What platforms is Diddy Kong Racing on?

Diddy Kong Racing was released on Nintendo 64, Nintendo DS.

When did Diddy Kong Racing release?

Diddy Kong Racing was first released on November 21, 1997.

Diddy Kong Racing

Nov 21, 1997RacingNintendo 64 Nintendo DS

Diddy Kong Racing — frequently asked questions

What platforms is Diddy Kong Racing on?: Diddy Kong Racing was released on Nintendo 64, Nintendo DS.
When did Diddy Kong Racing release?: Diddy Kong Racing was first released on November 21, 1997.

About Diddy Kong Racing

Diddy Kong Racing is set on Timber's Island and revolves around Diddy Kong and his friends' attempt to defeat the intergalactic antagonist, a wizarding pig named Wizpig, through winning a series of races. The player can take control of any of the featured characters throughout the game. Diddy Kong Racing features five worlds with four racetracks each, and the ability to drive a car, hovercraft, or pilot an aeroplane.

Summary via IGDB.

Game details

Platforms: Nintendo 64, Nintendo DS
Developer: Rare
Publisher: Nintendo
Game modes: Single player, Multiplayer, Split screen
Themes: Action, Comedy
Series: Donkey Kong

Details via IGDB.

Reception

IGDB rating

65/100

from 196 ratings

Every version compared

Prices, contemporary reception and the studio credited for each release

Platform	Year	Loose	Complete	Sealed	Period reviews	Built by	Fake risk
Nintendo 64	1997	$30	$96	$374	11 reviews	Rare	Medium

Also released on: Nintendo DS. We haven’t priced or authenticated that version yet.

Collector value & authenticity

Nintendo 64 · PriceCharting sold data · Verified 2026-10-22

Loose

$30

Complete

$96

Sealed

$374

Other releases and variants

Release	Loose	Complete	Sealed
Not for Resale	$1,212	—	—
Player's Choice	$24	$85	$525
PAL release	$17	$50	$216
PAL release: Player's Choice	—	$134	—
Japanese release	$9	$26	$288

What it needs to play

OptionalRumble Pak — supported (game manual).

How often it sells

Loose: about 4 times a day
Complete: about once a day
Sealed: about once a month

Sales frequency from PriceCharting's completed-sale records, as of 2026-10-22.

Price over time

Loose
Complete

A loose copy sold for about $10.00 in Jan 2007, $20 five years ago, and $30 as of Oct 2026.

Show as table

Month	Loose	Complete
Jan 2007	$10.00	—
Jan 2008	$8.87	—
Jan 2009	$7.97	—
Jan 2010	$6.69	—
Jan 2011	$6.35	—
Jan 2012	$7.28	—
Jan 2013	$11.53	—
Jan 2014	$10.96	$25
Jan 2015	$10.41	$30
Jan 2016	$12.95	$34
Jan 2017	$11.77	$32
Jan 2018	$15.68	$38
Jan 2019	$16.99	$31
Jan 2020	$14.53	$48
Jan 2021	$27	$64
Jan 2022	$27	$91
Jan 2023	$27	$82
Jan 2024	$23	$79
Jan 2025	$26	$101
Jan 2026	$27	$108
Oct 2026	$30	$96

Monthly price estimates from PriceCharting's completed-sale records, sampled quarterly, through Oct 2026.

Release record

Territory	Date	Cartridge serial	Known board
North America	24 November 1997	NUS-NDYE-USA	NUS-01A-02
Europe / PAL	21 November 1997	NUS-NDYP-EUR	—
Japan	21 November 1997	NUS-NDYJ-JPN	NUS-01A-02

Source: Serials and board numbers: MAME's Nintendo 64 software list (read from dumped cartridges); serials cross-checked against the No-Intro serial records in the libretro database and, for North American carts, gameverifying's N64 board list, and published only where two of them agree

Region: NA+EU+JP
Released: 1997
Authenticity: Med

Modern re-releases, such as Nintendo Switch Online, are not tracked hereMedium counterfeit risk

Nintendo 64 prices, all games & how to spot a fake

Rare's kart racer with an adventure mode bolted on, a proper rival to Mario Kart 64 and one of the better first-year N64 cartridges to own.

