What do you do when the quality of the games you release is so high that they're effectively competing with each other? It must be a real problem being Nintendo at times. My only gripe: Like all Rare games, this one isn’t easy.

To top it all off, the fog-free graphics are the best yet on the Nintendo 64. Diddy Kong Racing is also loaded with Rare's now-trademark secret codes and bonus levels, such as an extra miniworld and an entire second quest. After you meet certain objectives on each track, you can revisit them with any of the vehicles and discover new shortcuts only those machines can reach. But best of all are the three vehicles: the go-kart, the hovercraft and the airplane. Plus, you get Boss levels, multiple1 tasks to accomplish on each track, four-player racing and Battle Modes-there's just too much cool stuff in Diddy Kong Racing. The courses-of which there are more than 25-are filled with side roads and hidden, power-up-rich niches. And this emphasis on exploration carries over to the tracks themselves. The overworld, where you travel from one course-filled miniworld to another, is filled with hidden areas, balloons that grant access to later levels and its own racing challenges. For starters, the game packs plenty of Mario 64-esque exploration elements. Diddy Kong Racing actually delivers a different-and in some ways more rewarding-gaming experience. Don't dismiss this out-of-the-blue racer as Mario Kart 64 clone (although that's certainly not a bad thing).

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