Diddy Kong Pilot (2001)
| Diddy Kong Pilot | |
|---|---|
| |
| Developer | Rareware |
| Publisher | N/A |
| Platform(s) | Game Boy Advance |
| Release date | Japan: Canceled (planned for February 2002[1]) USA: Canceled (planned for March 4, 2002[2]) |
| Genre | Racing |
| Rating(s) | Unknown |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer (unimplemented) |
Diddy Kong Pilot is a canceled follow-up title of Diddy Kong Racing for the Game Boy Advance, which was developed by Rare Ltd.. Diddy Kong was the main and titular character of the game. The game involves Donkey Kong characters racing in Planes on Mode 7-rendered courses. It was initially planned for early 2002, but around the same time, in 2002-2003, before the decision was made to design it into a Banjo-Kazooie title, Diddy Kong Pilot was being redeveloped into an entirely different game. In 2005, the game was finalized as a Banjo-Kazooie title, Banjo-Pilot due to Microsoft's acquisition of Rare in 2002.
History
The game was first shown at E3 2001, and was also shown a few months later at Space World 2001.
One of the characters, tentatively named Redneck Kong,[3] or "Crappy Kong",[4] was "killed off" early in the game's development, according to the September 3, 2001 edition of Scribes from Rareware[5] and Jens Christian Restemeier, one of the game's developers.[6] Candy Kong would subsequently appear in the background for character selection menus.[7]
One of the builds, said to be presented at a Space World 2000, consisted of a cast featuring both Donkey Kong Country and Mario characters, which would have been a first for a Donkey Kong spinoff. This version allowed players to select between six Donkey Kong characters (Diddy Kong, Cranky Kong, Donkey Kong, King K. Rool, Funky Kong, and Dixie Kong) and six Mario characters (Princess Peach, Mario, Yoshi sitting atop a Lakitu's Cloud, Wario piloting a red biplane similar to the Bulldog, Bowser, and Toad). A tilt control idea that was present in this build was dropped in October 2001.[8] Not much information is known regarding this build or its history.[9]
By October 2001, the game was nearing 70% completion,[10] and was planned for release on March 4, 2002.[2]
In 2002, Nintendo refused to publish Diddy Kong Pilot, as they found the game "substandard". One of their criticisms was "There's no point in flying up and down on flat levels")[3] Some Rare employees believed the company was prejudiced since it occurred in a time period just before the Microsoft acquisition. None of the Rare games except Star Fox Adventures were presented at E3 2002.
Rare's other two Donkey Kong titles from E3 2001, Donkey Kong Racing and Donkey Kong Coconut Crackers, were canceled in August 2002,[11] one month before Microsoft's acquisition of Rare, while Diddy Kong Pilot received no official announcement of the cancelation.
On September 15, 2011, after ten years of no new information regarding the game, a former Rare employee, under the pseudonym of Transparentjinjo, posted gameplay footage of the game on YouTube.[12] According to the video's title, the build was dated "September 7, 2001".[13]
On January 14, 2013, this prototype build was released online.[14]
Gameplay
Diddy Kong Pilot featured six modes: Racing, Stories, Dog Fights, Battle, Clock Race, and Options. The build is largely unfinished as most of the stages are nearly empty, some only having a backdrop and a few assets laid out on the stage. Many of the modes, such as Dog Fights, are non-functional. The gameplay essentially only consists of flying around on a course. Some features were never implemented such as plane customization,[15] or unlockable characters, stories, and stages.[16]
Upon starting up the game, the player is instantly led onto a debug menu, and it has three options: Level, Player, and Blend. The first option allows them to choose a course, and the second one allows them to select a character (Cranky). The "level" options include:
| Beach 00 | Beach 01 | Beach 02 | Beach 03 | ||
| Lava 00 | Lava 01 | Lava 02 | |||
| Snow 00 | Snow 01 | Snow 02 | Snow 03 | ||
| Keep 00 | Keep 01 | Keep 02 | Keep 03 | ||
| Lake 00 | Lake 01 | Lake 02 | Lake 03 | ||
| Farm 00 | Farm 01 | Farm 02 | Farm 03 | Farm 04 | Farm 051 |
| Haunted 00 | Haunted 01 | Haunted 02 | Haunted 03 | ||
| Jungle 00 | Jungle 01 | Jungle 02 | Jungle 03 | ||
| Swamp 00 | Swamp 01 | Swamp 02 | Swamp 03 | ||
| Desert 00 | Desert 01 | Desert 02 | Desert 03 |
1 - Inaccessible from debug
The second option, "Player" has six numerical values, labeled 0-5. Each of them represent a playable character:
- 0: Cranky Kong
- 1: Diddy Kong
- 2: Krunch
- 3: K. Rool
- 4: Dixie Kong
- 5: Donkey Kong (Select him causes Cranky Kong instead)
- 6: Diddy Kong instead Candy Kong (only selectable by using cheats;2 same functional as selecting Dixie Kong in the select character)
2 - Apply 020000DC:06 in code
The final option, Blend, does not appear to have a function. It has four options: Off, Alpha, Up, and Down.
