Retro Runback: ‘Diddy Kong Racing’ — The True King of N64 Mascot Racers

Yeah, let’s get to it. Dwayne and I have both made our feelings known about the Banjo-Kazooie/Super Mario 64 thing. So, why not double down? Because I know for a fact I’m not alone on this: Diddy Kong Racing is better than Mario Kart 64. But I’m not going to spend too much time on that. I really do want to point out how good this game is.

Diddy Kong Racing was developed and published by the legends at Rare. This is a game that really shouldn’t have existed, being born as a result of Banjo-Kazooie being delayed and some quick thinking from Shigeru Miyamoto and the team at Rare. Salvaging a holiday release, they created something that stood right there with Nintendo’s racer.

‘DIDDY KONG RACING’ STILL HAS THE BEST SINGLE-PLAYER MODE IN ALL OF MASCOT RACING

I can remember firing the game up and even the opening striking me as something I hadn’t seen before. Then, you get into the game and see a legit single-player mode in the form of Adventure Mode, and the question becomes, “How much better can this get?” The answer is “much better”. The tracks were diverse, the graphics were on point, and racing in a hovercraft was something Rare knew we all needed.

And to top it all off, Adventure Mode featured multiple boss races that were (at the time) really challenging. The mode featured a hub world that was somewhat open and even the environments had enough love to where it felt like you could have run a race through it. Couple that with an actual story, and this game gave us something fresh and new, even to this day.

SHOULD WE RUN IT BACK?

Okay, so technically, we did with Diddy Kong Racing DS. But, come on, y’all know this game needs to be on a home console. And, no, I’m not letting Nintendo off the hook if they end up putting it on the Switch Online service. So, to answer the question: YES. Run it back. And since Nintendo owns the game code, this can still happen. Give us more karts, planes, and hovercraft action. I’m sure if it does ever happen, though, it won’t be for a while. Mario Kart 9 is on the horizon, and they’d never give us both. I guess I need to loosen up then. Yes, Nintendo, you are off the hook if you drop it on Switch Online.