Diddy Kong Racing

DIDDY KONG RACING

You know, sometimes I don't entirely think through the order I do these in, because I really should have covered Mario Kart first. My thought process on the character concept was going to be much easier to explain starting with that one. C'est la vie, I guess.

Diddy Kong Racing is a kart-racing game developed by Rare as a spinoff of the Donkey Kong Country series starring Diddy Kong and a bunch of other new furry characters, including both Banjo the Bear and Conker the Squirrel who both went on to have quite successful game franchises of their own. You might have heard of them. I suppose their isn't much point to going into the differences between all the characters, as they all function off the same mechanics.

Your drivers include Diddy Kong, Timber the Tiger (the leader of the group of animals, who calls in Diddy to help fend off Wizpig), Pipsy the Mouse, Banjo the Bear, Conker the Squirrel, Bumper the Badger, Tiptup the Turtle, and Krunch the Kremling. Later in the game you can also unlock Drumstick the Rooster and T.T., the living clock who takes your place in Time Trials.

The game is played by racing around a track, your vehicles including a kart, a plane, or a hovercraft, depending on the terrain. Occasionally boosts line the track, as well as balloons that give you items. These items include: missiles (either a single, a homing, or a group of ten), three different levels of speed boosts, an oil slick, a land mine, a bubble to trap your enemies, three levels of shielding, and three levels of magnets to pull your opponent toward you. All of this does lend itself well to a moveset, and as I was thinking with Mario Kart, the characters in the karts are quite mobile thanks to their bodies being able to interact with their environment despite being in a vehicle, so there's actually a solid case to be made for playability.

Two other important characters appear in this game. The first is Taj, an elephant genie who rides on a flying carpet and offers you tutorials. He does race you at certain points, but there's not enough to make him his own thing. Wizpig, on the other hand, is an evil alien pig wizard trying to take over Timber's Island. He is shown being able to fly, run really fast on his own legs (fast enough to outrun the karts), call down lightning on the racers, teleport, use a spaceship, fire lasers, and ride on a missile as his own vehicle. He does in fact offer up enough to work with.

We also have four bosses that make an appearance, all of which race you, but with their own special quirks. The first is Tricky, a triceratops who mostly just charges. Bluey is a walrus who slides down a mountain on his belly and leads a snowdrift wake behind him. Bubbler is a giant octopus who leaves bubbles and mines in the water behind him. And finally Smokey is a dragon who flies and breathes fire on the track.

The game itself is built around the large hubworld of Timber's Island, with four distinct sectors, each having four tracks and a boss level. Dino Domain is themed around dinosaurs, with large dinosaurs lumbering around, and desert, jungle, and volcano tracks. (I think it was the basic of Dino Dino Jungle in Mario Kart Double Dash). Snowflake Mountain is a snow and ice themed world. Sherbet Island is a beach and water themed world. Dragon Forest has a strong medieval bent to it, with a medieval village and castle in one level, and windmills in another, like in Don Quixote. After you've cleared all the levels and beaten Wizpig once, you then chase him back to his home planet, Future Fun Land, which he has turned into a space-themed amusement park.

Obviously, items would be the balloons and the items found inside, though those would lend themselves to the characters' moveset.

Let's see what we've got:

Characters:
Diddy Kong Racers (Diddy, Timber, Pipsy, Banjo, Conker, Bumper, Tiptup, Krunch, Drumstick, T.T.): drive, fly, boat, boosts, missiles, oil slick, mine, bubble, shield, magnet
Wizpig: fly, run fast, lightning, teleport, lasers, missile, spaceship

Bosses:
Tricky
Bluey
Bubbler
Smokey

Stages:
Dino Domain
Snowflake Mountain
Sherbet Island
Dragon Forest
Future Fun Land

Items:
Balloons

Thanks for reading! Tomorrow, we'll cover another racing title, Donkey Kong: Barrel Blast!