Diddy Kong Racing (1997)

Diddy Kong Racing is a nostalgic N64 kart racer that has roots in childhood memories, but whose blossoms today are more symbolic of an interesting twist on kart racing game design. What’s most obvious about Diddy Kong Racing’s singular vision for a kart racer is its adventure mode—something I’ve never seen replicated since. I don’t have vast experience with the genre, so maybe I just missed a title or two, but the game adapts the contemporaneously popular collect-a-thon genre, that rare sort of pioneered by Banjo-Kazooie alongside Nintendo’s Super Mario 64 and Glover—just kidding. And the results are pretty satisfying.

There are only about 45 to 50 balloons, which are sort of the jiggies or stars of the game, and some of them are really easily obtained, literally just hanging around the map or won in very easy races. But the gameplay loop is nonetheless really satisfying, and although I won’t spend much time talking about it, the actual course designs are really fun and well-made. The kart mechanics are also strong, especially for a nearly 30-year-old title. It’s sort of like Mario Kart 64 in its gameplay but a little less drifty from what I can remember—although, of course, you’ll be drifting plenty. The characters also have some nice variety in their handling, which makes it fun to find the best fit.

What really impressed me, though, were the novel mechanics of the game—beyond the collect-a-thon adventure mode or the boss battles, particularly Wizpig’s boss battles, with Wizpig as the final boss of the game. The Wizpig 1 race, in particular, exemplifies some of the best qualities of the game. Rare leaned pretty heavily into a precision-platformer style of gameplay for the kart races, which sounds extremely odd, but in some races—mainly the Greenwood Village coin collection and the Wizpig 1 race—the player will find themselves constantly restarting as they try to hit a turn perfectly or land on a boost pad in exactly the right way.

It’s interesting how a precision-platformer formula can be adapted to a racing game like this, where even a small mistake can lead to a restart. But it has that same satisfying and addicting gameplay loop as something like Super Meat Boy would have—13 years after this came out. Rare had already sort of pioneered the precision-platformer genre with the Donkey Kong Country games, so it’s not a total surprise. Still, the difficulty definitely leads me to believe that I either never cleared this game as a kid or I used some cheat codes or something.

Overall, DKR is a fun experience worth revisiting whether or not you played it as a kid. It’s a challenging kart racer that prioritizes single-player mode and has some outstanding sound design in addition to its colorful characters and small but well-crafted world. It’s definitely worth a revisit or a first-time visit if you’re looking for something fun, snappy, colorful, and challenging.