Daisy Cruiser

History:

After spending a large amount of time in the Mushroom Kingdom Princess Daisy created a Cruise Line enterprise based from her Vacation Home on Isle Delfino. It originally launched from Peach Beach, a parcel of land owned by Princess Peach but after Daisy was able to build her own Circuit on the other side of the Island, complete with yachts and other watercraft, the Cruiser launched from there. Its general route takes it from the Daisy Circuit around the Isle Delfino to a brief stop to lounge on Peach Beach, then across the Sea to Dinosaur Land near Yoshi's Island and back again. During the Long Journey Daisy decided to outfit the boat as a Race Course, although the difficult logistics involved has prevented it from appearing in many subsequent Grand Prix.

Double Dash:

Daisy Cruiser appears in the Flower Cup in Double Dash and as such has some tough turns but not a whole lot of obstacles that are that dangerous. Its basic shape is a long oval, although straightaways are usually broken up by slight turns, although some are very sharp. The course is actually wide enough that the two most dramatic turns at both the bow and stern aren't all that difficult and actually pretty good spots for Drifting and Mini Turbos. There aren't any hills but there are some steps that can be lethal for bouncy Karts like the Waluigi Racer, although they're relatively brief. Even though the outside portions of the course are relatively wide there are some tight sections of interior corridors, perfect for nasty items like the Giant Banana, Bowser Shell or Bob-omb. I think any Heavyweight who has access to these items using the Piranha Pipes will finds some success here.

The Daisy Cruiser  can be seen floating around in the distance of many other levels near wide oceans. This includes Peach Beach in both its Double Dash and Wii incarnations, as well as the Yoshi Circuit and Daisy Circuit. The Secret Staff Ghost in the Time Trials here is Daisy driving Peach around in the Heart Coach, pulling a time of 1:52:207.

The course reappears in Mario Kart 7 with some major changes. There is now an alternate path after the start to the immediate left. With 7's new Sea Travel possibilities the big pool is no longer a danger and the cargo hold has been transformed into an aquarium, with just a boost jump afterwards, not a cannon. These are optional shortcuts, but if you take them you had better have someone who is effective underwater. The Ghost here is Daisy, naturally, who goes a 01:49.564 using the Pipe Frame, Sponge Wheels, and Peach Parasol. The Expert exchanges the Pipe Frame for the Tiny Tug and pulls a 01:43.341. The Sponge Wheels rob both of these Karts of their underwater advantage, attack.

Diddy Kong

History:

Diddy is the nephew of Donkey Kong, though they aren't that different in age. Diddy's parents, Kong's brother and his wife, were killed by the Kremling Hordes shortly after Diddy was born. Therefore Diddy was raised mostly by Cranky and Wrinkly Kong along with Donkey, who matured a bit earlier. Diddy is still very much a young buck though and doesn't really own any tracks himself besides the Dino Dino Jungle, which due to its remote and dangerous location has never been very popular. He is still really a sidekick of Donkey Kong and hasn't really won that independence yet.

Double Dash:

Diddy appeared here as the default partner of Kong. Double Dash didn't place that much emphasis on Driver distinctions, more on Kart Differences. Characters only determined what Special Items they could use and ultimately what size Kart they could drive. Diddy is interesting because he's a Lightweight here while Kong is a Heavyweight, meaning that when partnered together they needed a Heavy Kart. In order for Diddy to drive his own Kart he needs to be paired with another Lightweight.

Diddy drives the Barrel Train, which stands out among Light Karts. It basically acts like a Heavy Kart, which is cool if you are in to that sort of thing. Unlike the Boo Pipes, though, which have the benefits of acting like a Light Kart while also being able to push people around, there is no real upside besides a greater ability to dodge hazards. In fact, the Barrel Train is the narrowest Vehicle in the game, which can be useful. It's also the heaviest Light Kart (12th Overall). Naturally it has the worst Acceleration of any Light Kart along with the Second-Highest Top Speed and a decent Offroad. It does have some of the best shocks and average turn speed. All in all it's okay if you're looking for a Light Kart with Speed, though it controls so stiffly you can't enjoy it that much.

