Diddy Kong Racing
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Diddy Kong Racing
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| Developer(s) | Rareware |
| Publisher(s) | Rareware |
| Composer(s) | David Wise |
| Platform(s) | Nintendo 64, Nintendo DS |
| Release date(s) | Nintendo 64 JPN November 21, 1997 EU November 21, 1997 NA November 24, 1997 Nintendo DS NA February 5, 2007 AU April 19, 2007 EU April 20, 2007 JP TBA 2008 |
| Genre(s) | Racing game |
| Mode(s) | Single player, 2-4 multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: K-A (Kids to Adults) OFLC (AU): G |
| Media | 96Mb (12MB) Nintendo 64 cartridge |
Diddy Kong Racing is a 1997 racing game for the Nintendo 64 developed by Rareware. 800,000 copies were ordered in the two weeks before Christmas 1997, making it the fastest selling video game at the time, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. An enhanced remake for the Nintendo DS titled Diddy Kong Racing DS was released February 6, 2007. It is the first game to spin-off from the Donkey Kong series.
A racing game like Mario Kart 64, Diddy Kong Racing also has a distinctive adventure mode. Some of the playable characters would later appear in their own franchise titles. The game was partially intended to introduce these future franchise characters so that gamers would recognise them when these games were released. In Diddy Kong Racing, a player can choose to drive a car, hovercraft, or airplane, though a certain level may require that the player picks one of these.
Originally, two sequels to DKR were planned; Diddy Kong Pilot and Donkey Kong Racing. Diddy Kong Pilot eventually became Banjo Pilot, a game based on Rare's Banjo-Kazooie. Donkey Kong Racing was cancelled due to Rare's departure. Diddy Kong Racing was remade for the Nintendo DS as Diddy Kong Racing DS. The DS version uses the stylus for control purposes.
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[edit] Plot
Timber the Tiger's parents go on vacation and leave their son in charge of the island they live on, leaving him and his friends to race for fun. Their enjoyment is derailed when an evil, intergalactic, pig wizard named Wizpig arrives at peaceful Timber's Island and attempts to take over after he conquered his own planet's racetracks. He turns the four island's guardians: Tricky the Triceratops, Bubbler the Octopus, Bluey the Walrus and Smokey the Dragon into his henchmen. The only solution available to the island's inhabitants is to defeat Wizpig in an elaborate series of races that involves cars, hovercrafts, and airplanes. Drumstick, the best racer on the island, failed this challenge and was transformed into a frog by Wizpig's black magic. Timber sends a letter to his friend Diddy Kong to call for help and Diddy in turn recruits his friends Banjo the bear and Conker the squirrel while Timber gathers the remaining inhabitants of the island to help. They eventually complete all of Wizpig's challenges and confront Wizpig himself to a race and defeat him. Shortly afterwards, Wizpig leaves for his home planet, Future Fun Land. Fearing that Wizpig would again attempt to invade Timber's Island, the islanders travel to Future Fun Land for a second challenge. When Wizpig loses the second race, the rocket he rides on malfunctions and blasts him to a distant planet and peace returns to Timber Island for good.
[edit] Characters
The playable characters who reappear in other games are:
- Diddy Kong
- Banjo
- Conker
- Krunch
- Tiptup
- Timber
- Bumper
- Pipsy
- Drumstick (Unlockable)
- T.T. (Unlockable)
Diddy,Banjo,Conker,Tiptup, and Krunch come from other games besides Diddy Kong Racing
[edit] Gameplay
Each world contains several race tracks, an unlockable battle stage and a race against a boss character. Depending on the race track, players may have a choice of using a car, hovercraft or plane; this choice is restricted on some tracks. Each race track contains Zipper devices that give a short-term speed boost to racers that cross them, and balloons of various colours that provide powerups to racers.
