Diddy Kong Racing Review

For Nintendo 64

Rating: Average
  Diddy Kong Racing tries to mix the Mario Kart racing formula with the 
Super Mario 64 action/adventure formula and falls flat on its face in the 
process.  Unlike Mario Kart, there are characters you have to talk to, keys
you have to find, and so forth.  You do all this within the confines of the
vehicle you're riding, which is extremely awkward since you should be able 
to get out of the vehicle and roam freely. Imagine playing Mario 64 in a 
restricting little go-kart and you get my drift.  Also, all the different 
challenge levels and boss levels and keys and overworlds and all that other
stuff is supposed to add variety to the game, but instead it just leaves 
the player wondering just what the heck they're supposed to be doing.  
   Yeah, but there's three different vehicles, a Nintendo representative 
might say.  Yeah, well these new vehicles (the plane and the hovercraft) 
may as well not have been included at all since they control horribly 
(especially the plane, which has horrible elevation mechanics that will 
have you screaming, "Go up you stupid Methoosala!")  And then there's the 
sickenly-cutesy strangers that make up the game's character selection. The 
only characters you'll recognize are Diddy Kong and maybe Krash from the 
Donkey Kong Country series (who has been renamed Krunch to avoid any 
confusion between Krash and Crash Bandicoot), along with Banjo and Conker 
from upcoming N64 action/platform games.  All the other characters are 
overly cute, never-before-seen characters that should have been left on the
drawing board.  The game isn't very well balanced either, since it won't 
take you more than five minutes to figure out that Pipsy the Mouse and 
TipTup the Turtle are the best characters by far.  (Pipsy the Mouse?  Come 
on!)  
  Elsewhere, the graphics really aren't noticeably different from Mario 
Kart, the music doesn't have the same catchiness that Mario Kart did, and 
the voices of the characters are even more overly-cutesy than the 
characters themselves.  
  Even if you  own an N64 and are a big fan of Mario Kart, trust me on this
one, you should stick with Mario Kart 64 over Diddy Kong Racing any day.
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