Each Character in Double Dash has a personal Special Item. Diddy's is the same as Kong's - the Giant Banana. It's one of the better Items in the game for someone who likes to be in first, it creates a huge hazard for Racers coming from behind. Of course, if you're always the one in last place it's not going to help that much. Diddy is basically the Light Version of Donkey Kong, meaning he's great to be paired up with some other little guy with the Toad Kart, get in First Place early and dominate.

He is also the Secret Staff Ghost in two tracks. He leads on Dino Dino Jungle with DK in back in the Big Guy's DK Jumbo with a time of 2:00:908. For DK Mountain he switches with his Uncle in the same Kart with a time of 2:12:639.

Wii:

After missing DS Diddy returned in Wii. In this game each Character in three separate Size Classes each can drive up to Six Karts and Six Bikes. Naturally there are plenty of combinations. Diddy moved from a Lightweight to a Middleweight, although he's really not that much bigger physically. Each character also has their own Stat Bonuses to add to each Vehicle. Diddy gets a small Acceleration and Drift Bonus as well as a Mini Turbo Bonus tied with Birdo as the best among Middleweights. Therefore he's really pretty good for technical drivers on tricky courses that like to drift and boost a lot. Here are the Diddy-Specific stats:

The Classic Dragster best takes advantage of his bonuses, although he's also great in the Mach Bike. He's most associated with the Sugarscoot, which he can also be decent with. He only appears as a Staff Ghost in the Maple Treeway. It's actually a similar course to DK Mountain from Double Dash with the huge Barrel Cannon and it also takes place entirely on a system of trees. Diddy's Monkey Nature is perfectly suited for the association. The Normal Ghost pulls a 02:58.633 in the Classic Dragster, the Expert does 02:37.812 in the Sneakster.

Princess Daisy

History:

Daisy hails from the far-off Sarasaland where she rules with peace and justice, although she may hardly be found on her throne, instead she continually trounces off with her Mushroom Kingdom friends, leaving the actual Governance of Sarasaland to more capable people. She is more of a Figurehead than Princess Peach and her Royal Duties lessened, she has embarked on many Entrepreneurial Opportunities. Her biggest venture has been her Cruise Line, which jets across the wide Seas of Mushroom World and has made her independently wealthy. She recently used some of this money to purchase a spot of land on Isle Delfino opposite Peach Beach where she has made a very popular Seaside Racecourse.

Daisy has some interesting relationships among the other racers. As she was casual friends with Peach, seeing her at Mushroom World Leaders Conferences and so forth, it was only natural that she'd meet her beau Mario and be introduced to his brother, Luigi, which was a natural fit. Waluigi, however, also obsesses over her, although Wario's involvement in using the Alien Tatanga to attempt to conquer Sarasaland puts a strain on their relationship. Still, Daisy Circuit and Waluigi Stadium are the only Sunset Courses named after a character. Just sayin'.

Double Dash:

Daisy is a playable character from the outset of Double Dash and is Peach's default partner. She is identical to Peach in every way, but still makes for some interesting Partnerships. Like the Daisy/Bowser? What the hell is going on there? Anyway, Double Dash didn't put as much emphasis on the Drivers as it did on individual Karts. Drivers basically determined the Weight Class along with the Special Item while Karts determined the rest. Daisy drives the Bloom Coach, which is pretty decent.

The Bloom Coach has the best shocks and nearly the best Turn Speed of all the Middle Karts. It's also on the faster side at 57 mph. It also has the Best Acceleration of all Middle Karts although it's 8th over all. Its only issues is that it's also the lightest Middle Kart (14th over all) and its Offroad is terrible. Still, it's about as close to a Light Kart as a Middleweight is going to get, so that's worth something.

Daisy's Special Item is the Heart, which is pretty unique. It's purely defensive. Once activated, two Hearts will circle the Vehicle and pick up any item the Driver runs over. This includes Giant Bananas and Bowser Shells. It will however, also pick up Mushrooms and Stars lying on the track instead of instantly boosting from them. It's also tough because you'll only acquire the Item if neither racer has one already, otherwise a Heart is used but you get nothing. Except you don't spin out. So it's pretty good.

