While Diddy Kong Racing wasn't as successful as its rival in Mario Kart back in 1997, it was still a unique game in the challenges it provided. Most of these challenges stemmed from the game's adventure mode which provided much more than merely racing opponents around a track. Players could face a special boss in each world, they could race to collect coins, some levels required them to find a key hidden in one of the tracks, etc. In any case, they were necessary to complete to progress through the game and were incredibly difficult. But it also made the game more memorable and overall more fun. 

                                               1. Silver coin challenges

Players who won at all four tracks in any of the worlds and beat the boss once would open up the silver coin challenges. This involved going through the four tracks again but this time you had to collect eight silver coins scattered along the track in each level and win the race. In the first few levels, this is relatively easy as the coins are placed among the normal path. However, as the game goes further, it gets harder as coins are placed off track and hidden in places people would normally not look unless they purposely go there. Adventure 2 (which mirrors the tracks) only furthers how hard it is by placing the coins in different locations so you cannot go off of remembering their location in Adventure 1. 

                                                   2. Boss levels

After finishing four tracks in any of the worlds you are sent to face that world's boss. These were not your average races as these characters were notorious cheaters, taking off before the go signal and incredibly fast. Players could easily be left behind in the dust particularly due to the hazards they and their levels posed. After finishing the silver coin challenges, you face the boss in a rematch that only upgrades these hazards (and downgrades some of the help you might have been capable of getting in the first race) making it that much more infuriating. They are not affected by their hazards and they hurt you far more than you can hurt them. Even the smallest mistake can easily cost you the victory. 

                                                 3. Key searching

One of the two requirements to unlock the door to the final level is to obtain all four pieces of the TT Amulet. To this end, a player must unlock the challenge door and win the challenge in each world to obtain a piece. The key to each door is hidden in each of one of the four world's racetracks. While the key in the first world is off track it is mostly in plain sight. The remaining keys however are not only off track but also hidden in places that no player would normally go. 

                                              4. Wizpig's 1st race

While this is technically also a boss race, it deserves a category of its own due to how different it is from the others. Not only is Wizpig incredibly fast but unlike the other bosses (including Wizpig's rematch) you have no weapons to utilize. Your only handicap is the zippers scattered across the track and the zipper trick involving letting go of the accelerator before hitting it. 

Few people will fully comprehend this trick due to little hint on how to do it other than a small piece of advice the genie gives you after completing the second boss the first time. And it is entirely possible to misinterpret it. To top it off, the boosts can easily veer you off track if you steer incorrectly, and not using them will lead to Wizpig catching up. 

                                                       5. Unlocking T.T.

T.T. is hands down the best racer in the game with no inherently bad stats. It came to a point that the creators had to lower his top speed in the hands of CPUs. However, he is a pain to unlock. To do so one must race through every track on Time Trial mode and beat his racing times. To unlock every track out there, to begin with, you must complete adventure mode which can be tedious. And racing T.T. even with a lower top speed is a pain. 

Diddy Kong racing is a big part of 90s nostalgia that sadly will never see much beyond that era. There was a DS remake in 2007 but it took away a good chunk of these challenges thereby removing the game's greatest asset. What challenges in Diddy Kong Racing do you think were difficult? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.