Trivia
The legal issue with Diddy Kong Racing's characters can hopefully be put to rest with the release of Diddy Kong Racing DS. It appears that Nintendo does indeed own Diddy and Krunch, and Rare owns Banjo and Conker, who were replaced with Dixie Kong and Tiny Kong. Tiptup seems to have gone to Nintendo even though he appeared in Banjo-Kazooie. The other characters also appear to have gone to Nintendo, including Tricky.
In Space Port Alpha, just before the finish line, there's a small alcove in the wall that you can drive into that appears to have no use. Initially, this was going to hide the key for Future Fun Land's T.T. Challenge / Multiplayer Level. However, the level was removed for whatever reason, so the key was no longer needed for that particular world.
Contributed by
Ben K (19380) on Feb 15, 2006.
In its very early stages, Diddy Kong Racing was going to be a next-generation update to the popular RC Pro AM series which appeared on the NES, Game Boy and Genesis.
Contributed by
Ben K (19380) on Jan 23, 2006.
The legalities of Diddy Kong Racing are now open for debate due to the situation involving Rare and Nintendo. Nintendo retained the rights to Diddy Kong and Krunch, while Rare owns Banjo, Conker, and Tiptup. The ownership of the other characters is unknown, although most assume Rare made off with them. Tricky is the biggest mystery, as his younger self became a character in Nintendo's Star Fox franchise, while the older version that was in DKR may belong to Rare.
The playable characters who reappear in other games are:
* Diddy Kong the monkey from the Donkey Kong Country series (released in 1994).
* Banjo the bear from the Banjo-Kazooie series (released in 1998).
* Tiptup the turtle from the Banjo-Kazooie series.
* Conker the squirrel from Conker's Pocket Tales (released in 1999), Conker's Bad Fur Day (released in 2001), and Conker: Live & Reloaded (Released in 2005).
* Krunch is a Kremling, who are the antagonists of the Donkey Kong Country series. His clothing style was carried over to several of these enemies in Donkey Kong 64 (released in 1999).
* Tricky the triceratops is a non-playable boss character whose origins are later explored in Star Fox Adventures (released in 2002).
From the other playable characters, both Banjo and Conker got their own games (Banjo-Kazooie and later Banjo-Tooie, Conker's Bad Fur Day and currently in the making Conker: Live and Uncut). Diddy himself started as a sidekick in Donkey Kong Country for the SNES.
