Video Game / Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest

Not Diddy Kong's Quest.

Diddy: What about me?! I went with Donkey on his last adventure! Why can't I do it?!
Cranky: You? You've only been in one game, and you didn't even get your name in the title! You think that makes you a hero?

— DKC2 Manual

Diddy's Kong Quest is the second game in Rare's Donkey Kong Country trilogy for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, released in 1995. The game was remade for the Game Boy Advance in 2004.

While relaxing at the beach, Donkey Kong is kidnapped by Kaptain K. Rool (an alter ego of the first game's villain, King K. Rool) and held for ransom for the Kongs' banana hoard. Instead, Diddy, accompanied by his girlfriend Dixie, decides to go after K. Rool and rescue DK themselves, starting by invading the Kremlings' ship and venturing through Crocodile Isle to get him back.

Diddy's Kong Quest significantly adds to the mechanics introduced in the first game. Bonuses are no longer simply free ways to gain bananas and lives, but challenges in and of themselves, offering Kremkoins as rewards, used for another introduced mechanic: A secret world. In addition, this is the game that first introduces "hero coins", giant coins with the word "DK" on them, one of which is found in each level.

The best-selling standalone game for the SNES, with over five million copies sold, good for sixth-best-selling overall^note behind Super Mario World, Super Mario All-Stars, Donkey Kong Country, Super Mario Kart, and Street Fighter II: The World Warrior, all of which were pack-in games sold with SNES consoles in certain markets. Like its predecessor, Diddy's Kong Quest received a follow-up on the Game Boy in the form of Donkey Kong Land 2, the second game in the Land series. This game is unique in that it kept the names of all but two of the worlds in Diddy's Kong Quest (the two worlds in question instead had their names combined), but otherwise the levels were completely different from its SNES counterpart.

Followed a year later by Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!.

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Diddy's Kong Quest provides examples of:

