Here is my 100% speedrun for the N64 game "Diddy Kong Racing".

I call it a 100% run, because I do the last (fifth) trophy race which can be skipped and I also unlock the secret character Drumstick. These two things could be skipped in an any percent run. All other things like the TT amulet, the first four trophy races and the magical amulet can't be skipped (as far as I know).

Back to the run: I used Bumper. He and Banjo seem to be the fastest characters besides Krunch, TT and Drumstick. However, TT and Drumstick are secret characters and this is a "new game run", so I couldn't start the run with them. Krunch's handling is the worst in the game. Never use him. So then I had to decide between Bumper and Banjo, but because Bumpers handling was a bit better for me, I took him.

During the run I use all advanced techniques: rapidly pressing the A button to go faster, going off the A button before zippers, snaking, barrel rolling, wallboosting, ..., but I want to mention that I used no turbo controller. I change the course map to the speedometer at the beginning of the game. So you can see that my speed isn't always constant and that no turbo controller was used.

- The Run -

Before the run starts I go into the cheat menu to ... well, to enter a few cheats ;) No not really. I just turn off the secret characters, so that I can unlock Drumstick again during the run.

• Main World: After the opening you have to collect 4 ballons from the main world. You actually only need one ballon to enter the first world, but then you could only do the first three races. So I collected all 4 ballons at the beginning to not go back later.

• Dino World: I start with Jungle Falls and then always go to the track next to it. So no weird driving from the door with 1 ballon to the door with 2 ballons, etc.

  The CPU drivers are really bad in the first worlds. You sometimes even lap them in your second lap. And lapping them always takes time, because you have to drive around them.

  In Ancient Lake I collect the key for the Fire Mountain bonus game.

  Besides missing a blue ballon or hitting a wall for a second, the races are quite good.

  The first big mistake is in Jungle Falls silver coin challenge, where I miss a silver coin in lap 1. Then in lap 2 I want to do a crazy jump over the water to get it. But I hit the wall on the other side and land in the water. The second dino boss also includes two stupid mistakes ;)

  At least the bonus game and the trophy race don't include any (big) additional mistakes.

• Main World: The car challenge is one of my favourite races. Get the ballon and then change to plane to enter the snow world.

• Snow World: In Frosty Village, the CPUs hit me in the tunnel so that I miss a zipper. In Snowball Valley I get the key and restart the race.

  The boss is the easiest in the game, I think. Just do a turbo start and then snake to the end. No bubbles or flames you have to worry about.

  The rest of the world was ok. Maybe Walrus Cove silver coin challenge and the Icicle Pyramid could be a bit better.

• Main World: Shit, I missed the turbo start in the hover challenge. But I think that's the only failed turbo start in the whole run. Taj's start wasn't better. So no problem to win the challenge.

• Water World: I tested to get the key in Crescent Island and then drive back onto the track. But it was faster to restart the race after collecting the key. I don't use the small shortcut at the end of the track, because in 1 of 2 races I get stuck in this shortcut and loose at least 5 seconds. So I played it save.

  The first boss was good, but the second time I get hit by one of his bubbles at the start, because I hit the left wall. One of the worst mistakes in the run. But as usual, it was still no problem to win the race.

  For Darkwater Beach I used an easy and effective strategy, where you just collect the red ballon near the start and shoot the CPUs.

  The rest of this world was again quite good.

• Main World: The barrel rolls are hard. You sometimes do a salto instead of a roll. This happens two times in the plane challenge.

• Dragon World: I collect the key in Boulder Canyon during the actual run. Restarting would be slower. At the end I take the left path, which is sligthly longer. But on the other way you sometimes get stuck on the trunks in the water (like I did in lap 3 before the bridge).

  In Haunted Woods, why don't I get a turbo from the zipper in lap 3, although I clearly drive over it?

  As in the water world, I make a big mistake the second time I race the boss. I get hit by his flames two times.

