For the Nintendo 64 you would think that Mario Kart would be the only good racing game for the system, in fact Diddy Kong Racing was released a year after Mario Kart 64 was released back in 1997. Instead of having characters from the Super Mario franchise you only have Diddy Kong as your main character the rest of the characters you can play as all pretty much characters you would never even heard of expect for Conker and Banjo which got their own games a few years later for the Nintendo 64.
Like other karting games you'll have a world map but it's on an island and that island consists of five interconnected worlds, Dino Domain, Snowflake Mountain, Sherbet Island, Dragon Forest, and Future Fun. Each of the worlds will have race tracks, battle stages and a boss race; in order to move on to the next race or needing to head somewhere you need to go you would need a gold balloon to open a door the number of balloons you have you'll be able to race or battle your way through that stage. More balloons you have you'll able to get unlock more content and race tracks including more vehicle options where you can either drive in a kart, hovercraft or a plane.
There are also Time Trail stages where you can get the fastest time on each of the tracks you can choose from, when it comes to actual gameplay the driving controls can feel a little fiddly at first using the control stick to steer and the A to accelerate and the B to use the breaks, however the Z trigger is your horn but it's also use to fire any weapons or power boosts you pick up if you manage to burst a balloon by driving through it. Most of the tracks are well balanced with some tight turns and some short cuts using power slides does help you boost your chances if you keep using them for those tight turns but however you can easily not use them for the races because most of the game is quite easy especially when it comes to chasing other racers and trying to stay in 1st place in all three laps.
The graphics do look nicely detailed for a Nintendo 64 game might not be as good as Mario Kart 64's visuals but Diddy Kong Racing is an exquisitely animated, colour-rich game that bubbles over with character and charm. Its layout designs for each of the race tracks are well detailed having different theme like having one race inside of a volcano or driving through a winter wonderland or even driving around a beach. It does lack multiplayer support and doesn't have much variety or the same multiplayer action as the Mario Kart series has but would admit it’s nice to see that both Rare and Nintendo tried something completely different for a racing but still an enjoyable for anyone out there who wants a good challenge or looking for some karting fun in a racing game.