores and wild plant life to boot! Diddy Kong breathes life into its surroundings, creating brilliant hues almost reaching the scale of fluorescent. Whether it’s on the track or exploring the overworld you’re sure to find an incredible attention to detail backed up by the power of the N64. It’s not just tropical utopias that Rare has managed to capture either, if you visit some of the later levels you’ll find that the same amount of detail has been applied to create mountainous winter themed courses to the deepest recesses of space. Even the race against Wizpig has been set for the mood; the blue sky has gotten dark, a few flashes and accompanying booms indicate a thunder storm as rainfall constantly spatters against the track, what a showdown!
Even quirky details can be found within something as simple as colliding with an object. A coconut tree for instance, will shake characteristically once hit and drop a few coconuts to the ground. An evergreen will shake a collection of snow from its heavy branches if met with the same fate.
It’s astonishing to think that so much thought went into objects that you’d only manage to catch a glimpse of as you sped down the track. While there are many shortcuts available on the tracks, Rare was in no rush to cut any corners and it really shows when you take an in-depth look.
Sound
In any run-of-the-mill racing title, music is often left out of the tracks completely in favor of including revving engines and squealing tires to fill the void. Not only does Diddy Kong Racing deliver excellent sounding music on the track, but it also offers an entire medley on Timber Island in Adventure Mode as well. On the main Island you’ll get to hear an upbeat catchy tune, but fly to the area around SnowFlake Mountain and the tune will transition to instruments more fitting to the frosty atmosphere without skipping a beat! Rare would later use this migrating sound function in their later titles such as the Banjo-Kazooie series and Donkey Kong 64. On top of the overworld you’ll find the Tracks music appropriately tuned for high speed racing while remaining catchy and memorable.
While the racing scene has been backed with great music to get you in the mood, Rare has also crafted awesome sound effects, which you’re sure to encounter during the game.
Each offensive and defensive attack have their individual sound byte whether it’s the high pitched whirling of a Homing Rocket, or the sparkling cadence of a Vehicle Shield.
Even the racers themselves will shout out if they’re met with an obstacle or carelessly thrown into a wall adding emotion to the otherwise stationary characters. In response to the collision the surface will also have a corresponding sound effect, whether it’s the characteristic ‘twang’ of a shaking coconut tree or the rock hard slam of a stone face.
Further evidence of Rares use of musical styling comes from the characters themselves. Each racer has their own unique theme that plays if you’re about to select them in the character menu, and each is remarkably different.
Banjo’s theme is a country sounding melody, full of southern banjo plucks and fast strumming bass.
Drumstick on the other hand has a theme filled with high strung violins sounding nearly fanciful among the barnyard beat. Conker’s theme replaces the upper class string quartet with a whimsical sounding tin whistle.
Each of these audio cues helps to identify the racer as well as their personality. Pipsy the tiny mouse is rather opposite to Krunch the sly Kremling, and their melodies definitely show that.
Each of these elements adds a unique blend of quirkiness and attention to detail that Rare has perfected to create a genuine racing experience.
Gameplay
Generally speaking, there isn’t a lot that can be innovative or evolved in terms of shaking up the gameplay in a racing title; the basic concept is to get from the start to the finish in as little time as possible and beat your opponent in doing so. However, having the vantage of possessing both elements of adventure as well as racing meant that Rare could change up everything in between the starting line to the finish in similar custom that Mario did, and a little extra as well!
A great example of this developed gameplay was in the way that you collect items on the track to use against your opponents in order to gain a lead; Mario Kart 64 simply randomized a number of items once they were collected on the track. Whether you received an item that helped or hindered all depended on the luck of the draw, which made it fair for all playing.
Diddy Kong created a similar system of collecting items, except that a specific item could be collected if you looked for the correct color of balloon which contained the desired item inside. While this addition allowed players to create a strategy when seeking out a specific mode of attack or defense, it was further customized by allowing players to collect the same color of balloon again down the track and bulk up their collected arsenal to a more powerful version.