  I miss two coins in Greenwood Village silver coin challenge. One coin is out of the normal way, so I had to turn around to get it (instead of collecting it in the next lap, how I did with the other missed coin).

  In Smokey Castle you just get the same bananas five times and deliver them to your box. Really easy level, as long as the CPUs don't shoot you.

• Main World: Now that I have all amulets and trophy races, I can unlock Drumstick. But of course, the frog with the red thing on his head has to be in the most stupid position: in the water. With the plane you can't crush him in the water, so first I had to get him out of it. After a few tries I finally catched him. Next time I will use the car to unlock him! Stupid cock.

  Then I fly into Wizpig's mouth to race him. I missed two zippers, but I'm satisfied with this run.

  Now watch the ending and credits...

  Well, that's not the real ending. Like most Rare games, Diddy Kong Racing also includes a secret world. So let's do Future Fun Land now.

  You have to choose your character again, but this time I use Drumstick, because I just unlocked him and he is a bit faster than Bumper.

• Main World: Drive to the lighthouse and hoot near the 'trophy race'-sign. Now you will be warped to the fifth world.

• Future Fun Land: The car tracks aren't that good for Drumstick. His handling isn't so good and you have to break a lot in Darkmoon Caverns and Star City. But in the plane tracks he is really an advantage. He is even better than TT (the clock) in some plane tracks, including Spacedust Alley and Spaceport Alpha (at least the WRs are done with Drumstick on these tracks). And the last boss is also a plane track. So all in all, Drumstick should be an advantage compared to Bumper.

  In this world there is no "first boss". So after the fourth race, you can instantly do the silver coin challenges.

  The silver coin challenge in Spacedust Alley is probably the worst race in the run. I hit so many walls, miss a coin, barrel roll into a stone, etc.

  Compared to other worlds, the CPU puts many obstacles in your way. So you see me a few times driving over an oil spot (especially in Star City) ;)

  After the silver coin races, you are warped to the last boss. But I said this run is 100%, so I still had to do the last trophy race. And watching the ending & credits after the last boss takes a long time, so I just return to the lobby and do the last trophy race. Then after obtaining the trophy, I go back to Wizpig 2.

  But what is a speedrun without a mistake at the end? Yeah, my run is no exception. You will see what I am talking about ;)

  Whoo, after I finish the race, the game is over. Lean back and watch the real ending.

Finally, I want to thank a few people:

• Yasutaka Mitani, a Japanese player who beat (nearly) all of my and Patrick Zalesky's time trial records. He found some crazy strategies that I use in the speedrun.
• Patrick Zalesky, he made some good time trial vids.
• Daniel Viebrock, a German player who found the advanced barrel rolling technique.
• The SDA team for capturing & uploading the run.
• Everybody who watches this run.

Stefan Mahrla

Here is my any percent, new game+ speedrun for the N64 game "Diddy Kong Racing".

It's a new game+ or special run, because I use a secret character that isn't available when you play the game your first time. You can unlock this character by beating him (or his ghost) on all time trial tracks. You probably already know who it is: TT, the clock. There is no doubt that this character is the best in the game, because it has excellent acceleration, top speed and handling. The run is also any percent, because I don't do the last trophy race and I don't unlock the secret character Drumstick (who isn't needed anyways, because he is worse than TT). As in my 100% run, I make use of all advanced driving techniques. But again no turbo controller was used.

- The Run -

The strategy is (nearly) the same as in my other DKR speedrun. Well, it's a racing game and it's just do drive around the tracks as fast as possible. And because you need a certain amount of ballons to enter a specific track, there aren't many possible strategies. So I do one whole world and then move to the next one. Changing between the worlds would take too much time.

• Main World: After the opening, talk to Taj and collect the first four ballons with your plane. Then enter Dino Domain.

