Diddy Kong
Due to "Banjo-Kazooie" being delayed until the summer of 1998, the team was adamant for a release of an AAA video game in time for Christmas 1997. Rare felt that "Pro Am 64" did not have a strong enough intellectual property to capture the attention of consumers, and thus changed the licence to feature Diddy Kong. According to Musgrave, the decision to choose Diddy Kong rather than Donkey Kong was based on their own choice, a decision which Nintendo "enjoyed". Once the intellectual property was changed, the team were left to adapt the visual aesthetics of the game and packaging before it could be released. Musgrave stated that the ultimate goal of the game was to make it "run as fast" as "Mario Kart 64", which proved difficult during development as the latter game utilized sprites of characters whereas "Diddy Kong Racing" used fully 3D models. Musgrave later attributed the success of the overall project due to the "small team" of 14 people who worked on it. In an October 2012 interview, Musgrave stated that Timber the Tiger would have been the main character of "Pro Am 64" had the intellectual property for "Diddy Kong Racing" not been conceived. Two of the characters who featured in "Diddy Kong Racing", Banjo the Bear and Conker the Squirrel, starred in games ("Banjo-Kazooie" and "Conker's Bad Fur Day", respectively) which were unveiled to the public before "Diddy Kong Racing", at the June 1997 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), but ultimately not released until after "Diddy Kong Racing". Rare stated that they chose not to exhibit "Diddy Kong Racing" at E3 because of the proprietary animation technology used in the game.