Diddy Kong Racing (N64)

Diddy Kong Racing may have the Technicolor fantasy backgrounds and cute characters (like Timber and Conker) from a child's daydream, but this is no playground. Only consistently good and strategic play will win and advance your chosen cutie. There are 30 courses over five different happy-time worlds, all part of a giant Overworld. Racing is only part of the player's challenges, which include boss characters to defeat, stacks of silver coins to collect, multi color balloons to snag, and yellow floating bananas to gobble up. After achieving success in a series of straight races, you then have to complete missions handed out by the pesky bosses. Each mission is harder, and after you manage to collect enough trophies for them you still have to race cute opponents in a sequential series of races to complete and win the Trophy Race. But there's help in the form of cool new weapons and vehicles, including a plane and a hovercraft. The game is beautifully rendered in all its bubble gum glory, and play is enhanced by the development of Realtime Dynamic Animation, which enables polygons to be more flexible and cover more area of Overworld.