Andi Hamilton's Videogame Newsletter - Issue #50 [Diddy Kong Racing]

There was a time, from 1994 and the back end of the Super Nintendo throughout the entire N64 lifespan where Rare were the absolute kings of the industry. They released banger after banger, often revolutionised a genre or simply put out something that was the very best the particular genre could offer and, most importantly, would often take on Nintendo at their own game, releasing titles that competed directly with Nintendo's similar products and - get this - often WON.I feel like spending a bit of 2023 (Rare) replaying a bunch of these stone cold classics and giving them a bit of a reappraisal - do they still hold up and in cases where the Nintendo equivalent has aged particularly well/badly, how does the Rare game directly compare to those titles after all these years. Let's start with a strong one.

The thinking man's Mario Kart 64.

Diddy Kong Racing took on Nintendo's mega-selling kart racing sequel and offered a much more interesting and unique take on a genre that had started to get stale by the time Diddy and his pals put pedal to the metal. Now let's get something straight before I start here - I really, REALLY like Mario Kart 64. In fact, it is probably my overall favourite Mario Kart game for a bunch of reasons I can't really be bothered to go into here but please understand that I rate Mario Kart 64, so when I tell you that Diddy Kong Racing is a better game in every conceivable way, that is some of the highest praise imaginable for a game in the kart racing genre. I think it might still be the best of the lot.The main standout feature of DKR is the single player structure. It's no longer a case of picking a championship from a list and trying to accumulate the most points over four races. When you press start on the title screen of DKR you select ADVENTURE from the menu, not which championship you'd like to take part in. This isn't a sporting event, this is some kind of mission to stop the evil Wizpig from doing... whatever it is he's planning on doing by... racing some karts about a bit. Yeah, something like that. I'm not sure, I don't think I've ever looked into it.The game is based around a central hub area with a structure that owes more to Super Mario 64 than Mario Kart 64. There's five themed stages behind doors that require some light exploration to find and within them the race tracks are found, behind doors of their own. Each door has a total amount of balloons needed to to open them and proceed to the race and, of course, winning a race yields a balloon as a prize. Back in the main hub, you'll need to use the game's three vehicles - kart, hovercraft and plane - to fully search the island to find some of the entrances. Nothing too challenging - it's the tried and tested 3D platform game template but here it just offer a little something different. At first.

See, the thing that makes all of this so damn special and still really compelling is how the game starts to unfold as you win the races. Eventually, after winning all four races in a stage, you get to take on the boss. These bosses are infamous due to their difficulty, essentially requiring a near perfect race to defeat them. They even cheat, setting off before the race announcer declares GO and leaving you immediately on the back foot. Clever use of boosts and the other items can even the playing field but they're usually a case of keeping them within touching distance and beating them on the final stretch. They can be frustrating, sure, but I really enjoy the slow learning and mastery of the race against them, with the time you beat them being a flawless, exciting run.Defeating the boss unlocks the Silver Coin Challenge races. All of the doors containing the previously beaten races are given a new, higher balloon total needed to open them. Once achieved, the Silver Coin Challenge is a case of not only winning the race against tougher A.I. opponents but also collecting eight silver coins that are dotted around the track. These coins will often force you into taking less favourable lines on a lap and, in some cases, will be found in hidden shortcuts that mean you can't pick them all up in one lap. This adds a little of the exploration required in the main hub into the actual races and, once you've spent at least a lap finding and collecting them, usually requires you to essentially win the race from a disadvantaged position. It's impeccably balanced - it seems almost impossible the first time you tackle one of these challenges but within a few goes you'll realise that it is very achievable with some decent race planning. You've then got to take on the boss again, albeit a much harder, much stricter version. No doubt this is where most of the complaints come from - these guys bend the rules as much as they can and so much as missing one boost panel is worthy of a quit and retry but, again, maybe its that thing inside my brain that made me love Hotline Miami so much, just slowly refining and improving a run until it is the best you possibly can is something that I find endlessly appealing. Win these and you'll get part of a Wizpig medallion, which opens up access to the final boss race.

