Details You Didn't Know About The Canceled Diddy Kong Racing Sequel

Since its launch in the '90s, Rare's Donkey Kong Country franchise has seen plenty of follow-ups. One of the most popular spin-offs to materialize was Diddy Kong Racing. Critics still consider the 1997 racing title to be a high point of the Nintendo 64 library, with the game even receiving a remake for the Nintendo DS in 2007. Despite the popularity of the title, it somehow never received a sequel in the ten years between the original and the remake.

However, that wasn't due to a lack of effort on Nintendo and Rare's part. Rare worked on developing a sequel for the GameCube called Donkey Kong Racing. That project went through a few different iterations, but it was ultimately another canceled game. Another GameCube sequel, this one titled Diddy Kong Racing Adventure, was also in development at one point. 

While Diddy Kong Racing Adventure also ultimately went unmade, some test footage for it surfaced online within the last few years. PtoPOnline, a YouTube channel that often covers rare and unreleased games, also posted a video explaining what Diddy Kong Racing Adventure would have entailed. With that, let's take a look at the Diddy Kong Racing sequel that could have been.

Diddy Kong Racing Adventure was being developed by Climax Studios, which put together a basic tech demo for its pitch. PtopOnline explained that Diddy Kong Racing Adventure's story mode featured Diddy going up against the evil Wizpig, a pig from outer space who orchestrated the events of the first Diddy Kong Racing game. The goal of the story mode was to race to each of the game's six different zones to save Diddy's friends from Wizpig and the Kremlings. 

Diddy Kong Racing Adventure would have included some interesting uses of different color palettes, as well. One of the concepts for the game involved the screen changing from color to black-and-white when Diddy found himself in an area infested with the villainous Kremlings. After defeating the baddies and freeing the villagers, the screen would return to full color. Diddy could also use all kinds of melee and special attacks in battle.

Unfortunately, the game never got past the pitch phase, which means that all that exists of it is some footage of Diddy Kong roaming around an island setting on the back of a rhino. Still, it's a neat look at how the series could have evolved.