• Abnormal Ammo: Kaptain K. Rool's blunderbuss is loaded with such peculiarities as cannonballs with retractable spikes, barrels (containing cannonballs) and Interface Screw-inflicting blobs of gas. Even more abnormally, the projectiles can also defy physics by bouncing or swirling through the air like leaves in the wind.
• Absurdly Short Level: In the SNES version, Stronghold Showdown is around two screens long; Diddy and Dixie enter the room, see Donkey Kong, and then exit as K. Rool whisks DK away. Averted in the GBA remake, which adds a boss battle to the level.
• Accordion to Most Sailors: The accordion intro of "Gangplank Galleon" was brought back as "Snakey Chantey" in this pirate-themed sequel game, where it plays in levels taking place aboard pirate ships.
• Action Bomb: Some normal enemies behave this way, like Puftup and Kaboom in their appearing levels. The latter purposedly runs onto the characters to kamikaze onto them.
• Action Girl: Dixie Kong. Diddy is slightly more agile, but her hair spin makes her just as capable.
• Advancing Boss of Doom:
  • King Zing in Rambi Rumble chases down Rambi in the last section of the level, before becoming the world boss in the next stage.
  • Haunted Hall combines this with Stalked by the Bell, where the player is chased by a slowly advancing Kackle and has to collect plus sign barrels to add to the time limit and push him back.
• Advancing Wall of Doom: Toxic Tower and the unceasing rising level of toxic slime. The official Nintendo Power strategy guide even stated 'This level will eat up lives like candy' when talking about it. Good luck getting through without losing a dozen lives or more. Additionally, Castle Crush also qualifies, even if it's a lot more forgiving than the other level mentioned. In addition, Slime Climb and Clapper's Cavern have rising pools infested by a vicious piranha that can and will try to bite the Kongs if they wind up in the drink.
• Against the Setting Sun: In the true end of the game, Crocodile Isle sinks away into the ocean against a setting sun.
• Airborne Mook:
  • Zingers hover in place or patrol a set area. As an airborne Spiny, they can't be stomped by the Kongs alone, and can only be defeated with thrown objects, strong Animal Friends, or exclamation-point barrels.
  • Flitters are large dragonflies that have similar behaviors to Zingers (hovering, patrolling, or moving in one direction), but unlike Zingers, these can be stomped on by the Kongs.
  • Mini-Neckies float onscreen for a moment before divebombing the Kongs' location.
  • Kloak floats in place and throws objects and/or enemies.
• Alliterative Name: The worlds Gangplank Galleon, Crocodile Cauldron, Krazy Kremland, and Gloomy Gulch. Also, the whereabouts of Wrinkly Kong (Kong Kollege).
• Alternate Album Cover: The soundtrack album depicts a render of Diddy Kong and Dixie Kong traveling through a swamp on the US and Brazilian covers. The Japanese cover, meanwhile, carries over the game's Japanese box art.
• Amusement Park of Doom: Krazy Kremland is an amusement park full of brambles and massive Zinger hives, built near a disgusting swamp. The roller coasters are even broken down, making the rides fast paced fights for your life. The Kremlings probably do like the place, given how many are in the park and how some are even riding the coasters.
• Animal Gender-Bender: Glimmer the Anglerfish is male, when only female anglerfish are known to have that size and shape.
• Antepiece: During the True Final Boss fight, Kaptain K. Rool will fire a series of purple clouds in a pattern; touching these clouds reverses your horizontal controls, but is otherwise harmless, giving you a relatively low-risk chance to familiarize yourself with the pattern. Then he fires a similar pattern, but with Spike Balls of Doom that will hurt you if they hit you.
• Aquatic Mook: Flotsams (stingrays), Lockjaws (piranhas), Puftups (puffer fish) and Shuries (starfish). Flotsams come in blue and green forms, with the former always swimming forward while the latter moves back and forth between left and right; lockjaws charge at the Kongs to bite them as soon as it sees them; Puftups inflate their size and explode, unleashing their spikes into multiple directions (the number and formation depends on the enemy's color); and Shuries move around like shurikens (hence their name), with the orange ones simply moving in a diagonal pattern and the pink ones chasing the Kongs to harm them.
• Arc Hero: This game made Diddy The Hero, and introduced his girlfriend Dixie to personify to new gliding mechanics.
• Art Evolution: While it doesn't show up at all within the game, the official artwork from here on out adds logos and a star design on DK and Diddy's clothes.
• Ash Face: Happens to Kaptain K. Rool in the final boss battle when his blunderbuss explodes. Multiple times.
• Autobots, Rock Out!: The Final Boss theme "Crocodile Cacophony" features an electric guitar for a portion of its melody, providing some intense rock music for the battle.
• Back from the Dead: Krow is the boss of the first world, and dies after its defeat against Diddy and Dixie. In the fifth world, Krow returns as a vengeful ghost called Kreepy Krow, but is defeated once again by the two Kong lovers.
• Background Boss: Kerozene, the K. Rool's Keep boss added in the GBA version, is a giant Kremling that stands over the tower to fight.
• Badass in Distress: Donkey Kong is normally capable of beating up K. Rool by himself, but he's been captured and tied up, leaving Diddy and Dixie to rescue him.
