As far as platforming goes, Dixie excels when either the player's doing a lot of stop-and-go platforming that ends up needing the extra aerial safety net more, or when there's a lot of overhead hazards and overly large pits that make it too difficult to get value out of Cranky's pogo hop. Otherwise it's the Cranky show. The speed he keeps on his hops, the new thrilling routes he opens up and the general joy and ease of use in controlling the height he gets off his pogo hops puts him way above the other two.
Diddy's the real disappointment here. He made sense in Returns where he was pulling double duty on giving the player the mobility perk people would expect from him and offering a Dixie-ish glide in the air. In Tropical Freeze where everyone offers that baseline infinite rolling perk, this just leaves the Glide that seems like it's only concerned about being balanced against Dixie's double jump when it really ought to be competitive against Cranky's pogo jumps. Dixie's toolkit will always have a place at any point in the game because of the playstyle it covers. Diddy should be the go-to speed option whenever Cranky doesn't have the ceiling or the enemies to work with.
