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Rumour: Diddy Kong Racing 2 became Excitebots; Monster Games working on DKR2 for WiiU

axisofweevils

Holy crap! Today's real megaton is that more than two people can have the same first name.
Lock if old, but I found this really interesting.

Three things in 2007 caused the cancellation of the Diddy Kong Racing sequel for Wii.

1) The low sales and poor reviews of 2007′s Donkey Kong: Barrel Blast. This was a racing game based on the Donkey Kong license.

2) Sales for 2007′s Diddy Kong Racing DS did not live up to Nintendo’s expectations. Although the game would sell over 1 million units worldwide, it was a huge drop from the 4-5 million that Diddy Kong Racing sold on the Nintendo 64.

3) In 2007, Nintendo had negotiations with Microsoft to acquire/purchase some of the characters from the original game (including Timber, Pipsy, and Taj the Genie). Microsoft was asking for more money than Nintendo was willing to pay. This was the same year that Nintendo prevented Microsoft from putting Goldeneye 007 on Xbox Live Arcade.

After multiple meetings with Nintendo, Monster Games removed the Diddy Kong Racing license from the prototype, but they remained persistent about designing a game around these animal themed vehicles. Nintendo suggested that Monster Games should return to the “Excite” series.

Excitebots (Wii) would be designed around the animal themed vehicles from the Diddy Kong Racing 2 (Wii) prototype. For example, one of the vehicles in Diddy Kong Racing 2 was based on Winky the Frog from Donkey Kong Country. This frog vehicle from DK Racing 2 would later re-appear in “Excitebots” for the Wii. After ditching the Donkey Kong license, Monster Games changed the vehicle designs to make them look less like the animal buddies from the Donkey Kong Country series.

Two things would renew Nintendo’s interest in a Diddy Kong Racing sequel.

1) 2008′s Mario Kart Wii would sell over 35 million units worldwide.

2) 2010′s Donkey Kong Country Returns would sell over 6 million units worldwide. The game sold more than any Zelda or Metroid game for Wii.

Development on Diddy Kong Racing 2 would start up again as Monster Games was getting ready to release Pilotwings Resort. But this time, both Retro Studios and Monster Games would collaborate on the project, and it would get moved from Wii to Project Cafe (aka Wii U).

Monster Games and Retro Studios would soon form a bond over the Donkey Kong intellectual property. Retro Studios, who had been successful with the Donkey Kong IP, was tasked with assisting Monster Games on Diddy Kong Racing 2. Retro’s contributions to Monster’s Diddy Kong Racing project is why Nintendo asked Retro to assist with Mario Kart 7′s development.

Monster Games ported Retro’s Donkey Kong Country Returns to the 3DS. Monster Games is also credited for assisting Retro Studios on the development of Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze for Wii U. It is no coincidence that Monster Games has worked on TWO Donkey Kong projects in a row. Many of the art assets from Tropical Freeze were used during the development of Diddy Kong Racing 2.

Diddy Kong Racing 2 for Wii U combines the animal vehicle ideas of Excitebots with the hub world single player adventure of the original Diddy Kong Racing. The game will feature both local and online multiplayer, as well as using your GamePad screen to find collectable balloons on the map.

This seems to make a lot of sense to me. More at the link. https://kevincallahangames.wordpress.com/2014/07/09/the-strange-development-of-diddy-kong-racing-2/
 

Discomurf

Member
Saw this article earlier today - really interesting read. The author does a great job connecting all the dots.
 
3) In 2007, Nintendo had negotiations with Microsoft to acquire/purchase some of the characters from the original game (including Timber, Pipsy, and Taj the Genie). Microsoft was asking for more money than Nintendo was willing to pay. This was the same year that Nintendo prevented Microsoft from putting Goldeneye 007 on Xbox Live Arcade.

I'm guessing one of these things is related to the other.
 

Katsuragi

Member
Saw this article earlier today - really interesting read. The author does a great job connecting all the dots.

I agree. The article is well worth your time and makes a lot of sense. As someone who absolutely loved Diddy Kong Racing as a kid, I want this rumour to be true!
 

zruben

Banned
I_want_to_believe5.jpg
 

LuuKyK

Member
That would be incredibly heart-breaking if true. At least I guess that means Nintendo didnt completely forget about DKR as a franchise...

Edit: Wait, I misread the last sentence. Oh my, thank God.
 

Alrus

Member
A big chunk of the DKR character aren't owned by Nintendo afaik. So it'd be Diddy Kong Racing in name only?
 

Ushojax

Should probably not trust the 7-11 security cameras quite so much
Megaton.

I do find it weird that Diddy wasn't in MK8 though.

He will almost certainly be a DLC character along with Birdo et al.

A big chunk of the DKR character aren't owned by Nintendo afaik. So it'd be Diddy Kong Racing in name only?

Presumably it would focus on actual characters from the DK games and not Banjo, Conker and the like.
 