Diddy Kong Racing is a kart racer from Rare in which Diddy Kong and his friends race to defeat a wizard pig named Wizpig. It has five worlds with four racetracks each, and you drive a car, a hovercraft or fly a plane. It reached Japan, North America and Europe in November 1997, and four players can race on split screen.

Reviewers rated it highly. GameFan's November 1997 reviewer judged it better than Mario Kart 64 and called it a must-buy for every N64 owner, while Edge felt its single-player mode was everything Mario Kart 64 should have been. Not everyone agreed it was flawless: one reviewer judged it far better than Mario Kart 64 yet said its repetitiveness ultimately kills it. It sold 4.8 million copies and ranks as the N64's eighth best-selling game, and it passed a million sales in the United States within three weeks of release.

How it was made

Developed and published by Rare. Development began after Killer Instinct 2, when a team was split into one making Killer Instinct Gold for the Nintendo 64 and another making a new racing game. Robert Harrison is credited as programmer, Kevin Bayliss as artist and David Wise as composer.

What the press said at the time

Next Generation Issue 37	January 1998	4 out of 5 stars
Total 64 Issue 10	1997	95%
GameRankings (aggregate)		89%
Metacritic (aggregate)		88/100
AllGame		4.5/5
Edge		9/10
Electronic Gaming Monthly		9/10, 8.5/10, 9.5/10, 9/10
Game Informer		8.5/10
GameSpot		6.6/10
IGN		8.4/10
N64 Magazine		90%

“The adventure elements coupled with the respectable difficulty, astounding visuals, and insane longevity make this another instant N64 classic. It's a cutey pie. but it's also pure Nintendo magic.”
— GameFan, November 1997

“Diddy Kong cruises past its holiday competition, offering extended value with fun gameplay variations, great multiplayer games, and cool courses.”
— GamePro, December 1997

“This game is everything Mario Kart 64 should've been but wasn't. Diddy has lots of hilarious regular and secret characters, loads of levels and some of the best graphics on the system to date.”
— Electronic Gaming Monthly, December 1997

“Diddy Kong corrects the faults of Mario Kart but develops new ones of its own. It’s a brilliant game, but somehow we still love Mario, Luigi and the gang just a tiny, tiny bit more.”
— N64 Magazine, Christmas 1997

Next Generation rated games from one star ("Bad: crucially flawed in design or application") to five ("Revolutionary"); three stars meant "Good: a solid and competitive example of an established game style." Undated scores are from the review table in the game's Wikipedia article, limited to reviews of the Nintendo 64 version.

How the Nintendo 64 version differs

GameFan's reviewer found the frame rate excellent for the most part, even in four-player split-screen mode.

Also on other platforms

Nintendo DS

Nintendo 64

Rare

Nintendo DS. An enhanced remake, Diddy Kong Racing DS, was released worldwide in early 2007.

How the other versions reviewed

Nintendo DS	GameRankings	67%
Nintendo DS	Metacritic	63/100
Nintendo DS	GameSpot	6.7/10
Nintendo DS	IGN	7.1/10
Nintendo DS	Nintendo Life	7/10
Nintendo DS	GameTrailers	8.6/10

These are the other versions’ scores, not this one’s. Ports of this era were frequently built by different studios, so they do not transfer.

Worth knowing

Holiday lineup. Most of Nintendo's planned 1997 Christmas lineup slipped into 1998, which left Diddy Kong Racing as the main Nintendo 64 release for that holiday season, and a majority of Nintendo's advertising budget for the year was directed at it.

Before you buy

Fake risk is medium for this cartridge, so for anything priced above a typical used game, ask the seller for a photo of the board; a cart that boots proves nothing. The US cartridge sits above the median for the library. The PAL release costs roughly half as much and the Japanese release far less, both loose and complete. A Player's Choice copy sells for about the same loose as the original. A Not for Resale demo cartridge costs vastly more, and there is no published way to spot a fake one, so buy those graded or with a board photo. The Rumble Pak is optional. Complete copies cost several times the loose price.