The DK Barrel, being hold by a red balloon, must be touched by the present Kong to summon the other one. When only one Kong is present, the player with the missing character can also spend one single extra life at any moment to summon a dropping DK Barrel from the top of the screen. In the same mode, DK Barrels also recover hearts to both characters and refill their air meters, even if they are separated underwater. The DK Barrels serve their original function of allowing a player to summon other player's Kong, after their character is defeated, by breaking the barrel. However, when playing any level in the multiplayer mode, all DD, DX and CK Barrels are replaced by regular DK Barrels. Ground-pounding nearby a circling character barrel will make it to stay at the current insignia, making easier to pick which assist Kong to summon.ĭuring the Time Attack mode, before starting any level in the worlds maps, the player can choose to keep the default character barrels inside it, or change all character barrels to DD, DX or CK Barrels. In some levels, there are some barrels that will circle throughout insignias before the player picks them up, allowing to choose which character to summon. Besides summoning a Kong and recovering the characters' hearts after they are broken, like in Donkey Kong Country Returns and Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D, these barrels also refill the air meter completely when the heroes are underwater. These barrels can be found inside levels and can be also purchased from the Funky Kong's Fly 'N' Buy shop. Instead, there are DD, DX and CK Barrels to break and summon Diddy, Dixie and Cranky Kong, respectively, as assist Kongs for Donkey Kong.
In Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, usually, there are no DK Barrels in the single player mode, except as an icon at some loading screens. In the Mirror Mode, an unlockable harder mode where the player can control only Donkey Kong with a single heart container as health, DK Barrels only work as throwable weapons. In the multiplayer mode of both games, it is possible to spend an Extra Life Balloon and summon a dropping DK Barrel carrying a player's defeated character at any moment. They can be throw by using the Nintendo 3DS Touch Screen.
In the New Mode of Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D, it is possible to purchase portable DK Barrels for five Banana Coins from the Cranky Kong's Shop. In both games, DK Barrels are still used to summon defeated Kongs, but they also have the function of completely recovering hearts of characters' health. The DK Barrel has been featured in mostly of the Donkey Kong Country and Donkey Kong Land titles, including Donkey Kong Country Returns and Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D. New artwork of the DK Barrel from the game Donkey Kong Country Returns for Wii. In the early Donkey Kong Country games, there are cheats to disable DK Barrels (along with Star Barrels) to increase the games difficulty. However, there are aerial DK Barrels that break upon jumping contact in a Kong's inside. Other than freeing a hurt Kong, it functions somewhat like a Vine Barrel, where it smashes upon contact with anything, including the ground. Breaking one would summon a defeated Kong, making him/her playable.
History Donkey Kong Country and Donkey Kong Land seriesĭK Barrels first appeared in Donkey Kong Country.