Diddy Kong Racing was one of Rare's first works to appear on the revolutionary Nintendo 64 back in 1997. Released within a few months of Mario Kart 64, the British developer knew they couldn't just make a standard racing game to compete with Nintendo's main mascot. Mainly because this wasn't the company's ultimate goal. Diddy Kong Racing was the seed Rare planted on Nintendo's new console to expand its own universe. In this article, I will analyze Rare's ambition, not only in creating a great game, but in their will to create their own world of mascots in the video game industry.

Remembering Diddy Kong Racing

Unlike Mario Kart 64, which translated the Super Nintendo formula to 3D while maintaining its original competitive structure, Diddy Kong Racing proposed a much broader approach in terms of game concept, focusing on a racing adventure.

The story takes place on Timber Island, which upon being invaded by a space pig named Wizpig, leads the tiger who gives the island its name to call Diddy Kong and his friends to compete in a series of races with the goal of expelling the villain. Our protagonists will travel through diverse territories, featuring Jurassic, snowy, and even futuristic environments. The different zones connect through a central hub area as was becoming customary in other adventure games, like Super Mario 64 or in the near future, Donkey Kong 64.

The adventure progresses by obtaining golden balloons that we get by winning races, challenging the elephant Taj, or finding them scattered around the central zone. These serve to access new tracks and continue with the story. Additionally, we must gather more collectibles, such as keys that unlock bonus stages, silver coins, trophies, and boss amulets, among others. The latter are what allow us to access the first challenge against the game's final boss.

Races aren't always in a kart. Diddy and the rest of the recruits can opt for hovercrafts to move better over water and planes to move through the air. Just like in Mario Kart, we can use items disguised as balloons to speed up or hinder our opponents. Moreover, we can not only participate in races: the bonus stages are as varied as collecting dinosaur eggs with the plane to leave them in a nest or collecting bananas and storing them in a chest.

As we can see, the ambition of Diddy Kong Racing at a gameplay and conceptual level went beyond that of other racing games of the era. However, Rare's aspirations were much higher than simply making a great racing game.

Starting point for new Rare universes

Rare used its most famous creation to introduce a new cast of characters to the Nintendo world. Diddy Kong, who had made his debut a few years earlier in Donkey Kong Country, acted as the game's main draw. His name was already famous enough among players (the Country saga and its portable counterpart Donkey Kong Land exceeded twenty million copies sold) to star in his own saga. Thus, Diddy Kong acted as the Trojan horse to introduce us to Rare's future stars.

The company's first big bet would be Banjo. This bear with yellow shorts would star in his own saga months later, in the acclaimed platformer Banjo-Kazooie on the Nintendo 64 itself. The game received great critical and commercial reception, which culminated in a second game for the same platform: Banjo-Tooie. The saga introduced a three-dimensional world in which Banjo and his friend Kazooie must save the bear's little sister from the hands of the old witch Gruntilda, who intends to steal her beauty and youth.

Conker, the squirrel, was the next character to make his debut with his own video game saga. The first of them was Conker’s Pocket Tales for Game Boy Color. In it, Conker must rescue his girlfriend Berri and recover his birthday presents from the clutches of the evil Acorn. The next major installment occurred on Nintendo 64 during the console's final life cycle. Conker’s Bad Fur Day marked a radical change from its predecessor. The Nintendo 64 installment moved away from the friendly character that abounded in Nintendo and Rare sagas to date, showing a platform adventure with violence, sexual content, and foul language.

The rest of the Diddy Kong Racing cast of racers did not enjoy as much repercussion as the previous four, and their appearance was a test of charisma and popularity for them. Timber was Rare's first choice to star in the game. However, at Miyamoto's suggestion, they opted to leverage Diddy Kong's popularity to boost the game, reserving the tiger to star in his own saga on a future occasion. We would see Tiptup as a secondary character in the Banjo-Kazooie saga. The mouse Pipsy, the badger Bumper, and the generic Kremling Krunch would not make an appearance in any subsequent game, beyond their participation in the game's remake for Nintendo DS. Neither did the unlockables Drumstick and T.T., although we couldn't count on that either: they belonged to the world of Diddy Kong Racing.

The universes that didn't prosper

Microsoft's acquisition of Rare deeply affected the development of the universes that Rare had begun to germinate in the late nineties: none of the characters achieved repercussion outside their golden age on the Nintendo 64.

Banjo starred in his own plane racing game in Banjo-Pilot for Game Boy Advance in 2005. Finally, in 2008, we saw him star in his last game in Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts for Xbox 360, moving completely away from what was previously seen in the saga. Not only did they radically change the character design, but the gameplay style shifted to vehicle construction and combat instead of the franchise's classic gameplay.

Microsoft remade Conker’s Bad Fur Day in the so-called Conker: Live & Reloaded for Xbox. However, we never saw a new adventure of the squirrel again.

Timber was going to be the protagonist of the controversial Dinosaur Planet, before it was christened as Star Fox Adventures for GameCube. Also, along with the rest of the Diddy Kong Racing characters, his appearance as a playable character was planned in the prototype that never saw the light of day, called Diddy Kong Racing Adventures.

Diddy, for his part, would return as a playable character in the Donkey Kong series. Although he has not starred in a game again, his appearances have been numerous enough to be one of Nintendo's main secondary characters, even making appearances in Super Mario video games (Kart, Tennis) and even in The Super Mario Bros. Movie.

Diddy Kong Racing as a cult game

Although the universes created by Rare did not prosper, today, many of the works derived from them are considered very influential games in the industry. Occasional appearances like Banjo's in Super Smash Bros Ultimate are highly promoted and celebrated by fans of the saga. There is even talk of Yooka-Laylee as the spiritual successor to the Banjo-Kazooie saga.

Diddy Kong Racing did just the opposite of what we would see in the Super Smash Bros series. Racing tried to expand universes by introducing new characters, while Smash used the fame of the protagonists of different video game sagas to create its own universe. It is difficult to predict what would have happened if Rare had continued with Nintendo. The separation from Rare feels like Microsoft didn't really know what to do with these franchises, while they fit perfectly into Nintendo's universe and audience.

Diddy Kong Racing has remained a rarity within the Nintendo world. It wasn't just a great racing game. It was Rare's attempt to create its own universe. I don't think Diddy Kong Racing will have a sequel in the future. Moreover, I wouldn't bet on seeing most of the characters that starred in Diddy Kong Racing in any other video game again. Hopefully, Microsoft will be encouraged to unfreeze Banjo at some point. However, we will always have Diddy Kong Racing to reunite Conker, Pipsy, and company and dream again about what could have been, and almost was.

Original text written in Spanish. Translated using IA.