Diddy Kong Racing's Krunch -- Designing For Frustration 

When I was a kid, I didn't realize that all of the racers had different stats, so I mostly picked Krunch because I think he looks cool. This could all be fixed and make him interesting if his speed was a 5, and maybe if one of his other stats was 1.5 instead of 1.

i think you understated the power the npcs can get if they pick krunch. when a krunch bot gets going, *they get going*

As a dumb child I didn't realize different racers had different stats and I just picked him because I liked crocodiles, no wonder I found the game so difficult

Fun Fact: Krunch was originally called Krash during the game's development, Rare changed it at the last moment. Strangely it wasn't because of Crash Bandicoot either, as there was a Kremling called Krash in the series long before.

I remember that when I was a kid my friends would always play Diddy Kong Racing and talk about how fun it was, but I didn't like it much thinking the controls were bad. Years later I find out that it's not that the game or controls were bad, I was just always using Krunch.

The funny thing is that when Krunch was controlled by the AI he was almost ALWAYS in the lead. I guess computer-controlled characters get to cheat their steering (as was standard for the time) so unless he got shot or tripped up by a trap he would generally pull ahead by the end of the race.

"He is _designed_ to make you want him to lose!" Considering what Krunch is, that's accidentally kind of clever. I mean, it's frustrating if you want to win as as the cool crocodile, but it's funny that things shook out that way!

God, how i miss the rareware old style. Wish old rare would come back one day, with the simple but remarkable designs, cozy environments and quirky characters.

crunch is really good for the walrus race since its basically a straight away. He's also pretty good for the octopus race as well.

A slogan for my playthrough of this game was "Winners Don't Use Krunch."

Played through with Krunch and have one thing that really goes for him. He‘s a BOSS-KILLER! I managed to get in front of every Boss very quick and then hold the Position. My friends didn‘t believe me doing this. Especially the Walrus and the Octopus are no Match for Krunch. Don‘t get me wrong. I got really frustrated with him, but I also wanted him to be a Winner, because he is a bad Character and more importantly a Kremling. I don‘t know how I did it, but I remember making a Playthrough with only Krunch. It was one of the hardest Challenges I ever chose to do for myself, but it felt extremely rewarding. Same thing with Bowser in Super Mario Kart for the SNES. I remember my Dad asking me, why I wanted to win with Characters like them so badly, if I could just use Characters with better Control and acceleration and this was my Answer (I was five Years old at that time): „They loose all the Time and they must be very sad… I don‘t want them to be sad!“ Then he tried to loose on purpose and I remember me getting very angry at him, because of that^^!

the only thing i know about this guy is that there's a webcomic shipping him with Dixie Kong

It's interesting seeing this stuff now with no idea how it worked at the time. Krunch was my favorite character on the N64, but starting with him and getting good with him meant I actively found the other characters hard to use by the end of that. He feels so different to play that you have to relearn courses and muscle memory playing as anyone else. Hovercraft levels are a great example, since you basically want to avoid air time altogether with him and instead have to maximize time in contact with the water, meaning what's considered obstacles on the course outright change when you pick him. All the breaking you have to do as him that you don't have to with other characters too. I didn't actually know anyone that knew about unlocking Drumstick till years after it came out cause it was still that era where you either had rich friends with internet, game magazines, or word of mouth if you wanted to learn about game secrets. Sometimes even magazines were outright incorrect or just bolstering some rumor lol

I remember trying the Krunch challenge. Wizpig's first race was the hardest. I think I had over 100 tries until I beat him. Absolute hell, but fun if you want to beat the game's hardest challenge and truly master it.

Holy crap, my brother who didn't play videogames always picked Krunch and it ALL makes sense now!

On our copy of the game, we went through all the trouble of unlocking T.T., and then ended up turning him off in the options menu because we thought he was unfairly good. And kind of annoying. We didn't bother turning Drumstick off because none of us knew how to play heavy characters anyway, so we just thought he was bad.

This video inspired me to do a Krunch only run. I recommend it, you have to totally relearn how to play when you can barely make most turns. I like the idea of devs including a terrible character that gives the game a whole new challenge.

If I were to rebalance the racers' stats I would change them to something like this: DIDDY Speed: 2.5 -> 3 Accel: 3 -> 3 Handling: 3-> 3 TIMBER Speed: 3 -> 3 Accel: 3 -> 3.5 Handling: 2.5 -> 2.5 BUMPER Speed: 3 -> 3.5 Accel: 2.5 -> 2.5 Handling: 2.5 -> 3 CONKER Speed: 3 -> 2.5 Accel: 2.5 -> 3 Handling: 2.5 -> 3.5 PIPSY Speed: 1 -> 1 Accel: 5 -> 4 Handling: 5 -> 4 TIPTUP Speed: 1.5 -> 2 Accel: 4.5 -> 3.5 Handling: 4.5 -> 3.5 BANJO Speed: 3.5 -> 4 Accel: 2 -> 2.5 Handling: 2 -> 2.5 KRUNCH Speed: 4 -> 5 Accel: 1 -> 2 Handling: 1 -> 2 DRUMSTICK Speed: 4.5 -> 4.5 Accel: 2 -> 3 Handling: 1.5 -> 1.5 T.T. Speed: 5 -> 4 Accel: 5 -> 4 Handling: 2.5 -> 1

The characters popping up on screen with their sound bytes is extremely charming 😊

I chose him every time because he has a skull on his back lol. Good thing my mom got the game at a garage sale and everything was unlocked already.