Modes
The player can exiting to the main menu by opening the pause menu. It has three options which are self-explanatory: Continue, Restart, and Quit. Few of the further developed courses also redirect the player to the main menu after they complete all three laps.
The main menu has six modes: Racing, Stories, Dog Fights, Battle, Clock Race, and Options. It is also the only part of the game to have a music track. However, there exist six unused sound tracks in the ROM.
Before starting a mode, the player must select a character. The selection menu is very buggy, and choosing a character causes a different one to be playable, except for Cranky Kong. For instance, selecting Diddy Kong causes Krunch to be playable instead. The sound that each character makes when highlighted does not correspond to the correct character as well. When a character is highlighted, they are not aligned with their sepia shadow; additionally, the sepia backdrop has Candy Kong but highlighting her shows Redneck Kong instead, meaning the color character select screen had not been edited yet; Cranky Kong's pose is different as well. The following "Select World" menu shows the character that will actually be played as, with the exception of when Dixie is selected. In this case, a glitchy black rectangle taking up the entirety of the character sprites' parameters will be shown, and playing will result in Diddy appearing. As such, the rectangle is likely the remains of Redneck Kong's data.
The Racing mode allows the player to select a world, each with an associated level difficulty. Unlike its predecessor, Diddy Kong Pilot only features four characters racing on a course at a time; the main goal remains the same: racing three laps around a course and getting first place. Many of the core features are similar to Diddy Kong Racing, for instance how the player can collect bananas and pick up an item from item balloons appearing around the course. Zippers also return in the courses, and they give racers a speed boost.
The Stories mode has three out of seven different stories: King of Kongs (Diddy Kong), Back to the Light (Dixie Kong), and K. Rool's Gold (K. Rool). This mode is almost entirely nonfunctional, but it was intended to have a unique story for a certain character and a final boss at the end.[17][18]
The Dogfight mode features players fighting against each other. There are four options and none can be accessed: Classic Dogfight, a Dawn Duel, a Classic Variation, or a Focal Feud.
The Battle mode was planned to be a multiplayer mode, and its icon shows a crate containing miscellaneous objects. Another version has a different icon showing four original Game Boy Advance units hooked to each other via a Link Cable.
The Clock Race mode was presumably planned as the Time Trials mode. It has little to no difference from the Racing mode, but it allows the player to easily select a stage, similar to the debug menu. Unlike the debug menu, most of the stages crash in this option.
The Options mode is untouched from E3 2001, retaining the same background graphics as the E3 2001 character selection screen. It only gives the option to use either D-Pad or tilt control to steer the plane.
Controls
or 
: Move in the desired direction.
: Acceleration
: Use weapon
or 
: Tilt at a sharper angle- or (twice): aerial roll
- and Down (twice while accelerating): U-turn
: Pause the game
Playable characters
The character selection menu is highly incomplete, as highlighting a character would trigger a sound effect from an unrelated character. The game was planned to include more than seven characters.[19] Selecting a character causes the game to choose an entirely different character instead. Redneck Kong was playable in earlier builds, such as E3 2001, and was a very short-lived idea from the designer of the project.[3] He was replaced by Candy Kong in a later build. Despite her appearing on the character selection screen, she was not implemented in this build. She also appeared on the main menu, in the "Dog Fights" animated icon and battle mode portrait.
