When it comes to the Donkey Kong games, fans have long been able to take control of not just the titular ape, but his good pal Diddy Kong. And 20 years ago, Diddy got his time in the spotlight with his own title for the Nintendo 64, a quirky racer simply titled Diddy Kong Racing. Releasing on the N64 in November 1997, the game put players in control of Diddy and a colorful cast of his friends as they took to air, land and sea across several wacky stages.

Unlike most racing games, Diddy Kong Racing actually had a storyline for the single-player mode, revolving around an evil wizard named Wizpig. Wizpig has taken over the island that belongs to Timber the Tiger, turning the four guardians of said island into his henchmen. The only way to win back the island from Wizpig is to beat him in a series of races, so Timber gets to work on putting together a team of racers, starting first with Diddy Kong.

Two other notable members of the roster were Banjo the bear (who would go on to star in his own critically-acclaimed platformer on the N64, Banjo-Kazooie) and Conker the squirrel (who notably also starred in a far less family-friendly adventure, Conker’s Bad Fur Day).

The game was developed by Rare and went through several significant changes over the course of its development; it actually started off as a real-time strategy game before morphing into a racing title that was originally called Pro Am 64 (meant to be a follow-up to the NES game, R.C. Pro-Am). Rare had already been working on Banjo-Kazooie but that game had been pushed back to mid-1998, and the studio believed they needed a big release for the ’97 holiday season. The R.C. Pro-Am project was then revamped to include Diddy Kong as the title character, as the team at Rare felt that an already-established character like Diddy would better capture the attention of consumers.

Diddy Kong Racing was well-received upon release, with particular praise going to the colorful graphics and the level of detail on each track. The single-player mode in the game was also praised, particularly when compared to Mario Kart 64. Diddy Kong Racing went on to sell more than 4 million copies worldwide and is within the top 10 for Nintendo 64 titles when it comes to units sold.

Rare had started on a sequel, to have been called Donkey Kong Racing, for the GameCube shortly after the release of Diddy Kong Racing. However, development on that title was canceled outright when Rare was purchased by Microsoft in 2002. Banjo-Pilot for the Game Boy Advance released in 2005 and is considered somewhat of a spiritual successor. A remake for the DS, Diddy Kong Racing DS, released in 2007, which added new modes allowing for customizable race tracks.