MegaManTrigger
Banned
Wow, talk about a trip down memory lane. I had found my old N64 lying around the storage room and quickly took it out to get it set up. I had a lot of great memories with this machine as a kid. I was with my sister at a local Walmart when my parents decided to surprise us with the N64. I was only a young kid, so I had no idea what it was or what games it had. All I knew was I would be going home with an N64 and Diddy Kong Racing. When my sister and I opened it up, I didn't care about the the controversial controller, or how terrible the analog stick was (surprisingly, mines held up for 20 years), or how many games had so much fog in its draw distance. What mattered to me was playing on the N64 with friends and family, and Diddy Kong Racing was such a perfect multiplayer game for the family.
Upon the title screen, you're greeted with Diddy Kong, Pipsy, and Timber and that oh so catchy music. That title screen was always nice to see and had a lot of humour to it. Like TipTup loses control and swerves around, or when Bumper starts running back to the Hovercraft after Drumstick passes him, or when Banjo hits Krunch. The music really sets the tone for the rest of the game. I may not know all of David Wise's work, but boy he did an amazing job with the OST for this game.
What was even more interesting about the game is that you had a small sandbox-ish world with 4 segmented worlds, each representing a theme. Dino Domain (Dinosaurs theme), Snowflake Mountain (Winter theme), Sherbet Island (Pirate/Sea theme), and Dragon Forest (Medieval Theme). This was huge because what kind of racing game features an adventure mode? The point of the game is simple, collect as many balloons as possible and move onto the next world. Furthermore, once you have proven your worth in each of the tracks within the world, you'll have access to the Silver Coin Challenges, in which you have to collect 8 silver Nintendo coins AND win the race. After that, you'll have access to boss battles to unlock a piece of Wizpig's Amulet in each world.
But what really sold the game for me and the family, was multiplayer. My sister and I would play the everliving crap out of it, trying to best each other by taking advantage of the stackable power-ups, zipper routes on tracks, shortcuts, etc. We had our fun moments of victory, our hilarious rages (getting hit by the 3rd red balloon power-ups 10 times is not fun, but insanely funny if you're dishing it out). What was even more mindblowing is that the game also had 4 unlockable multiplayer battle modes. Darkwater Beach and Icicle Pyramid were freaking fun as the point of the game is simply to beat the shit out of other players by using power-ups and evading hazards by using hovercrafts and karts respectively. In addition, you had interesting multiplayer race-typed games like Fire Mountain (collect and hatch 3 eggs before someone else does), and Smokey's Castle (collect and return 8 bananas to your pile before someone else does). As a kid I could never beat certain aspects of Adventure Mode, so the bulk of our play time was exclusively multiplayer.
15 years later, I was finally able to beat Diddy Kong Racing and unlock a lot of cool things (Smokey the Dragon was my childhood nightmare), particularly T.T. and Drumstick. I still am amazed at how well I can take advantage of what it had to offer in terms of single-player and multiplayer. My sister (who was a teenager back then) and I are adults now, and still make the time to have a bit of fun laughing at how rusty we've both become.
You know, it's thanks to this game that I have all the memories that I cherish. Additionally, I'm now interested in trying out some of Rare's N64 gems that I couldn't get into back in the days, particularly: Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo Tooie, and Conker's Bad Fur Day.
Upon the title screen, you're greeted with Diddy Kong, Pipsy, and Timber and that oh so catchy music. That title screen was always nice to see and had a lot of humour to it. Like TipTup loses control and swerves around, or when Bumper starts running back to the Hovercraft after Drumstick passes him, or when Banjo hits Krunch. The music really sets the tone for the rest of the game. I may not know all of David Wise's work, but boy he did an amazing job with the OST for this game.
What was even more interesting about the game is that you had a small sandbox-ish world with 4 segmented worlds, each representing a theme. Dino Domain (Dinosaurs theme), Snowflake Mountain (Winter theme), Sherbet Island (Pirate/Sea theme), and Dragon Forest (Medieval Theme). This was huge because what kind of racing game features an adventure mode? The point of the game is simple, collect as many balloons as possible and move onto the next world. Furthermore, once you have proven your worth in each of the tracks within the world, you'll have access to the Silver Coin Challenges, in which you have to collect 8 silver Nintendo coins AND win the race. After that, you'll have access to boss battles to unlock a piece of Wizpig's Amulet in each world.
But what really sold the game for me and the family, was multiplayer. My sister and I would play the everliving crap out of it, trying to best each other by taking advantage of the stackable power-ups, zipper routes on tracks, shortcuts, etc. We had our fun moments of victory, our hilarious rages (getting hit by the 3rd red balloon power-ups 10 times is not fun, but insanely funny if you're dishing it out). What was even more mindblowing is that the game also had 4 unlockable multiplayer battle modes. Darkwater Beach and Icicle Pyramid were freaking fun as the point of the game is simply to beat the shit out of other players by using power-ups and evading hazards by using hovercrafts and karts respectively. In addition, you had interesting multiplayer race-typed games like Fire Mountain (collect and hatch 3 eggs before someone else does), and Smokey's Castle (collect and return 8 bananas to your pile before someone else does). As a kid I could never beat certain aspects of Adventure Mode, so the bulk of our play time was exclusively multiplayer.
15 years later, I was finally able to beat Diddy Kong Racing and unlock a lot of cool things (Smokey the Dragon was my childhood nightmare), particularly T.T. and Drumstick. I still am amazed at how well I can take advantage of what it had to offer in terms of single-player and multiplayer. My sister (who was a teenager back then) and I are adults now, and still make the time to have a bit of fun laughing at how rusty we've both become.
You know, it's thanks to this game that I have all the memories that I cherish. Additionally, I'm now interested in trying out some of Rare's N64 gems that I couldn't get into back in the days, particularly: Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo Tooie, and Conker's Bad Fur Day.