- Diddy Kong
- Dixie Kong
- Cranky Kong
- Krunch
- Kamikaze K. Rool
- Donkey Kong (only by using cheats)[20]
- Candy Kong (unimplemented, replacement of the removed Redneck Kong)
| Character selected Highlighted |
Character played as Selected |
|---|---|
| Cranky Kong (0) Leftmost |
Cranky Kong (0) |
| Diddy Kong (1) | |
| Diddy Kong (1) | Krunch (2) |
| Donkey Kong (5) | K. Rool (3) |
| Krash (2) | Dixie Kong (4) |
| K. Rool (3) | Donkey Kong (5) → Cranky Kong (0) |
| Dixie Kong (4) Rightmost |
Corrupted (6) → Diddy Kong (1) |
- Status unknown
- Funky Kong (none of his data except the Space World 2000 remains)[21]
Story characters
K.Rool's Gold
- Unnamed Genie
- Nikiki (red)
- Nakaka (green)
- Nukuku (blue)
- Nokoko (yellow)
Items
Most of the items reappeared from Diddy Kong Racing except for peanuts, watermelons, and eggs. The player can carry up to a few items at a time. Most of the items can be obtained from sky blue-colored item balloons with a yellow question mark on them. Item balloons also have a green and DK variant, and both have unfinished functionality. Both provide an item, either with an icon of Cranky or Diddy, and neither are functional.
There is also a chained barrel item, but it goes unused in the September 2001 build of Diddy Kong Pilot.[22] There is also an unused Template:Media link.
| Image | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
 
|
Rockets | These items can lock on to a nearby opponent and temporarily slow them down. |
 
|
Rocket boost | Like zippers, these give a speed boost to the racers. The high-level rocket boost provides a higher speed boost. |
 
|
Magnet | When used, the player is magnetized to another nearby racer. The high-level magnets are stronger. |
 
|
Peanuts | Peanuts can be fired at other opponents; based on the count, the player can either shoot out five or ten at a time. Unlike rockets, these items do not have lock-on capabilites. |
|
Watermelon | This item drops behind a watermelon. When a racer crashes into the item, it splatters and temporarily slows them down. |
|
Egg | The egg functions similarly to the watermelon except that it also moves around in a circular pattern. |
Race tracks
The game was planned to feature 24 tracks, with four in each of the six worlds. Only five of the courses can be selected from the Clock Race menu, and they are marked in bold.
| Sleepy Shores | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Bounty BeachBeach 00
|
 Farm AttractFarm 05
|
Jet Set JungleJungle 02
|
File:Crystal Coast DKP 2001 preview.pngBeach RaceBeach 01 | ||||||||
| Kongo Kingdom | |||||||||||
| Swoop SwampSwamp 02
|
Jungle RaceJungle 03
|
 Magma MainlandLava 00
|
Haunted RaceHaunted 03
| ||||||||
| Western Wastes | |||||||||||
| Lake RaceLake 02
|
Lava RaceLava 02
|
Swamp RaceSwamp 03
|
Crackpot KeepKeep 02
| ||||||||
| Island of Eggs | |||||||||||
| Vulture ValleyDesert 02
|
Keep RaceKeep 03
|
Lake RaceLake 03
|
 Chicken ChaseFarm 00
| ||||||||
| Polar Plateau | |||||||||||
 Frosty LakeSnow 00
|
Farm RaceFarm 04
|
Desert RaceDesert 03
|
Snow RaceSnow 03
| ||||||||
| World 6 | |||||||||||
 Whisper WoodsHaunted 00
|
|
|
| ||||||||
Stories
The game was planned to feature 36 dogfight and battle levels. Only "Hair Raising Rescue" is playable in this build, where the player has to catch ghosts and move them to a pond. There are 41 coffins on that map.
