Among Rare’s contributions to the very best games on the Nintendo 64—Banjo-Kazooie, GoldenEye, Banjo-Tooie—there is only one that has really never been recreated successfully. That is Diddy Kong Racing, a kart racer that was really so much more.
I forgot this game even existed but I used to play it with an old friend like every day. There was something really cool about just driving around its weird open world and then having a boat race.
Does it still hold up? If it does, I’d love to live that nostalgia again.
Odd that the article calls Diddy Kong Racing a “Mario Kart killer”, despite the fact that Mario Kart 64 was the 2nd best-selling N64 title and had almost 50% more sales than Diddy Kong Racing.
Diddy Kong did have a slightly better (+.4) metacritic rating for critics, but had a slightly less (-.4) rating from users.
And Diddy Kong did have a sequel. Rare released Diddy Kong Racing DS in 2007. It was received as anywhere from bad to mediocre.
The DS game was a remake, not a sequel FYI.