• Bait-and-Switch Boss: Considering its name and level theme, K. Rool's Keep leads one to believe its boss will be K. Rool. Instead, the player gets just a cutscene in the SNES version and a different boss for the GBA version, while K. Rool waits in a secret world afterward.
• Battle Couple: Diddy and Dixie Kong are boyfriend and girlfriend, and both of them are equally capable of fighting the Kremlings.
• Battle in the Rain: The boss of the fifth world (Gloomy Gulch) is a rematch with a ghostly Krow in a rainstorm.
• Bee Afraid: In addition to Zingers (who now have a habitat with the trope-naming Hornet Hole levels), there's also a male King Mook in King Zing (implied to be the partner of Queen B. from the first game). He first appears in a level to chase Diddy and Dixie, who must run for their lives. Later, in a Boss-Only Level, the Kongs ask Squawks to confront it for them.
• Beef Gate: Subverted. The pathways to the Lost World are guarded by Klubba, who will only let you through if you pay his tolls. There is an option to fight him, but selecting it will result in Klubba automatically smacking you with his club, sending you back to the map screen. This is purely for effect, as the club does not actually hurt you in any way.
• Benevolent Architecture: In many of the boss battles, weapons you need in order to hurt the boss conveniently fall near you after a certain amount of time has passed.
• Big Boo's Haunt: Gloomy Gulch mixes this with The Lost Woods, containing ghostly enemies and obstacles (such as vanishing ghost ropes). Also, one of the levels takes place inside a haunted house where Diddy and Dixie have to flee from skeletal ghosts (Kackles) through a Minecart Madness segment, and to this end they must keep the timer above zero to avoid being caught (the green plus barrels add seconds and must be grabbed, while the red minus barrels substract seconds and must be avoided).
• Big Damn Heroes: During the first boss fight with Kaptain K. Rool on The Flying Krock, when he gets up for the third time and it's clear that Diddy and Dixie can't quite close out the fight, Donkey Kong struggles loose and uppercuts K. Rool to deal a finishing blow.
• Blackout Basement: An underwater version in Glimmer's Galleon. It works like Torchlight Trouble from the first scene (an animal buddy following you with a light source), with Glimmer's lantern taking the place of Squawks' flashlight.
• Bleak Level: Gloomy Gulch in definitely lives up to its name. Crocodile Isle is not a friendly place in general, but Gloomy Gulch stands out as a dark and barren region high up on the mountain, surrounded by dead forests. Cementing this is the world's theme song Forest Interlude, which is much more downbeat and moody compared to the rest of the game's soundtrack.
• Bonus Dungeon: There's a hidden Lost World that you need bonus coins to enter, and these coins are in turn hidden in the regular levels.
• Bookends: The beginning and ending of the Game Boy Advance remake shows Donkey Kong drinking a banana shake (at the beach in the begging, and at Kong House in the end).
• Boss-Arena Idiocy:
  • Krow, Kleever, Kudgel and Kreepy Krow would be unstoppable if projectiles weren't available for you to throw at them.
  • King Zing would be unbeatable if there wasn't a Squawks Barrel at the entrance to his arena.
• Boss Remix:
  • The main boss theme "Boss Bossanova" is a darker remix of "Welcome to Crocodile Isle" and "Jib Jig".
  • The Final Boss theme "Crocodile Cacophony" is an even more intense remix of "Lost World Anthem" and also contains elements from the melody of "Welcome to Crocodile Isle".
• Brutal Bonus Level: The Lost World. Access to a level can be bought at Klubba's Kiosk in each world for 15 Kremkoins apiece. They are much harder than the regular levels, which is saying a lot. Specific levels of note:
  • "Animal Antics" because of the infamous area forcing you to fly through tight bramble passages as Squawks while the constantly shifting wind keeps blowing you forward and back.
  • "Klobber Karnage," which forces you to move over large pits of spikes in barrels, trying to time the tilting of the barrel and when to shoot into another barrel to avoid hitting bees, requiring tight timing.
• Bubblegloop Swamp: Krem Quay (the former Trope Namer), the third world, mostly consists of swamp levels that feature platforming across murky water using cattails. A later level, however, revolves around brambles, where Diddy and Dixie have to aim carefully their launches between the barrels to avoid touching the thorns.
• The Cameo: Cranky's Video Game Heroes Hall of Fame (if the player doesn't collect enough DK Coins to bump any of them out of the top three) includes Mario, Yoshi and Link. Sonic the Hedgehog's shoes and Earthworm Jim's blaster can be seen next to a trashcan in the corner marked "No Hopers".
• Cartoon Juggling: Diddy Kong's idle animation is him doing a cascade with four balls.
• Cash Gate: To access the Lost World, Klubba needs to be paid in Kremkoins. Otherwise, trying to fight him will just have him knock Diddy and Dixie off-screen and kick them back to the world map.
• Challenge Run:
  • In the SNES version, inputting B, A, Right, Right, A, Left, A, X (BARRAL AX) while Cheat Mode is highlighted makes all DK Barrels disappear.
  • In the GBA version, inputting WELLARD in the Cheats menu takes away all DK Barrels, while inputting ROCKARD removes both all DK Barrels and all Star Barrels.