| King of Kongs (Diddy Kong) | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Beach BarricadeBeach 02
|
 Hair Raising RescueHaunted 01
|
 Peaceful PassageLake 00
|
Cranky PankyFarm 02
| ||||||||
| Back to the Light (Dixie Kong) | |||||||||||
 Grub GrabJungle 00
|
Farm FeudFarm 03
|
Swamp SwoopSwamp 00
|
 Dark TowerKeep 00
| ||||||||
| K.Rool's Gold (K. Rool) | |||||||||||
| Classic DogfightLava 01
|
 Fly Like The WindDesert 00
|
Snowball SnapshotSnow 02
|
Flawed Genie'usBeach 03
| ||||||||
| Story | Dogfight/battle |
|---|---|
| Beach Barricade (Diddy Kong) | Wasteland Wipe Out (Battle) |
| Hair Raising Rescue (Diddy Kong) | Ghost Grasp (Battle) |
| Classic Dogfight (K. Rool) | Classic Dogfight (Dogfight) |
Battle stages
 Hatch Match
|
Ghost Grasp
|
Swamp Showdown
|
 Wasteland Wipe Out
|
Media
 Diddy Kong Pilot - Beach race course theme (unused) | File info |
| Diddy Kong Pilot - Snow race course theme (unused) | File info |
| Diddy Kong Pilot - Lava race course theme (unused) | File info |
| Diddy Kong Pilot - Bayou race course theme (unused) | File info |
| Diddy Kong Pilot - Haunted race course theme (unused) | File info |
| Diddy Kong Pilot - Castle race course theme (unused) | File info |
Gallery
- For this subject's image gallery, see Gallery:Diddy Kong Pilot (2001).
Artwork
Logo
Diddy racing against K. Rool and Krunch in Crystal Coast
Diddy Kong sprite
Bounty Beach preview image
Names in other languages
| Language | Name | Meaning | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Japanese | ディディーコングパイロット（仮称）[?] Didī Kongu Pairotto (KASHŌ) |
Diddy Kong Pilot (tentative) |
Trivia
- The background of the Stories menu has two photographs resembling official artwork from Diddy Kong Racing.
- The map of Magma Mainland would be reused in Banjo-Pilot as the lower background layer of the dogfight against Bottles in the Feather Cup, but the track itself cannot be raced on. Differences include: a darker layer consisting of both the lava and the track; a big hole in the center; the removal of the finish line and boosts; and the removal of the cracks in the center island.
- An animated icon of a dogfight with Diddy Kong, Donkey Kong, Mario and Princess Peach was displayed in the E3 2001 trailer. Mario and Princess Peach were replaced by K. Rool and Candy Kong respectively.
References
- ^ Space World 2001 trailer (YouTube)
- ^ a b Nintendo's New Release Dates - Nintendo World Report
- ^ a b c DK Vine
- ^ http://nintendoeverything.com/diddy-kong-pilot-screenshots-videos-details-and-more/
- ^ "4. Oh, let's see... Since Diddy Kong Pilot is scheduled to come out by year's end, maybe the release is close enough to merit a response to this... who's the hillbilly Kong from the character select screen? Can we at least have a name?
4) Don't worry about it - he's been killed off now anyway."
September 3, 2001 edition of Scribes on Rareware - ^ Jens Christian Restemeier - MobyGames profile
- ^ Unseen64
- ^ https://web.archive.org/web/20120102053341/http://www.rarewarecentral.com/diddy-kong-pilot
- ^ "Diddy Kong Pilot - Very Early Beta Spaceworld" on YouTube
- ^ Nintendo Space World 2001 Official Guidebook
- ^ Changes to Rare's Website
- ^ Niconico reupload
- ^ NeoGAF thread
- ^ Diddy Kong Pilot Alpha 2001 (ROM release right here!)
- ^ Rareware.com (Wayback Machine)
- ^ Nintendo Power #145, page 15
- ^ New Tidbits on Various Rare Titles - Nintendo World Report
- ^ Diddy Kong Pilot Nintendo Retrospective
- ^ IGN
- ^ DKC Atlas thread
- ^ Jul - The Cutting Room Floor - Diddy Kong Pilot
- ^ Template:Media link
External links
- Nintendo of America E3 2001 page (Wayback Machine)
- Nintendo of Japan Space World 2001 page (Wayback Machine)
- TCRF article