Richie

Member
I have a hard time believing Nintendo would bother to buy Timber, Pipsy, and Taj the Genie given their stance with Rare's creations in the DK games proper.
 

Shockhog

Neo Member
I don't want to believe it, BUT I NEED IT

The Excitebots story is interesting though. I wonder if there's any truth behind that part in particular.
 

Plinko

Wildcard berths that can't beat teams without a winning record should have homefield advantage
Wii U version incoming?

Hook it right to my veins.
 
Sonic and All-Stars Transformed was pretty much Diddy Kong Racing 2 (land, water, air) and somehow managed to top DKR.

With that said, I would love it if we got another game in that fashion so I hope this is true.
 

Shikamaru Ninja

任天堂 の 忍者
It's a decent speculative article, but some of the stuff seems really contrived. My main contribution to his theory is:

1. Monster Games is a very small developer and yet has released games under Nintendo in a timely fashion. I don't believe they spent too much time elsewhere than their materialized projects under Nintendo SPD3.

2. Monster Games is too small to developed a Diddy Kong Racing U without 1-2 other developers providing a lot of manpower.
 
Sonic and All-Stars Transformed was pretty much Diddy Kong Racing 2 (land, water, air) and somehow managed to top DKR.

Nah... it lacked a hub world. Exploring the hub world was the best part of Diddy Kong Racing.


I have a hard time believing Nintendo would bother to buy Timber, Pipsy, and Taj the Genie given their stance with Rare's creations in the DK games proper.

I kind of wish Rare would make a spiritual successor to Diddy Kong Racing.
Call it Banjo Kart, use the Nuts & Bolts engine, similar open world style hub.
 

Brofield

Member
HEY. HEY HEY HEY.

Didn't Retro also work on Mario Kart 7/8 tracks? If they're doing collaboration with Monster Games, then they have the know-how on track design.
 

Azuardo

Member
If it happens I guess that's cool. I just find it a bit sad that DKR2 would be the game to go to for single-player adventure mode, when MK8 could just have easily have had it, at the same time putting a whole bunch of DK characters in. Then we wouldn't really need a DKR2.

I guess I wouldn't say no, but I'm not sure I could justify picking up another kart racer on the system. The single-player mode would be what draws me in, but it'd have to be really good.
 

TreIII

Member
Would be great, if true.

Especially if the game bought back a few Kremlings and had them mingle with the Tikis and Snowmads.
 

Jezan

Member
OMG please!!!!

Nintendo buy those characters back, I want Pipsy!

Imagine how awesome Spaceport Alpha would look.

And the superior battle mode!

Nintendoooooo pleeeease!
 
The adventure aspects will be glorious if this ever comes out. The idea of driving around a huge DK island in HD gives me hope that Nintendo still understands the value of exploration in 3D worlds outside of Zelda.
 
From Nintendo's perspective this would make a lot of sense. It would allow them to have another premier karting series while keeping the once-per-generation ethos of Mario Kart.
 

Nanashrew

Banned
From Nintendo's perspective this would make a lot of sense. It would allow them to have another premier karting series while keeping the once-per-generation ethos of Mario Kart.

And build an ecosystem for kart racers to thrive! Sonic Racing, Diddy Kong Racing and Mario Kart. I'm perfectly fine with this.
 

DashReindeer

Lead Community Manager, Outpost Games
This is the type of speculation I can get behind. If Monster Games made a Diddy Kong Racing game that rivaled Excitebots in awesome racing intensity, then we'd have a serious hit on our hands. Can Nintendo get it over with and buy Monster Games and Next Level Games already?
 
I enjoyed Diddy King Racing, but please no. There are better franchises that Nintendo should put their money into. Mario Kart 8 can handle the kart racing business just fine. Just support it with good and reasonable DLC.

If anything should be done to the Kart racing genre from Nintendo then it should be dropping Mario Kart and making a Super Karting Brothers or whatever. Smash Bros roster in a kart racer. Been mentioned a hundred times by fans. Do it.
 

Neo Child

Banned
I want the open world DK racer where you could "jack" animals and ride them wherever.

Burnout Paradise.

But with DK.

Feature length.
 

Bryko

Member
Kensuke Tanabe, the producer of Donkey Kong Country Returns and Tropical Freeze, pitched the idea of Dillon (from Dillon’s Rolling Western) to be one of the racers in the game. Tanabe was the producer of Dillon’s Rolling Western, and he liked the idea of having a roster of lesser known Nintendo characters.

Before Diddy Kong Racing, Diddy Kong had always seemed like a sidekick more than a star. Tanabe thought that the concept of lesser known Nintendo characters “fighting to be Nintendo’s big star” could prove to be interesting for Diddy Kong Racing. Characters such as Mallo (Pushmo) and Rusty (Rusty’s Real Deal Baseball) were also added as racers to fill out the roster.

This sounds too good to be true.
 
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