• Checkpoint Starvation: There's a cheat which removes all the Check Points in the levels. This is also present in the following game.
• Chest Monster: Klobbers disguise themselves as barrels and charge at the Kongs when approached; jumping on them stuns them so they can be picked up. Green Klobbers just bump you around, TNT Klobbers explode on contact, yellow Klobbers knock bananas out of you, and black Klobbers with red eyes knock lives out of you.
• Circus of Fear: This is the theme of two levels in the world Krazy Kremland. Interestingly, these circus levels have upbeat music, and a fun Minecart Madness design. However, levels in the same section of the game, including the boss fight, take place inside a giant beehive, which serves to show just how run down (or possibly deliberately dangerous) the park is.
• Circus Synths: Target Terror and Rickety Race, the skullcart-riding levels in Krazy Kremland - half-circus, half Amusement Park of Doom - are accompanied by Disco Train, a catchy techno/disco fusion, that nicely reflects the frantic nature of the levels themselves. Unfortunately it can't really be appreciated in-game, as it's obscured by the sound of grinding rails, signals and fireworks, and it doesn't help that both levels aren't exempt from the game's legendary difficulty. The ending music for both Diddy and Dixie also gets a techno treatment.
• Climbing Climax: The overworld sees Diddy and Dixie climbing Crocodile Isle, culminating in the vertically-oriented levels of K. Rool's Keep. But when they reach the top, K. Rool's Cool Airship swoops in and lifts him and the trapped Donkey Kong away.
• Cobweb Trampoline: One of the boxed animals that you can ride is an enormous spider, whose special move is to spit out perfect round spiderwebs, which can be frozen in mid-air and used as trampolines.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: During the first fight against Kaptain K. Rool in the Flying Krock, K. Rool is seen beating a tied-up Donkey Kong with the butt of his blunderbuss, followed by shooting three (comically large) cannonballs point-blank.
• Collapsing Lair: In the 102% ending of the game, Crocodile Isle sinks into the ocean as Donkey Kong, Diddy, and Dixie watch from a hill. As this happens, Kaptain K. Rool flees away on a raft to plot his next evil plan, laughing wickedly as he does so.^note In the Game Boy Advance remake, Funky drops a bomb on K. Rool to prevent that from happening, though given that he appears as the villain in Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!, K. Rool still survives.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: During K. Rool's last phase in the Flying Krock, he'll shoot colored gas at the Kongs, while harmless, will give a temporary negative effect that will make them an easy target for his next attacks. Blue gas freezes the Kongs in place, red gas slows them down (including their gravity), and purple gas reverses their controls.
• Company Cameo:
  • Starting with this game, Diddy Kong's red cap has consistently been depicted with a Nintendo logo on it.
  • The title screen shows Diddy and Dixie opening a chest full of loot. Among that loot is the golden R that was part of Rareware's logo at the time (long before it eventually returned to an update of that logo).
  • Cranky's Monkey Museum contains the logos of both Nintendo and Rare among the various objects in the background.
• Console Cameo: The boss battle against K. Rool features a Super Nintendo Entertainment System controller in the background, with the colors of its buttons varying depending on the version.
• Convection, Schmonvection: Crocodile Cauldron, to the extent that some crocodiles can apparently lie in the lava with only their heads above the surface while Diddy and Dixie have no problem hopping on their heads, inches away from the lava. Hell, in Red-Hot Ride, hot air balloons can sink halfway under the lava.
• Cool Airship: The Flying Krock, K. Rool's flying machine. He takes Donkey Kong away on it after Stronghold Showdown, requiring Diddy and Dixie to chase in down and fight him on it.
• Cool Sword: Kleever is a Flying Weapon with no one wielding it, absolutely huge, most definitely an Evil Weapon and looks like something made in hell.
• Crate Expectations: In addition to throwable barrels and treasure chests, as well as the boxes containing the animal buddies, there are traditional crates that can be thrown at enemies
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Donkey Kong takes out K. Rool in a single punch once he frees himself from the ropes.
• Damsel in Distress: Invoked by Cranky in the SNES version's manual, in which he gripes that Dixie should be the one who was kidnapped and not one of the stars.
• Darker and Edgier: The Kremlings are pirates and are carrying weapons like cannons and cutlasses around, Donkey Kong has been kidnapped, and in comparison to the friendly jungles and temples of the original island, you're fighting on the home turf of the Kremlings this time, an island full of swamps, sunken ships, ghost-infested structures, and a castle. The game in general also has a darker and more foreboding visual and audio aesthetic.
• Dark Reprise: The boss theme incorporates a minor-key variation on the music used in the rigging stages, and the game over jingle is a much slower and sadder take on the ship deck music.
• A Day in the Limelight: The stage Animal Antics focuses on the player using all of the animal buddies. However, Diddy and/or Dixie will be back right before the goal is reached.
