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) USA: Canceled (planned for March 4, 2002)
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,, or "Crappy Kong" was "killed off" early in the game's development, according to the September 3, 2001 edition of Scribes from Rareware and Jens Christian Restemeier, one of the game's developers. Candy Kong would subsequently appear in the background for character selection menus. The tilt pack idea was dropped in the October 2001.

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). Not much information is known regarding this build or its history.

By October 2001, the game was nearing 70% completion, and was planned for release on March 4, 2002.

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") 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, 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. According to the video's title, the build was dated "September 7, 2001".

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, or unlockable characters, stories, and stages.

Debug menu

The debug menu

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

Diddy Kong racing in the first course, Bounty Beach

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.

The character selection screen

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.

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.

Gameplay of Hatch Match, a game of Battle mode

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.

Options 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

"Dog Fights" icon

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. 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. 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)
• Candy Kong (unimplemented, replacement of the removed Redneck Kong)

Character selected Highlighted	Character played as Selected
Cranky Kong (0) Leftmost	Cranky Kong (0)
Redneck Kong (6)	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)

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.

Image	Name	Description
Yellow	Rockets	These items can lock on to a nearby opponent and temporarily slow them down.
Template:Media link	Rocket boost	Like zippers, these give a speed boost to the racers. The high-level rocket boost provides a higher speed boost.
Yellow	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.
Template:Media link	Barrel
	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 features 24 tracks. The last world is likely unlockable. There are only 5 playable tracks instead of 24 in this build, it marked as a bold.

Sleepy Shores
Bounty Beach Beach 00			Farm Attract Farm 05			Jet Set Jungle Jungle 02			File:Crystal Coast DKP 2001 preview.png Crystal Coast3 Beach 01
Kongo Kingdom
Swoop Swamp Swamp 02			Jungle Race Jungle 03			Magma Mainland Lava 00			Haunted Race Haunted 03
Western Wastes
Lake Race Lake 02			Lava Race Lava 02			Swamp Race Swamp 03			Crackpot Keep Keep 02
Island of Eggs
Vulture Valley Desert 02			Keep Race Keep 03			Lake Race Lake 03			Chicken Chase Farm 00
Polar Plateau
Frosty Lake Snow 00			Farm Race Farm 04			Desert Race Desert 03			Snow Race Snow 03
{{color|World 6
Whisper Woods Haunted 00

³ - Crystal Coast is tentatively named "Beach Race".

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 Barricade Beach 02			Hair Raising Rescue Haunted 01			Peaceful Passage Lake 00			Cranky Panky Farm 02
Back to the Light (Dixie Kong)
Grub Grab Jungle 00			Farm Feud Farm 03			Swamp Swoop Swamp 00			Dark Tower Keep 00
K.Rool's Gold (K. Rool)
Classic Dogfight Lava 01			Fly Like The Wind Desert 00			Snowball Snapshot Snow 02			Flawed Genie'us Beach 03
Candy's Story
Krunch's Story
Donkey's Story
Cranky's Story

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

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.

External links

• Nintendo of America E3 2001 page (Wayback Machine)
• Nintendo of Japan Space World 2001 page (Wayback Machine)
• TCRF article