This added a whole new level of strategy to gameplay when it came time to make a decision whether to waste your single collected item to gain a lead, or to save it up and collect the same color balloon for an even larger scale attack. The only flaw apparent in this system occured when you accidently collected the wrong color balloon after building up your arsenal, as doing so will cause your collection to be replaced with the new balloon item.
While Mario Kart 64 restricted players to either win or lose based on a random selection, Diddy Kong Racing incorporated a much deeper system that required players to drive fast and think hard.
Another feature Diddy Kong offered was the ability to go head to head with a Boss character once you managed to beat their selection of tracks in a single world. Beating the boss the first round was often a breeze and meant that a rematch would follow after completing the tracks a second time where the boss would become much more challenging.
Just as in competition with racers previous, devising a strategy best suitable to take out the boss is fundamental to progressing farther into the game, whether it be by collecting enough missiles to bog them down, or ripping through enough boosts to warrant a clear lead. Later bosses in the game will cheat as well; often taking off down the track before you’re even given a chance to start your engines. Most importantly, these races will prepare you for the final confrontation with Wizpig at the end of your adventure.
On the subject of traversing the track, Diddy Kong also offered players the ability to take to the skies in plane or tackle raging rapids in hovercraft. Aside from offering variety to the racing experience, this also meant that players could play a single course with a multitude of vehicle combinations, ensuring that the courses always retained their freshness.
Possibly the most hyped feature however was the inclusion of an Overworld players could freely transverse in the Adventure Mode. While the exploring component may be limited to catching a free balloon or finding a hidden world door, this mode flawlessly seams together the island and the worlds within it while offering players an interactive environment.
Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of gameplay in Diddy Kong Racing is the inclusion of the Silver Coin Challenge, which many gamers can attest to rising the games difficulty tenfold. Simply put, once you’ve cleared a particular ‘world’ of 4 themed races within Diddy Kong Racing you’ll have to go back into each one and collect 8 rotating coins littered on the track. While finding these coins may not prove to be very challenging, you’ll still be tasked with finishing in first position by the end of it all. Even if you collect each of the Silver Coins, landing in 2nd place will still count as a loss. This can prove to be very annoying, as most of the coins require you to veer of the track and waste precious time collecting when you should be racing. While this feature does add an element of multitasking, it ultimately ends up aggravating when the race has to be restarted after many sessions of play – especially on the more difficult courses later on.
Replay Value
It’s laid out pretty obvious above that Diddy and friends have quite the trek ahead of them, but what’s to keep you coming back to the track long after the pig has been sent packing?
Finishing off your expansive adventure unlocked a secret second adventure file dubbed ‘Adventure 2’. This second mode required players to beat Wizpig a second time on mirrored tracks instead of simply playing the same mode twice, offering up a disorienting playing style and inverted screen. While you wouldn’t want to play this mode just after finishing your first campaign file, Adventure 2 was the go-to mode for skilled players; placing the illusive silver coins in more difficult locations and ramping up the Computer A.I, even seasoned racers will notice the difficulty curve sky rocket. Speaking of rockets, another feature that keeps gamers crawling back for more is the addictive Battle Courses! Whether you prefer collect-a-thons in old castles or intense shoot-outs in pyramids of ice, you’re sure to find 4 player fun outside of the tracks. Even if you didn’t have 3 other party members to hook up with you could go one on one against a selection of computer players – something the portly plumber missed out on.
Akin to Mario, Diddy Kong Racing also has a selection of developer times that have been left in the game, however beating them in Diddy Kong Racing would unlock hidden racers that you could play as. For completionists, this was a great reward for trying to beat fast times and clear tracks as quick as possible. Unlockable racers is a commonplace in gaming today, but back in ’98 Diddy was paving the future to innovation.
Alternatively the game is filled with a number of ‘Magic Codes’ that you’re free to fiddle with long after your adventure has ended. Choice codes include a two player adventure mode, harder A.I difficulty and even grabbing maximum level power-ups on the track after only passing through a single balloon.
Using these codes allows you to make your own rules and game modes which provides hours of fun with friends or just solo racing. In the end, Diddy Kong offers exactly what’s advertised on the box: A Wild Racing Adventure!