If the player beats Wizpig in Future Fun Land and obtains the amulet pieces and gets all of the gold medals, the player will be able to play in a mode called Adventure 2. In this mode, all of the balloons are silver and the tracks are flipped from left to right. The silver coins are in different locations in each track, often in harder to reach places.
[edit] Vehicles
There are three different vehicles in the game. The car and/or plane are not used for some tracks.
- Car - The Car is the standard vehicle of the game.
- Hovercraft - The Hovercraft is a vehicle that has a blower in the rear end.
- Plane - The Plane is used to fly.
[edit] Music
The music for the game was composed by David Wise, one of Rare's in-house composers. Using the Nintendo 64's cartridge format, the music in the game could change mood across the overworld or midway through a racetrack (retaining the same tune and tempo but using different instruments) without being hampered by load times. This was the first Rare game to use this technique, with it later being used in Banjo-Kazooie and Donkey Kong 64.
[edit] Reception
Diddy Kong Racing was very well received for it's graphics, sound, but was criticized for being too similar to Mario Kart 64.[citation needed] The game became a Player's Choice title, and is considered to be one of the better racing games on Nintendo 64, alongside Mario Kart 64.[citation needed] The game remains popular even today, despite being for an older console.
[edit] Awards
Diddy Kong Racing won the Console Racing Award at the 1998 Interactive Achievement Awards
Diddy Kong Racing won the Best Console Game of the Year 1998 by Scandinavian Game Review
[edit] Diddy Kong Racing DS
Diddy Kong Racing DS is a racing game developed by Rare for the Nintendo DS. It is Rare's first Nintendo DS game, and was released on February 5, 2007 in North America, April 20, 2007 in Europe and April 19, 2007 in Australia. It is a remake of the critically acclaimed Diddy Kong Racing for the Nintendo 64. Diddy Kong Racing DS makes use of the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, as well as the microphone for various features in the game, and the touch screen to create race tracks.
There is a variety of changes from the 64 version to the DS version. On the Nintendo DS, the dinosaurs in the first world you will visit "Dino Domain" walk slower than in the Nintendo 64. Although some of the tracks underwent minor changes, they remained nearly identical to the N64 version.
New on the Nintendo DS you may now collect coins around tracks and use them to upgrade your vehicle so it can either have a higher top speed, better acceleration, better handling, or you can just get a custom look. You can also change the color.
Characters Conker the Squirrel and Banjo the Bear were replaced with characters Dixie Kong and Tiny Kong due to copyright issues with Rare, Ltd. after Microsoft bought the company from Nintendo in 2002.
Diddy Kong Racing DS received an average score of 67/100 at Game Rankings. [1] It has received a lower average of 63/100 at Metacritic, based on 37 reviews. [2]
NGamer, an unofficial Nintendo magazine based in the UK, praised Diddy Kong Racing DS for the amount of variety in the different races, as well as the massively enjoyable online mode, but also criticized the game for the poor quality of the touch screen-specific sections, particularly the balloon-popping game on Taj's carpet and the third boss battle. Official Nintendo Magazine also criticized the game for the fact that the tracks created in the track editor were all set in a rather bland cloud setting, and also randomly generated hills and chicanes. These aspects therefore led to the final score of 80%.
GameSpot gave the game a 6.7/10, praising the number of activities, customization features and online multiplayer, while criticizing parts of the game for being tedious as well as criticizing some of the touch screen controls. [3]
As of July 25, 2007, Diddy Kong Racing DS has sold 1.04 million copies worldwide.[4]
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Diddy Kong Racing on the Banjo-Kazooie Wiki, an external wiki
[edit] References
- ^ Diddy Kong Racing DS Reviews
- ^ Diddy Kong Racing (ds: 2007): Reviews
- ^ Diddy Kong Racing DS for DS Review - DS Diddy Kong Racing DS Review
- ^ Matt Casamassina (2007-07-25). "Nintendo Sales Update". IGN. Retrieved on 2007-07-25.
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