Diddy Kong is one of the most popular Kong family members, which causes one to question why he hasn’t appeared in theMario Kartseries for over a decade. Now, Diddy Kong is making a comeback in the upcomingMario Kart Tour.
Diddy Kong originally made his debut in Rare’s 1994 titleDonkey Kong Country, in which he and Donkey Kong were tasked with defeating King K. Rool and regaining their stolen bananas. Since then, Diddy Kong has made several other appearances, includingDonkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest,Diddy Kong Racing,Donkey Kong64, andDonkey Kong Country Returns, as well asMario KarttitlesMario Kart: Double Dash!!andMario Kart Wii.
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Diddy Kong has since been absent from theMario Kartseries, skippingMario Kart 7andMario Kart 8. He does appear to be returning forMario Kart’s mobile outing withMario KartTour, whichnow has a release date.
The beloved chimp can be seen very briefly later in the above trailer, though Diddy Kong’s return is somewhat important. Not only does it signify that Nintendo wants to recognize its characters that tend to take a backdrop to more prominent characters like Donkey Kong and Wario, it also presents promise for a possible return ofDiddy Kong Racing, which debuted on one ofthe best video game consoles of all-timein the Nintendo 64.
AsAmerica’s best-selling racing game series, Nintendo is aiming to takeMario Kartin a new direction by bringing it to mobile devices. It has already done so with the likes ofSuper Mario Runand the less successfulDr. Mario World. As such, it follows that Nintendo would want to bring its most successful spinoff series to what may be the broadest market since the vast majority of people own cell phones. Those in anticipation of the latestMario Kartinstallment have yet to see what its microtransactions may entail, though the game may very likely be one of Nintendo’s largest mobile releases, if not its largest given the success of theMario Kartseries.
Mario Kart Touris launching on August 11, 2025, on mobile devices.