Krunch really sounds like Krusty

Me and brothers tricked our uncle into picking Krunch,and when started the race,he said: "This nigga slow." lol.

As a kid I mostly played Conker.... And sometimes Bumper. I played literally the only 2 identical characters apparently lol

The Mighty Glacier always suffers and likes it, don't they?

Love this video man!!! Very interesting seeing a video on heavy weight characters.

I always entertained the thought of mastering characters like Krunch in video games. In reality Krunch never stood a chance because there was Banjo and Drumstick for airplane, and other characters for car and hovercraft.

I remember as a kid my friend's older brother beat the game with krutch. I don't remember why he chose crunch but I believe it had to do with the drifting.

I appreciate your editing style, is like maxor without the visually administered cocain

Krunch is King K. Rool's juvenile delinquent nephew

I used to play Krunch 20 years ago when i first played this with my cousin since i was a bowser player--- WELL didn't take long before I became a Timber Main. he played conker I liked conker ( before conker's bad furday btw) then just fell in love with timber and his chill attitude.

Well it's called DIDDY KONG racing after all so of course a Kremling gets the short stick I guess.

As someone who mostly only picked Krunch because I thought he looked cool, had a jacket as a kid. This explains why I mostly always lost. His car was near impossible to maneuver.

This video made me want to play through DKR’s Adventure Mode as Krunch. So far, my worst experience has been the Dino Domain boss, which took me around 30 tries to beat. EDIT: I did it. Wizpig 1 took me multiple days to complete (in limited sessions), but the rest of the game wasn’t too bad for me.

I honestly hate the way the character stats are handled in this game. Some characters are just blatantly better than others. As already mentioned, Drumstick outclasses Crunch in all stats, but then there's Timber, who has the same stats as Bumper and Conker, only with higher acceleration. Then there's the most egregiously overpowered character in the game: T.T., who not only has perfect acceleration, but is also the only character with perfect speed as well; that's right, perfect SPEED _and_ ACCELERATION. His only "downside", if you can even call it that, is that his handling is only average. Like, I get that the secret character should be good, but once T.T. is unlocked, who wins in versus mode is essentially decided on who picks T.T. and who doesn't.

Just wait til you get to play as Taj and Wizpig on the DS version. At least in that game you can change your kart's stats to optimize their poor stats a little. I don't see people talk about the DS version that much. I wanna unravel some of it's Mysteries.

My left thumb hurts when I see the back side of Krunch's car :(

Krunch is alright in the water considering how hard you turn in hovercrafts.

I loved to play Diddy Kong Racing as a child. I can remember getting it on Christmas Eve. I didn't know the characters have different attributes.

I always thought Krunch was good with the hover craft so I used him to beat the octopus boss and the walrus boss

Me as a child: This game is incredibly hard. Me as an adult: Wait, I only ever played Krunch...

Y'all will never understand the power of Krunch, he can decimate everyone easily but you really need to know how to drift and break drift at the right moment as we well as do what I call "reverse drift" to properly take every zipper and curve, such an amazing character and with such unique mechanics that give a huge advantage once they're mastered.

Let's put it this way: if the 1st place NPC isn't that infuriating mouse, it's Krunch mangling you so perfectly in a way you can't with human hands.

Nice video, a little correction though, you do not need to beat Wizpig in order to unlock Drumstick, the special frog will appear once you beat the 4 bosses twice and get enough balloons. Beating Wizpig is not at all required, I know because Drumstick was the character I used to beat the pig for the first time as a kid, couldn't do it with any other because I was like 4 or 5, too young to read, so I missed the hint about the special boost and Drumstick was the only racer fast enough to make that a feasible thing for me back then.

"I have never seen a game as harsh to a character like Krunch as Diddy Kong Racing." Waluigi on the Smash Bros. Series:

Krunch was my go to do hoover craft races especially the walrus and octopus bosses

I got this game for my birthday. I was already skeptical I'd love it cause it was a racing game. Then I picked Crunch cause I thought he looked the coolest. Thank goodness I tried Diddy and realized that Krunch just sucked the game was fine.

I had no idea he was a Kremling…. Why didn’t I not see the connection there until now?

5:35 you forgot that you could play as a Kremling in DK64 multiplayer. Nice video!

@5:28 King K Rool is also a playable kremlin in smash

Also, in Rareware's second kart racer for the N64, Mickey's Speedway USA, they really must've felt bad for kids that picked Krunch because Ludwig Von Drake controls just as poorly, if not WORSE, than Krunch but is somehow actually usable still, and is the best character for most of the tracks.

Criminals? I get the squirrel and obvious villain, but why do you say Banjo is- _Tooie flashback_ ...oh. Right. That. ... That still leaves the badger though!

That explains why I always lose when I was little . But went at the same time. I was always at the second place or third place , or forth place. But when I pick another character, I win.

