Pretty much all racing games on the N64 so far have the same problem: there’s not a lot of progression for a single player, and you can do everything in a couple of hours. Some of them focused on being great in multiplayer (like Mario Kart 64) but there wasn’t a lot of choice for singleplayer.

Which is where Diddy Kong Racing comes in, as it has a very meaty singleplayer campaign with an adventure mode where you find tracks within its hub world.

It’s a neat area to explore, although a lot smaller than I remember it being. You’ll find four doors with balloon requirements (which you get from winning races or finding them in the world), with a fifth world hidden until you defeat five bosses. They start out simple at first: you have to win each race individually then defeat the boss in a race. Do that, and it gets much more challenging.

You’ll be tasked with finding 8 coins in each race. However, finding them isn’t enough as you still have to win, and then defeat a harder version of the boss. Diddy Kong Racing is a difficult and brutal game and you’ll need to learn its tricks (such as letting go of the accelerator just before boosting) to have a chance of winning. Once you defeat a boss a second time, you then complete in a tournament across the four tracks. There’s also a key hidden in one level of each world to unlock a battle mode challenge. Oh, and also time trail challenges.

Once you’ve done all that and defeated the evil Wizpig, it’s time for Adventure Two. This is a mirror mode version of the game, although the silver coins are now in more difficult places. Of course, this amount of content wouldn’t be anything if the game wasn’t fun to play.

And thankfully, it is fun. Levels use three vehicles: car, hovercraft and plane. The car and plane are very easy to use, while the hovercraft is more difficult. When you repeat tracks (or choose to play outside Adventure mode), some levels let you pick your vehicle – with some restrictions on a per-level basis – and it’s great having multiple types of vehicles racing alongside each other.

One let-down in DKR are the characters. None of them are bad in terms of a design perspective – and this is the first appearance of Banjo (without Kazooie, although some of his voice clips sound like her) and Conker, but they’re a bit too varied in terms of ability, so the game’s difficulty will very a lot based on who you pick, with Pipsy being the best for hitting boosts (plus the silver coins).

The weapon system sets itself apart from other kart racers. Instead of giving you random items, the balloons providing items are colour coded for specific items. Collecting one of the same type you already have will also upgrade the item.

Diddy Kong Racing is still a great game, and the only kart game that’s come close to it for single-player is Sonic Racing Transformed (which also had three vehicle types, but it was specific to the part of the track you were on). It set itself apart from Mario Kart 64 and I actually prefer this one.

Pros: The story mode is an incredible adventure game, like, the hub world itself rivals Super Mario 64's and Banjo-Kazooie's, and this is a "racing" game. But it's so much fun to explore and discover secrets in, as you're either driving around in a go-kart, zoomin' over the waves in the hovercraft, or flying the skies in the air plane! The races are pretty fantastic too! Colorful detailed worlds with some pretty zippy track design, crafted around different vehicles, some all at once! It's not only fun, it's also very impressive! There are boss fights, lots of neat weapons and items, hidden minigames, and tons of Golden Balloons to collect. This game in many ways, surpasses Mario Kart 64!

Cons: It's a bit... cutesy? Also, Diddy Kong himself feels shoehorned in here, nothing about this game or universe feels like it's Donkey Kong Country. It feels that way, because Diddy literally was added last minute to this game... Well, I like Diddy, so it's not all that bad, but it also kinda feels cheap, and these characters would feel out of place in the world of DKC, in my opinion. Additionally, some of the later challenges are a tad annoying, silver coin and T.T. races and such. And lastly, the multiplayer isn't nearly as fun as Mario Kart 64's, especially the battle mode. It's the one area where MK64 has it beat, imo.

What it means to me: This was the first game I ever found out about online!! Before this, it was always some video game magazine like Nintendo Power. But yeah, logged onto Nintendo.com one day, saw Diddy flying an air plane, and my form of consuming gaming media was forever changed! Got this game later that year for Christmas, and had a great time playing it for weeks on end with my brothers.

i MIGHT be slightly biased because this game is very sentimental to me but nonetheless, i personally feel its one of the more unique racing games out there. i find it to be more entertaining and worth more my time than mario kart for sure, probably because its partially story driven, with charming npcs, (even if they dont have much screen time), several game modes, and 3 different vehicles to use around the tracks which already gives it a big boost above some other racing games. it might not be as impressive or as packed as some other games in its era, but its casual, fun, and friendly for everyone

This game was much harder than I remember. As a fan of all kart racers, I was excited to play this as it had a fleshed-out hub world and an interesting story to go along with it (at least for when I was a 5 year old of course).

However, this game is not for the average kart racer fan. Trying to do all the challenges, unlock all of the courses, get the secret characters, and even just trying to beat the final boss requires a mastery of the game I have yet to accomplish even today. Don't get me wrong, this is still a fantastic time and is super addictive, but this was difficult. Only play if you want a challenge.