Though Mario Kart got all the press, Diddy Kong Racer was always, I felt, the finer kart racer to grace the 64. Made by Rare--which was perhaps the greatest developer on the system, debatably surpassing even Nintendo, with such games as Goldeneye, Perfect Dark, Banjo-Kazooie, and all of the Donkey Kong games--what made this game different from Mario Kart 64 was the ability to drive not only a kart, but a (small) plane and a hovercraft (somehow, the turkey character, who I believe was an unlockable one, rocked the shit out of this vehicle--he was my go-to guy if I was in a hovercraft race). While the case could be made that Mario Kart had better multiplayer, I enjoyed that Diddy Kong actually attempted to have a somewhat satisfying one-player experience, which was probably a rarity in the world of kart racing games. I love any game that has an overworld, and Diddy Kong didn't disappoint. It even had an elephant genie.
I remember that Daniel and I got this game that first Christmas that we got our 64's, and we must've watched those intro videos a dozen times (for unknown reasons). I am happy to say that I eventually beat the normal game mode (you had to face Wizpig--the boss--twice, from my memory), and progressed in mirror mode (you do all the races again....but this time backwards!), although I never beat it (probably moved onto another game at this point). A staple of our childhood, and one I'd like to see brought out again. Although the battle mode was undoubtedly better in Mario Kart, I have fond memories of shooting missiles at Daniel and some bots while playing as the turkey in the ice level. I loved that there were several different areas in the overworld, and each of the levels in each area had the same theme, although they got progressively harder. There was the ancient dinosaur theme, the snow theme, the volcano theme, etc. This game seemed to borrow from platformers with these archetypal levels (makes sense, considering it was the Donkey Kong series). I've always admired that game developers have been able to wring so much from these basic ideas of levels. Look at Super Mario Galaxy for proof.
--Edward
We really do need to play this again. The chicken character was called Drumstick. I played as the openly gay turtle character, Tip-Tup (have to admit that I identified more with my Mariokart alias, Bowser, but such was life). This game also spawned Banjo and Conker for those who like the purity of adventure and sing-songy music/voices (Banjo) and those who like garbage pail kid cards (Conker). Its setup of levels and campaigns was truly superior, even if some of the actual levels themselves in Mariokart were better (and BIGGER - why oh why did they make smaller levels in later Mkarts?). It was more about the atmosphere and the lifestyle in Diddy Kong, whether cruising in a hovercraft around beaches, falling down wells of forested towns in a car, flying through star wars esque levels in a plane, or racing an elephant genie around the overworld, this shit rocked.
ReplyDeleteDiddy Kong Racing spawned Banjo and Conker? LOLWUT.
ReplyDeleteHahahahahaha, garbage pail kid cards. THank you. What was Charlie's quote about that? Something about what Dee said before.
Large racing levels FTW! Hahahaha, "atmosphere and lifestyle." That was indeed my lifestyle at that period of my life, hence this post. Oh my god at the forested towns comment--what a great level. Let's break this out soon and hard and often and until it hurts.