Diddy Kong Racing

This is the first 3D "Donkey Kong" game... and they are no where near Kong Island.  Developed by Rare (before being bought up by Microsoft) and published by Nintendo, Diddy Kong Racing was released at the end of November of 1997.  It is a racing game (big surprise due to the title) with Mario Kart style antics.

Unlike many racers, there is in fact a plot, though a weak one: the evil WizPig wants to take over Timber's Island and the only way to defeat him is by racing.... racing. That may well be the weakest excuse of a plot I've ever heard... but let's pretend we are just racing for the sake of going relatively fast: because as much as I enjoy the game, I hate that plot.  

So the game begins in the middle of a big field in your car next to Taj the Elephant Genie of the island (I couldn't make this stuff up).  You progress through the game by collecting Golden Balloon, which you receive by for winning races or finding them scattered across the island.  The balloons allow you entrance into the four different worlds and into the races inside those worlds.  The worlds themselves are based around seemingly arbitrary concepts: Dino Domain, Snowflake Valley, Sherbert Island and Sherwood Forest.  For the sake of my playing, I only went into Dino Domain, but each of the worlds follow the same format: win four races, boss race, win the four races again, boss race once more.

I myself started the game with Tiptup the Turtle, oh yes, did I mention that you probably won't recognize any of the characters from this game?  There is Diddy Kong, Banjo (from Banjo Kazooie, another Rare masterpiece), and Conker (who reappeared in Conker's Bad Fur Day).  Tiptup is actually the last of the characters who appear in another game (he's in both Banjo-Kazooie and Banjo-Tooie).  The final four initial racers are somewhat (ok, very) random: Timber the Tiger (who I'll argue is the actual main character since you are actually on his home), Krunch the Kremling, Bumper the Badger, and Pipsy the Mouse.

So, continuing, I went into Dino Domain with Tiptup and went through the first four races.  I'm not going to get into the races, you go around the tracks and win the races.  As I mentioned earlier, it has a Mario Kart feel by allowing you to use weapons to gain advantage.  The weapons are gained by grabbing balloons, each color for a different weapon type.  The first race introduces the basics red and blue (missiles and boosts), but then there is a twist.  If you have a red balloon and then grab a second, you get a better weapon.  Each of the three levels is stronger then the last and usually more entertaining: missiles go from a single missile to a homing missile to ten missiles.

After the first four races, you get to face the boss race, each fit for the world they control.  The first boss is Tricky the Triceratops, and he's a cheater.  Ready, Set, and he's running long before go.  But even his cheating ways won't win him the race.  Pelt him with a few missiles and keep up with him long enough and he just runs out of gas.  He seriously can barely drag himself across the finish line, all you have to do is keep up long enough and you got him easy.

But it's after the race that he shows his true evil side: you have to re-race all the races you just won and you have to collect ten random silver coins each race.  It's a lot more difficult then he sounds, the coins are purposely placed out of the way in most races so it's a matter of getting far enough ahead so the time you lose doesn't matter or fight your way back to the front after putting yourself pretty well in last place.  It is easily my least favorite time in the game, so I took the option and stopped playing at that time.

So another game is down and will being continuing down the line of Nintendo (since I'm doing that anyways) and will continue with a game from the GameCube tomorrow.  Perhaps something requiring strategy, perhaps a fighter, don't really know what yet.  Adios for today though.