Tricky the Triceratops
Tricky the Triceratops is a large Triceratops and one of the fastest inhabitants of Timber's Island.
During the events of Diddy Kong Racing, Tricky was brainwashed by the evil pig wizard Wizpig into becoming one of his servants. Tricky was also given a piece of Wizpig's amulet to guard. Tricky would only accept a challenge from a racer if they managed to beat all the challenges in his area, the Dino Domain. If a challenger managed to beat all of Dino Domain's challenges, Tricky would race them through a valley.
The mountain that the player had to race on gradually turned left, and there were many red and blue balloons littered around the course. However, the balloons weren't required much to beat Tricky. If the player ever collided with Tricky, he or she would get squished down, giving Tricky an opportunity to speed ahead. Near the beginning and the middle of the race, boulders will roll down the mountain and could squash the player as well. Also near the middle of the course, there is a cave covered by five bushes. The cave is a great shortcut up the mountain, and has a Zipper in it as well.
Once Tricky is defeated, the dinosaur will open up Dino Domain's Silver Coin challenges. Once all the Silver Coin challenges are completed, Tricky can be challenged to a rematch. In this race Tricky is twice as fast as before, and giant pillars of rock will fall and flatten the racer. The player must make full use of the balloons to win this race.
Once Tricky is defeated, Wizpig's spell on him will break. As thanks for freeing him, Tricky will award his opponent the piece of Wizpig's amulet he was guarding.
Tricky later appears in Diddy Kong Racing's end-of-game cinematic.
Tricky may also have been set to make a reappearance in the canceled game Donkey Kong Racing, as Taj the Genie, another character from Diddy Kong Racing, was going to appear in it. It is unknown if Tricky was going to appear in Diddy Kong Racing's cancelled Game Boy Advance sequel Diddy Kong Pilot. Tricky is a boss in the Nintendo DS remake Diddy Kong Racing DS.
Continuity Conundrum
There has been some confusion over Triceratops Tricky and the Styracosaurus Tricky, another dinosaur from the Star Fox series of games. Rare's tendency to make references to characters or locations in past games led many fans to assume the naming of Tricky in Star Fox Adventures was simply a cameo, and not meant to be taken as an implication that Styracosaurus Tricky is a younger Triceratops Tricky. However, in Rare's August 2007 edition of Scribes[1], it is confirmed that both characters were intended to be the same.
In the ending of Star Fox Adventures, Tricky tells Fox that his dream is to be the first dinosaur in space. This is likely a foreshadowing of Tricky traveling to the Donkey Kong planet in his adulthood, in which the events of Diddy Kong Racing take place sometime afterwards.
