Diddy Kong is one of the most popular Kong family members, which causes one to question why he hasn't appeared in the Mario Kart series for over a decade. Now, Diddy Kong is making a comeback in the upcoming Mario Kart Tour.
Diddy Kong originally made his debut in Rare's 1994 title Donkey Kong Country, in which he and Donkey Kong were tasked with defeating King K. Rool and regaining their stolen bananas.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, including Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest, Diddy Kong Racing, Donkey Kong 64, and Donkey Kong Country Returns, as well as Mario Kart titles Mario Kart: Double Dash!! and Mario Kart Wii.
Diddy Kong has since been absent from the Mario Kart series, skipping Mario Kart 7 and Mario Kart 8. He does appear to be returning for Mario Kart's mobile outing with Mario Kart Tour, which now 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 of Diddy Kong Racing, which debuted on one of the best video game consoles of all-time in the Nintendo 64.
As America's best-selling racing game series, Nintendo is aiming to take Mario Kart in a new direction by bringing it to mobile devices. It has already done so with the likes of Super Mario Run and the less successful Dr. 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 latest Mario Kart installment 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 the Mario Kart series.
Mario Kart Tour is launching on September 25, 2019, on mobile devices.
Source: Nintendo Life