Diddy Kong
Due to most of the Nintendo 64's planned 1997 Christmas season lineup being delayed until 1998, "Diddy Kong Racing" became the main Nintendo 64 release for the holiday shopping season, and a majority of Nintendo's $200 million advertising budget for the entire year was allocated to promoting the game. "Diddy Kong Racing" also held the distinction of being the only game in the North American Christmas season lineup for which development was contracted by Nintendo; the other two first-party Nintendo 64 games in the lineup, "Bomberman 64" and "Mischief Makers", were both licensed from Japanese third-party publishers.