Tips and Tricks

Visit The Pit Stop for Special Tips and Tricks

Frequently Asked Questions
Boost and Zipper Tricks
General Tips
Game Controls
Car Controls
Hovercraft Help
Plane Pointers

FAQ
Where is Dragon Forest?
Go to Wizpig's face. To the left is a waterfall. Go to the bottom of the waterfall, then go in it. There's Dragon Forest! You need 16 Balloons.

Where is Future Funland?
Complete the first Adventure, with all of the trophies, balloons, and amulets. Go to the sign with your trophies on it, and honk. The spaceship will turn into a rocketship and blast out into space!

How do I enter Magic Codes?
When you start the game, you have a choice between Start and Options. Go to options, then select magic codes. Select enter code, then choose the letters that make up the code.

What is the TT Door?
It lets you race Wizpig 2 if you have all of the TT Amulets.

Where is the TT Door?
It is in the Future FunLand lobby like one of the boss doors. It has a picture of TT on it instead.

How many Characters are there?
Eight Regular. Counting TT and Drumstick there are Ten.

What happens after you beat Adventure 2?
It's the exact same ending! No different! Not even reversed!

How Do You Use TT as a Character?
It's kind of hard to explain. First enter tracks mode and use the pre-selected vehicle. Remember to enter Time Trial mode too. If you beat special times, you'll see T.T.'s ghost. Beat the ghost, and you'll see a picture of TT when you go to that track again. TT will also say, "Well Done! Now Try Another Track!" You'll have to do this on every single track, including Future FunLand. When you beat all of his times he'll say something like, "You've beaten all my times! Now you can pick me!"

What is Game Shark?
Game Shark is a thing like Game Genie, but for the N64. It goes into the N64, and the game goes into the Game Shark. You can enter codes in when you begin the game.

I beat Adventure 1 totally, but I can't get to Adventure 2! Why?
Well, first select Adventure 1 mode, then delete a used game. Select Adventure 2 mode, and start a new game in the empty slot. That should help.


Boost and Zipper Tricks
Did you know that you can get even more out of zippers than just that old regular speed boost? Well you can by laying off of the accelerator just before you use a zipper or blue balloon. Instead of getting a purple or yellow boost, you get a special green boost.
A couple of seconds after you finish using this boost, your vehicle will start spouting rainbow smoke. Right before the smoke goes away, you can put your finger on the gas again. This will give you a little more speed out of even a green boosted zipper.

You can even get a jump start at the beginning of a race! After T.T. says get ready and the words start to disappear and just before a second you can go, hit the gas. You'll get a special blue boost that will put you in front of the pack. When you complete more circuits in Adventure Mode, the racers will become harder. Some of the racers will get a boost at the same time you do, giving you even more of a challenge.


General Tips
No matter which vehicle you use and no matter which track you go on, you should always try to stay in the "inside lane" and take the shortest route possible. The wider you turn, the more ground you must cover and the longer it will take you. If there are no main obstacles, and the racers have the same top speed, the one in the inside lane will have a slight advantage.

Some drivers never even use the brakes, and some of them don't even know they exist on Diddy Kong Racing. In fact, brakes are very useful on the race courses of Timber's Island. You'll often lose time if you go around a corner at full speed bumping into the wall. Slow down and press A and B to help you get around those sharp, crazy turns. Remember to powerslide on wide corners, and use those stupid brakes on the little turns. Two places that you could use these techniques are in Greenwood Village, and Crescent Island at the end shortcut.

Keep in mind that the normal path won't always lead you to victory. Sometimes there are shortcuts around bends and over hills that you can't see until you're right in front in front of them. In some cases, an alternate route may only give you a different choice of balloons. Sometimes zippers may lure you in one way, but even with the speed-boosting zippers you might not be able to cut in front of everyone because of how much longer the "shortcut" is. Some shortcuts may turn out into being "longcuts!"


Game Controls


Start - Brings up the pause options menu and stops the game.
Z Trigger Button - Summons helpers, honks horn, uses current weapon.
Control Stick - Steering your vehicle. With the plane, pressing up goes down and pulling down goes up
B Button (Green) - Uses brakes. Cancels (Pulls you out of a menu.) Pressing B, R, and A will give you a mega powerslide.
A Button (Blue) - Accelerator. OK (Confirms Menu Choices).
R Button (Top Left Shift) - Press or tap it to make the hovercraft hop. Press and hold R to make a plane or hovercraft do a sharper bank and to powerslide in the car.
C Buttons (Yellow Pad) - The top C button shows how close up the camera is to your racer. The right C button toggles between a speedometer and a track map. In 3-player tracks mode, you can switch between the TT Cam and a map in the bottom right hand corner. The bottom C button toggles between a lap counter, a race timer, and a banana meter in multiplayer mode.


Car Controls

The car is the first vehicle you master in your quest through Timber's Island.  This is the vehicle that you learn the most tricks for and this vehicle is the one that you will become the most familiar to.

There's no friendly Lakitu like in Mario Kart 64 to help you out of the water. The car can cross ponds and rivers, but you won't make good time without some help from a zipper or boost. If you're going fast enough with one of these speed-enhancing things, you will skid across the water for a while and wish that you will make it safely without losing speed to the other side.

To make a U-turn, hold A (Acceleration) and B (Brake) as you turn. You can powerslide by holding R as you turn. Powersliding helps you turn corners without losing any speed. Sometimes, it may help you avoid road hazards as well. To execute a Tilt Turn, combine these two techniques by pressing A, B, and R. If you hold it, you will go in circles. Tilt Turning helps you cut around tight corners.

This trick may help you if you find yourself frequently spinning out. As you begin to skid, hit the brake and you should stop skidding quicker than normal. Sometimes it will work, sometimes not!


Hovercraft Help

Unless you're using a heavyweight driver or T.T. you might have some problems with this vehicle. Once you get going, you might find it easy, but then as you turn around that corner, your hovercraft will stop dead in its tracks. It handles the same on water as on land, and goes the fastest too.

Some hovercraft challenges will include stretches of both water and land. There could be helpful zippers on the water and there could be some weapon balloons on the land. Just be sure not to go for both unless you're an expert otherwise you'll stop and have to start going all over again!

The hovercraft rides on a cushion of air and can turn on a dime. In fact, as I said before, you'll often find yourself turning too quickly in sharp corners and totally wiping out! You can get around this problem by hopping using the R button and pivoting in the air. Krunch usually won't have to do this, but if he wipes out he'll have a real hard time starting up again!


Plane Pointers

A few people might say the plane is easy to control. This won't mean that the plane races will be a piece of cake, however, as the air courses will pose some of the biggest challenges of your entire adventure.

When you complete a loop (by tapping R twice and holding up or down on the control stick), you'll get a little speed boost to make up for a bit of your lost time. To do a barrel roll, tap the R button twice and hold either right or left depending on which way you want to go.

Using a loop will help you get behind an opponent or upgrade an item. Why get behind someone you ask? Well, use a missle to knock 'em down or use a level 3 magnet to bring the racer back to you and stop them for a bit.

On occasion, during a Silver Coin Challenge, coins are put below and above a ledge. Get the coin below and loop up to the top. Usually, these coins are placed so that you can do this. Let go of the gas just before you end the loop to get a little bigger boost.

Sometimes, there will be obstacles like tress in your way. You can either choose right or left. Barrel roll to one side, and you'll move over a bit and be able to go straight again without having to use some tricky skills or losing any time.