Nintendo's favourite ape had appeared in several games prior to the SNES masterpiece, but Donkey Kong Country marked the first occasion a third-party studio was given a crack at him. For the Super Nintendo, it was Rare's silicon graphics-pioneering Donkey Kong Country, one of the technological marvels of the 16-bit era. Until that day, well, we'll always have Future Fun Land.There comes a time in every console's life cycle when a game comes along and smashes through the boundaries imposed by its hardware limitations. I'll hold out hope for a spiritual successor, a game that truly combines exploration, adventure, and genuinely challenging racing in a fantasy/cartoon environment.

They are fantastic games, but they don't have quite the same sense of adventure or exploration as Diddy once did.

The closest we have to its creativity and colorful, joyful tone is the Sonic and All Stars Racing series, another underdog in a genre created by and still living under the shadow of king Mario Kart. There was a DS port, which may be the easiest way to experience it today, but I certainly prefer it on a nice big CRT TV. There’s a richness and depth to them, and a creative side that I wish we’d see replicated more often.ĭiddy Kong Racing was a massive success, but, likely due to Microsoft acquiring Rare, it never appeared on the Virtual Console or in Rare Replay, aka, the giant compilation of most of Rare’s best games. There is simply too much to admire in the design of Rare’s best games: the level design, mechanical grace, and pacing of Banjo-Kazooie, the leaning into adventure game logic and inter-world interaction of Tooie, the brilliant, subtle genre-blending here in DKR. I’ll continue to go to bat for Rare’s golden age, for as long as there are naysayers who insist the googly-eyed animals and cribbing the Mario playbook were signs of a me-too game company. DKR took that all much, much further, by inviting you to actually explore these spaces, and rewarding you handsomely for doing so. It’s something I’ve always enjoyed the most about racing games, being in beautifully places (extra points if they are weird and visually interesting), and moving in ways that feel good. I loved its weird worlds and the places it evoked. If you found it, a multiplayer arena would unlock for that world. One track in each world held a secret key, which you could only find by going well off the beaten path. If you knew what you were doing in DKR, you could easily lap opponents.īetter still, there were actual secrets on the tracks, not just shortcuts. A complete lack of Mario Kart 64’s cheapass rubber-band AI. There was an entire sci-fi bonus world to unlock, with its own collection of tracks. And, importantly, you were always rewarded for practice, diligent play, and knowing the territory.

The stakes always escalated in this game.

Diddy kong racing virtual console