The last thing I expected in this video was a Guilty Gear reference, much less Testament specifically.

Going on a Kong streak I see

Picking Krunch is like playing on hard mode.

Just occurred to me he's a Kremling

Welp this Explains why I always thought Diddy Kong racing was extremely hard

Pipsy and Tip Tup main for life.

I always thought it was meant as a joke character, like he's not even driving on the intro of the game I think.

this is a fire video

Great video

I always picked the yellow Mouse because I thought fast acceleration was the most important stat boy I was a dumb fucking kid

You: Krunch is unplayable Me: 100% the game with Krunch at age 12. I think it might be a skill issue here. Of course I had years of using nothing but Bowser in Mario Kart, so I basically mastered how to turn and dominate with aggressive slide swipes of destruction. If no one can pass you, you can't lose.

I always used Krunch, he is cool but I never defeated my brother who used Conker. I needed some time to know why he main that squirrel and today I know why I never won

Crazy to find out i never sucked and it was just the only character i picked because he was the only character that looked cool to 7 year old me lol

I gutted this game as a kid, and didn't class the game as beaten 100% until I beat it exclusively with Crunch. Beating DKR with him was kinda like a right of passage for me.

On other words, How To Get Good in DKR

Thanks for the video.

Actually, there is another K roll character you can play. In DK 64 you can use Krusha in multiplayer.

So, does anyone know who the specific racers are that D4 calls out at the start of the video? The criminals, the genocider. and the rest?

TT and Drumstick needed to stand out over Crunch so they just gave them strictly better stats. TT is like best max speed and acceleration, IIRC. But he was meant to be a reward for mastering every course in the game. Very hard to unlock TT

God damn it this game needs a modern remake/sequel.

"Never vseen a game be quite as mean to a character as DKR is to crunch" Oh boy you should get into Pokémon.

Genuine question, what did Bumper do?

How to spot a DK Vine fan in 20 seconds

I got a serious dislike of this game by my friends throwing me on that croc the first ever and only time I played. Swore it off forever. Looks like the Kremlimg cost more than one sale

RIP Krunch

I completely forgot a out the DS version of Ditty Kong Racing why is that?

Same goes for Black Bull in F-zero GP Legend for gameboy. The worst car. And he looks really cool. At least he has the best machine in F-zero GX. Or to be correct. Second best since there is a secret unlocable car.

Aw I'm disappointed. I only just remembered he existed and was finally going to try the game but now I don't think I will anytime soon. Thanks for sharing. Vid stats as of 11:46 pm ny time January 18th Thursday 2024: 654 comments, 655 with this 5.5k likes before mine 152 k / 152,059 views Posted 1 year ago December 20th 2022 63.1k channel subs before mine now

Well of course a game in the DK series is gonna make the Kremling the worst character, bold to assume Rare didn't do that on purpose.

New character Purple reptile. Maybe a snake. Accel. 5 Turning. 3 Speed. 2 I don't know stats. Hes supposed to have high acceleration and medium speed and turning.

Why is Banjo a criminal

his handling is so bad he has to play it like 200cc in mario kart

Krunch is horrid un DKR, but I've seen a lot of japanese players handling him like nothing. There's gotta be something good around him, right? Well, I've always used Pipsy, despite the fact she has the worst top speed in the game.

Krunch is cool. I always chose him or Conker and mastered both. Try me.

Does king K rool not count as a kremlin? I'm not a big donkey kong fan so im not sure if the guy counts. Surely Bowser counts as a koopa I mean in japanese his name is King Koopa. Correct me if im wrong.

RIP Krunch, forever damned.

Does Krunch be still bad in Diddy Kong Racing DS?

Try beating adventure 2 mode with krunch as a challenge

Krunch is to DKR like what Bowser is to Super Smash Bros. Melee. Being a very heavy character, Bowser takes more damage to be KO'd and has one of the most powerful forward smashes in the game, but his advantages ends here. Bowser is extremely slow and being big, he's very easy to hit, yet all of his attacks have poor reach. In particular, his flame attack has a shabby short range and pathetic damage. Overall, Bowser is hands down the worst character available initially to use against an experienced player. Unlockable Ganondorf outclasses Bowser like Drumstick outclasses Krunch. Ganondorf is faster, but is still quite slow and has a number of very powerful attacks. Ganon is overall a very good choice against CPU players at any level but professional players almost never use him because his slow, powerful attacks are easily avoidable by other skilled players.

Drumstick is also crap with mobility, but he is fast.

what's the song at 10:57? sounds like a DKR version of Jib Jig

I thought each character had different stats based on what vehicle they were piloting

loved it

Wait......what did Banjo do to put him in jail?

So Krunch is meant to ba a CPU

I’ve been Using Krunch for 20 years don’t care if I lose Most of my racist that’s my boy

I once played with someone who had mastered Krunch. They were completely unstoppable.

Nintendo Power defined Krunch's handling as "a buttered snake on ice". I have never forgotten that, and am adding "glacier of molasses with training weights on heading uphill". It brings a tear to the eye 8( Thanks for shouting this back to my eight year old self, who gave up and mained Pipsy