There were Secret Staff Ghosts in Double Dash. Daisy appears behind her partner Peach on Peach Beach with a time of 1:20:404 and then takes the lead on Daisy Cruiser at 1:52:207. Both utilize Peach's Heart Coach.

DS:

Daisy appears as an unlockable Character in DS. The major difference between characters here are their weights and Daisy adds 1 to each of her rides, tied with Peach in being in between the lightest characters and Mario and Luigi as Middleweights. DS featured an insistence on Karts rather than Drivers, although their weights still influenced who could push around who. Each Character initially had two Karts with another unlockable, but eventually any Character could use any Kart, which is staggering. The Stats for Daisy's Vehicles are as follows:

Her Karts naturally have excellent Drifting abilities and fair Speed and Acceleration but below-average Handling. Daisy has some interesting Ghosts in this game. Her Nitro Track is on Tick-Tock Clock at 1:54:903 in her Light Dancer. I really think they just ran out of Courses for Characters and so they stuck her here, she has no other connection to Tick-Tock Clock, a course based on a game she had no part of. She's also in the Retro Sky Garden from Super Circuit at 1:44:400 in the Power Flower. Again, she didn't appear in Super Circuit and has no real place in Sky Garden. Then again, that Track is weird enough that any connection to it is a bit strange. Really that could be a Paratroopa Course and nothing else.

Wii:

Wii compiled the DS idea of Kart-Specific Stats with the earlier ideas of Character-Specific Stats and debuted Six Karts and Six Bikes for each Size Class, each with different statistics along with Stat Bonuses that adjusted all of these for each Character. Daisy is actually one of the better Racers in the game. She gets +2 Handling and +3 Drift which are decent but she really flies with her +4 Speed Bonus, one of the highest in the game. The stats specifically tuned to her are as follows:

Her best ride is probably the Mach Bike or the B Dasher Mk 2, two Rides that really take advantage of her ability to Zoom. Wii also has some Staff Ghosts here that are a bit more fitting for her character. She races the Coconut Mall in 02:30.764 (wait...is that really a Shopping thing?) in the Sugarscoot and then her own Daisy Circuit with the Royal Racer in 01:56.822. The Expert Ghosts go 02:13.333 in the Wild Wing and 01:41.362 in the Mach Bike respectively.

Yoshi

History:

Yoshi Originated from Yoshi's Island, a part of Dinosaur Land discovered by Mushroom Kingdom Explorers in 1843. Yoshi's Island itself was not found until 1969 when a young Mario stumbled upon it during an early adventure. He found Yoshi there who knew no English but had a strong sense of loyalty and courage. Mario took Toshi as a pet and after Mushroom People introduced Shoes to the Island in 1975 the Yoshi Race warmly became an ally to them in the Wars Against the Dark Land. The Yoshis have no King or Leader but as Yoshi himself seems to be one of the only Dinosaurs who understands English, along with his strong relationship as a pet to Mario, an influential figure in the Court of the Mushroom Kingdom, he has emerged as their de facto Head of State.

Super:

Toasted, nicely toasted.

Yoshi was classified in SMK as "The Dino and the Lady" with stats identical to Princess Peach. He thus has comparable weight, this time in the Middle Class, along with very high acceleration, low speed and moderate handling. Yoshi's Kart History is a lot like Peach's actually. He has switched between Light and Medium Weight Classes as different games have called for it. The Rival Order for Yoshi, a system in SMK that determined who would finish where if Yoshi was in First Place was Koopa, DK Jr, Peach, Bowser, Mario, Toad, and Luigi. The Koopa rivalry may be some Reptile Feud. As a computer player Yoshi would sometimes throw Eggs, an ability human players did not have.

64:

Yoshi was again identical to Toad and Peach in this game. As a lightweight player he possessed great speed and acceleration but some sloppy handling and low weight, making him liable to getting knocked around. His signature course, Yoshi Valley, really had nothing to do with him but did feature a giant Egg. Which is cool. His kart was green. Yippee. Like Peach and Toad he's one of the better drivers in the game.

Super Circuit:

Super Circuit is one of the few games that really differentiated Yoshi. While Peach and Toad had great speed offset by very low weight, Yoshi only had slightly above average speed at the cost of being a bit bigger than the other two. This game also featured the Yoshi Desert, which would be the only Yoshi course ever not set someplace tropical.