• Dino World: The races, the boss and the silver coin challenges went quite good. I miss a zipper here and there or hit a wall, but that's only small mistakes. At least I never accidently restarted a race like I did on one of my training runs. I restarted a race after a small mistake at the beginning of a track, because I always instantly restart after a small mistake in time trial mode. So before I realized that I was doing a speedrun, I had already restarted the race. Good, that this never happened again to me.

  In Fire Mountain I somehow miss one egg from Diddy Kong's nest, although I clearly got it.

  Yeah, I drove a WR in Ancient Lake (trophy race). But only because you have ballons in adventure mode and can cut grass or jump really far. So it's not really comparable to the time trial WR. And I still missed a few ballons, so my time wasn't even that good.

• Main World: With TT the Taj races are fun. Nothing special here.

• Snow World: If you wonder why I don't make as many barrel rolls in the plane tracks as in the world record videos, that's because you can't really control the barrel roll and usually you end hitting a wall. And hitting a wall is the worst thing with plane, because you fell down to the ground and loose all your speed. Hitting a wall with the car only stops you for a second and with hover it's sometimes even wanted (wall boosting). And I get a lot of blue ballons in the plane track, so I use them instead of the hard barrel rolls.

  The Icicle Pyramid wasn't that good. I miss Pipsy once with a missile and at the end my homing missile misses Diddy Kong. And that my last shot hit, was just luck ;) I wanted to restart the run here, but somehow hit him from such a worse angle. If the shot had missed, you would see a different run now.

• Main World: Again an easy race. That's why I like these challenges: no ballons or zippers you can miss. Good race.

• Water World: This world has no big mistakes. Maybe a small comment about the Whale Bay trophy race. You remember the Twin Galaxies bounties from 2004? There was a DKR challenge where you had to complete Whale Bay sub 55 seconds. And I did it in this run. There are no blue ballons on this track, so it's comparable to a time trial run. And I got 54"7x. I was surprised when I saw that.

• Main World: No problems with the challenge, but with entering the waterfall ;)

• Dragon World: I never had so much trouble in Smokey Castle. When I get shoot the first time, it's not a big deal. But then at the end a CPU stole my banana (the banana I always collect). So I had to drive around to search for a second banana and they even shot me again. Finally I was able to deliver the last two bananas, but everybody can do this much faster.

• Main World: It's time for Wizpig. I wanted to make this level entertaining, so I "turned around" at the end to look where Wizpig is. Too bad he was still so far behind, although I missed nearly all zippers ;) There is no way to skip the ending cutscene, besides reseting the game. But people who know the SDA rules probably know this: "Any save and quit from the game will count as segment. It doesn't matter if you use this to warp around and then keep playing without stopping: your run is no longer Single-segment." The game is saved after the race and pressing the reset-button would quit the game. So then my run would have been segmented. And if I really had wanted it to be segmented, then I would have done segments for each world. So I don't skip the cutscene(s) for that reason, to keep my run single-segment. This cutscene including the credits takes ~ 5 minutes, so subtract that from my final time and you get the time I would have, if I had skipped the cutscene.

• Main World: Rare has some funny ideas: a lighthouse that turns into a rocket. Let's 'rocket' to the last world.

• Future Fun Land: The normal races were good, but the beginning of Spacedust Alley's silver coin challenge wasn't. However, the rest was again better. I wonder why you can lap so many CPU drivers on Star City, although it is the last (usually hardest?) track?

  With TT you have no trouble on the last boss: Wizpig 2. Beat him and you can see the final credits. That's it. Now let's hope that Diddy Kong Racing DS comes soon.

Finally, I want to thank a few people:

• Yasutaka Mitani, a Japanese player who beat (nearly) all of my and Patrick Zalesky's time trial records. He found some crazy strategies that I use in the speedrun.
• Patrick Zalesky, he made some good time trial vids.
• Daniel Viebrock, a German player who found the advanced barrel rolling technique.
• The SDA team for capturing & uploading the run.
• Everybody who watches this run.

Stefan Mahrla