I've used this month as an excuse to put some real effort into Diddy Kong Racing. It's a game that has never quite convinced me in the past. This playthrough has greatly increased my appreciation for DKR and now understand why people prefer it over Mario Kart and Crash Team Racing. They are wrong, but I can see their point of view.
My biggest gripe is with the coin challenge races but that points to a wider issue I have with some of Rare's output relating to padding their games and being snide with their game design. The coin challenges are unlocked for each course after beating them once in Adventure mode. They require the player to finish first while collecting 8 silver coins placed around the track. This is fine, it is padding but it's a decent enough alternative to just upping the difficulty/speed as in Mario Kart.
However, Rare are not racing game developers by and large and it shows in the placement of the coins which are positioned not in any way that would make sense in a kart racer (along good racing lines, down shortcuts, on the apex of a corner) but rather as if the game were one of their platformers. So, as far out of the way as possible, hidden behind a blind corner, along as bad a race line as possible, etc. In fairness this is mainly in the kart only races, the hovercrafting and plane tracks by their nature can't hide the coins away. It's frustrating but wasn't enough to ruin the experience in the end. The music is top notch as well.
The actual mechanics of the game are solid though, I like how the plane and hoverboat feel very different to the kart. I also appreciate how it doesn't just ape Mario Kart's drifting and has its own boost mechanic. Adventure mode is pretty charming as well again a nice alternative to just upping the difficulty. I've beat all the tracks, including the secret space themed ones. May try to 100% it, see how annoying the coin challenges are for those final races.
I've also played a few C64 ports of old arcade classics Congo Bongo and Donkey Kong Junior. Congo Bongo is a pretty basic port of the Sega game. Only two screens or boards survive from the arcade so it's pretty easy to "beat" although it does repeat with increasing difficulty. It's an isometric platformer, two words that used in conjunction usually bring me out in a cold sweat, but it plays well even on a keyboard. This is an amusing footnote in Sega's history a bit of a Donkey Kong rip-off but with a isometric spin. The game has a bunch of weird ports, the best of which is on the Megadrive/Genesis Collection for 360/Ps3.
The DKJ port is a bit of a cheat as it came out in 2014 but is very impressive. Not too familiar with the original but this port looks and feels pretty close to what I've seen of the NES. Need to put more time into it but it looks the part.