Double Dash:

Double Dash wasn't focused so much on the Drivers as it was the Karts. Yoshi was bumped to a Middleweight here and his Kart, the Turbo Yoshi always kind of sucked. It has a low top speed for a Medium Kart, fair acceleration (10th Overall), but was very bouncy but with a tight turn speed. It's pretty heavy for a Medium Kart, only the Turbo Birdo is heavier, but it's Offroad speed was towards the bottom of the barrel. I think its biggest fault though was its width. It's just very difficult to dodge things, especially with its clunky handling.

This was of course also in the Birdo Era and she as Yoshi's strange girlfriend of some kind shared all the same stats and abilities save for the cosmetic difference that her Birdo Egg was pink. Yoshi's Green Egg was at equal times a good and poor Super Item. It was handy to get because it acted like a Red Shell and would seek out the Kart ahead. Upon hitting the Kart, it would break open revealing any number of items, sometimes a Star or a Mushroom. It's a double whammy to knock out the Driver ahead of you and then pick up the Star that falls out while you're in a high place. There was also the possibility though, that a shell, banana or even a Bob-omb would pop out, which is awful. Furthermore there's the possibility that the opponent hit would pick up the beneficial Item that popped out. Yoshi Egg is strange like that, it's always a risky Item, but also one of the only good ones to have when fighting for First Place from that Second or Third Position.

There are also Secret Staff Ghosts in Double Dash. Yoshi is in the Turbo Yoshi for both, first behind Birdo in Dry Dry Desert with a time of 1:50:755 and then with Birdo in tow during the Yoshi Circuit at 1:59:886. This continues Yoshi's Desert Association, although technically Birdo is the lead there.

DS:

DS gave each driver three individual Karts of varying statistics. The major difference between characters is weight, and Yoshi adds 0.5 to the weight of all his vehicles, making him bigger than Toad, Dry Bones, and Shy Guy but pretty lighter than Peach and Daisy. Generally each character has a Standard Kart with average stats, an exceptional Kart that has a weak Item Rating and a poorer Kart with an excellent Item Ranking perfect for the Grand Prix and Time Trials, where he or she starts with Three Mushrooms. Here are Yoshi's Stats:

As you can see, the Cucumber should be Yoshi's Grand Prix Kart and the Egg 1 should be used for Time Trials. It's also worth noting that like Peach again, Yoshi was downgraded to a Light Driver from his position as a Medium in Double Dash. He has quite a few Time Trial Ghosts with courses he's associated with. With the Egg 1 on Yoshi Falls he clocks in at 0:57:677, one of the shortest tracks in any Kart Game. There are Yoshi Ghosts on two Retro Tracks as well. Apparently he's the closest they could find for someone on Koopa Beach 2 from SMK, which is again a very short track at 0:54:847. He breaks from the Egg 1 to the Standard YS for the final Retro Track, the Yoshi Circuit from Double Dash at 1:48:793. Yosh is one of the only characters to have such a variety of tracks bear his name or association. They range from Deserts to Circuits to Jungles to deep Valleys, it's crazy how adaptable he is.

Wii:

In Wii each of the six available Karts and six available Bikes have their own very specific stats. Furthermore each Character adds certain bonuses to each Stat, making the game very unpredictable and customizable. Yoshi is back to being a Middleweight in this game and adds a bit of weight and drift to each of his rides, but a good amount of Offroad speed. After all, he's a wild animal, he belongs off the track. Here are the Yoshi-Specific Stats for each Vehicle in Wii:

Yoshi is most associated with the Classic Dragster, as it closely resembles his Cucumber from DS. He is also the promotional guy for the Turbo Blooper, though I can't figure out why. The Dragster is probably his best Kart. His Ghost rides in in Dry Dry Ruins in 02:30.949. The Dry Dry Ruins connection is there because it's the spiritual successor to both Dry Dry Desert and Toshi Desert. Yoshi also has a Ghost on the Retro Yoshi Falls in 01:16.461 with the Rapide. The Expert versions of these are 02:14.286 with the Nitrocycle and 01:09.175 with the Turbo Blooper respectively.