There's no other way to put it - Wizpig is a dickhead. He's on foot, sets off before you, is faster than you and will trample you when he passes you, which he will do a LOT. Much like the harder version of the other boss races, nothing but a flawless race will get you a victory against Wizpig. You have to learn all of the courses weird bumps and pitfalls that could cause you to lose momentum, memorise the position of all of the boost plates and ensure you hit every single one and, even then, make sure you're in spitting distance of him as you start the final lap so you can get out in front of him and get over the finish line before he catches up again. With Wizpig defeated, the end sequence plays. Hope has been restored to the world, evil has been vanquished or whatever. Until Wizpig interupts the party proceedings with his spaceship, firing lasers at everyone and fucking off into space. Surely, this isn't the end? Surely there's a way to go after him?Head back into the themed stages and you can now take on the championship events. Finally, it has become Mario Kart. Four races, earn points for the position you finish in, come out on top over the course of all the races and you win a trophy. Get the trophy from all four of the championship events and you unlock a secret fifth area, where you have to do a new set of races and Silver Coin Challenges! Finding those silver coins isn't the only in-race exploring you'll need to do. Hidden in one track in each of the themed stages is a key - some of which are fiendishly well hidden - that unlocks a door within the stage hub that houses one of T.T's challenge events. T.T. is an anphropomorphic clock that you can speak to if you want to take on a time trial race, obviously. These challenges, however, are a version of the multiplayer battle modes against A.I. opponents. Win these to unlock access to the final (really this time) Wizpig race. A infamously tough race against the big man, who is riding on a rocket through a stage full of environmental bits and pieces to get stuck on or blasted out of the air by. Beat this and you're done, unless of course you fancy taking on the Adventure 2 mode - essentially the whole game again with everything mirrored and with the silver coins all placed differently. There's so much to do and all of it fantastic fun.

Of course, all of this would be for naught if the actual racing was rubbish. All three vehicles have their own unique 'feel' to them and there's some really cool high level skill tricks you can perform to get the most out of them. You've got the abilty to slide by holding the right bumper but by combining this with the brake, you have the ability to perform a really tight turn, which can be used to navigate sharp corners or even practically 180 through a hairpin. In the hovercraft, this grants you a hop turn that kills all momentum and allows you to start moving in another direction immediately, whilst in the plane this gives you a really, really tight aerial turn. Mastery of this is essential for the Silver Coin Challenge races. My favourite technique, however, is the advanced boost. By coming off the accelerator as you hit the boost pad you get a much better, faster and longer boost, with the timing of when you go back on the gas to keep the momentum from the speed increase becoming something you get a real 'feel' for. The vibration in the controller (from the Rumble Pak, if you're on original hardware) helps with this and, like all the best mechanics, takes a bit of practice to truly master but always feels satisfying when you pull it off, rewarding your skillful play.Another thing I love about Diddy Kong Racing is the stripped back weapon system. Mario Kart has a significantly larger and, to be fair, more fun set of items to help even the odds for players of all abilities, but that isn't what DKR is looking to achieve. There's only five possible core items available - missiles, speed boosts, an oil slick, a shield and a magnet that rapidly draws you to the nearest player - and they're all labelled by specifically coloured balloon. There's no random chance here, nor is the deck stacked towards the players towards the back of the pack. You know exactly what you're getting, so you can plan a strategy around your style of racing or react to the current goings on during the race. The items also stack. For instance, collecting two missile balloons gets you the red shell-esque homing missile, whilst a third - the top level of power up - gets you a ten missile barrage. Of course, the risk/reward in this is excellent. Do you use each boost as you get them or do you save up for a massive, super speed one and fly past everyone in front of you? It also means the first place racer can go for a shield balloon to avoid getting blasted constantly by those behind them - there's no blue shell bullshit here - but these shield balloons are rare and usually quite devilishly positioned. There's a real thought gone into which Mario Kart staple items are the essentials and just as much thought that has gone into the placement of them too.

With twenty tracks, eight racers in different weight classes and all of the stuff mentioned above, as well as a fairly robust multiplayer mode, Diddy Kong Racing is already a solid, top quality package but the real jewel in the crown, certainly around its original release, was the ability to put in the code JOINTVENTURE into the cheat menu to unlock full campaign co-op. This was incredible for the time, with me and my mate Matt developing the devious Silver Coin Challenge strategy of me collecting all the coins while he collected a ten missile barrage and sat on the finish line, so if I was behind on the final lap he would be ready to unleash absolute hell on anyone in front of me and letting me get the win. This had a side effect though - whilst I became a master of the tracks, Matt became an absolute dead-eye with those missiles, making him a formidable foe in battle mode.I can't sing this game's praises enough. I played through it last week for the first time since its original release and the single player adventure mode is still absolutely cracking and its actually pretty criminal that we never got a sequel, that Rare's next racing game - the Disney branded Mickey's Speedway USA - was a shiter and little more than a bog standard kart racer and that no one else has just ripped this off wholesale for their own game. I'd prefer to see something new that follows the DKR template than another Mario Kart.

THANKS FOR READING.

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