"Better than Mario Kart? Possibly..."

Diddy Kong Racing then. Can be summed up in one word- cute. This may turn some gamers off, but if you don't give this game a try, then you are missing out.

Right, the story. It's a racing game you idiot! It doesn't have a... hang on... It does. Timber the very scary eyed tiger cub has been left on his island as his parents have gone on holiday. The evil space bully Wizpig has... bear with me here... invaded the island, carved his face in the rock and locked away the racetracks of the island. Not surprisingly, you must get rid of him.

The gameplay is intresting. In the adventure mode, you can explore the island, find the 4 worlds (4 tracks each), collecting golden balloons by finding them around island, coming first in the races, and when you've beaten the boss of a world, coming first in each race and collecting the silver coins scattered around the track.
When you've finished the silver coin challenge, you race the boss again to win a piece of an amulet. When you have the 4 pieces of the amulet, you can race Wizpig. Is that the end? No. There is an ultra-tough 5th world, which you must complete to get rid of Wizpig once and for all. As you can see, it'll take a while to finish.

The tracks are very well designed. They are in the normal styles, they are: Dinosaur, snow, sea/beach, castle/forest and space. You can have 3 vehicles; car, hovercraft and plane.
The characters are all very different, and unlike Mario Kart, some of the characters have NO HANDLING AT ALL. Seriously, if you're like me, you'll choose Krunch the Kremling first since he looks good, and be amazed as he shows off his rubbishness. The best characters are Tiptup the Turtle, Pipsy the Mouse, TT (a very hard to get character, more on him later) and star of Donkey Kong Country 1 and 2, Diddy kong.

The graphics are great. Some of the trees are sprites, but unlike Mario Kart, all the racers are fully pologanal. The tacks are beautiful, and the waves are up to wave race quality. the tracks are pretty, but there's heavy self promotion, Rare and Nintendo logos at every turn.

The sound is brilliant. Some tunes will stick in your head. They are really good. They are all very upbeat, and not one gets on your nerves. When you put in the cheat for the sound test, you hear how good the tracks are.
There is plenty of speech too. Taj the elephant has a wonderful voice, as do many of the racers, but you'll want to smack them hard when they laugh as they overtake you.

This game is the first game of it's type I've ever said this about: the more players, the worse it is. As I said, adventure mode is great, in two player the game is quite fun (you can stick in CPU racers) but 3 and 4 players are bland. The graphics really suck when in 3 or 4 player.

The problems with this game is mainly with the silver coin challenge. Some are so hard they'll make you cry. The last race with Wizpig is also hard. the battle arenas you'll come across in one player (and multi when you finish them) are spoiled. Only 2 are straight battles, the other two you have to collect things. Why? They would have made great normal battles. And strangely, there is no space arena. Weird.
Getting the secret racer TT is nigh on impossible, but you don't need him to beat the game. If you get him, you are a very good player. You have to beat his ghost on every track and boy, is he fast. I got him. And it is not an experience I want to repeat. It is possibly the hardest task in a game.

This game's cuteness should not let you be put off. Would I recommend it over Mario Kart though? if you play games mainly in 1 player, yes. If it's multi you're after, Mario would be best. Really, you should own both. However, I prefer Diddy Kong, as I play mostly in 1 player, and mario Kart hardly has a one player.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 02/06/00, Updated 02/06/00