• Deader than Dead: Kreepy Krow, already dead after his previous defeat as Warm-Up Boss Krow, goes poof — presumably into the afterlife for good — after being defeated again.
• Deadly Walls: The bramble levels. Since the walls are made of bramble (which has a lot of thorns), it's justified. Fortunately, the floors and walls only hurt Squawks himself when he is carrying Diddy and/or Dixie (but he will drop one of them when hit, losing a life if they're both gone). When transformed into Squawks directly, touching hazards (including bramble walls) will lose a life if the other Kong isn't "in reserve", and remove them from reserve if they are.
• Death Mountain: The overworld of Crocodile Isle is one massive mountain, with each world being on a different section of the climb. To reach the top, the Kongs have to navigate through a Gang Plank Galleon, a Lethal Lava Land, a Bubblegloop Swamp, an Amusement Park of Doom (which also has more swamp and a Hornet Hole), The Lost Woods (Which has bits of Big Boo's Haunt), before reaching the Big Bad's castle (which partially includes a Slippy-Slidey Ice World) at the very top of the peak.
• Degraded Boss: The GBA-exclusive boss Kerozene fights you with Kleevers. Unlike the Kleever fought in Crocodile Cauldron, the ones used by Kerozene can be defeated in one hit.
• Derelict Graveyard: The first three worlds. First there's a ship that's in mint condition except for a hole torn into the hull, then there's a ship that's been torn in half and is sitting in the middle of a swamp. And then there's the half-submerged ship in lava...
• Difficulty by Region: A zigzagged example. On the standard gameplay front, the Japanese version removes some of the bees from Bramble Scramble and exactly one from Haunted Hall, making that version of the game slightly easier than any other. As a strange trade off, the quizzes were made slightly more difficult compared to the American and European releases.
• Disc-One Final Dungeon: The last proper world of the game is K. Rool's Keep at the very top of the Kremling's Island-Mountain home. The final level of every world is the Boss Battle, with this one called "Stronghold Showdown" located on the highest level of the fortress. Diddy and Dixie walk into the room where the presumed battle will take place, find Donkey bound in ropes hanging from the ceiling, and awkwardly begin celebrating as they are awarded with a Kremcoin typically given AFTER beating a boss. DK is pulled up to the ceiling, the small Kongs shout in surprise and climb further up the Castle. A small cutscene shows a huge, crocodile airship flying over the Castle as K. Rool climbs up from the Keep on a rope ladder with DK in tow. The Kongs have to go through one more level (apparently a portion of the seemingly massive rope ladder that has been twisted and bundled up like a power cord into a race track for birds) before they can fight K. Rool. The Game Boy Advance version features a short dialog with K. Rool before he escapes and summons a firebreathing boss called Kerozene. Furthermore, there is a hidden world and a second, hidden boss battle with K. Rool that is accessible only after beating K. Rool the first time and obtaining every Kremcoin.
• Disney Villain Death: After K. Rool is defeated, he falls off his ship into the lake below, where he is devoured alive by sharks. Also doubles as Black Comedy due to the cartoonish chomping noises heard.^note This only happens in the SNES version. It also counts as a Disney Death, since he survives.
• Dreadful Dragonfly: The Flitters, big blue dragonflies from the Kremling Krew that patrol definite paths and hurt Diddy and Dixie should they touch the darners. Thankfully, unlike Zingers they can be easily dispatched by jumping on them, and once you get the hang of it, they more often serve as convenient one-time springboards than real threats.
• Dungeon Bypass: The game has one of these in every level of the first and second worlds.
• E = MC Hammer: Parodied; a chalkboard at the Kong Kollege reads "9÷3=6", "8×1=9", and "4+2=5" under the title "Exam". The joke, of course, is that the Kremlings that attend the school are dumb.
• Elevator Action Sequence: Castle Crush is this — except, as the name indicates, the player fights more against the various walls and ceilings trying to squish the player against the rising floor.
• Elite Mooks: Krunchas can only be defeated with either a barrel, an Animal Buddy, or both Diddy and Dixie working together (by having one throw the other at them). Anything else will make them Turn Red, and hitting them again in that state will make you take the hit instead.
• Epileptic Flashing Lights: Glimmer's Galleon, the level where Glimmer the anglerfish provides a cone-shaped beam of light in an otherwise dark level. The issue arises in whenever Diddy/Dixie changes direction, in which case Glimmer will also turn around and flash the screen with blinding white for one frame. Seeing as you'll have to turn around a lot to beat this level, it's very unpleasant to play for this reason alone. Modern rereleases (such as for the Virtual Console or Nintendo Switch Online) remove the flash.
• Escape Sequence: The "Rambi Rumble" stage, in which King Zing, the world's boss, chases you to the end of the level.
• Evil Weapon: Kleever, the boss of Crocodile Cauldron, is a living bony fire sword. It seems to be wielded by a lava-hand at first, but starts flying around on its own accord halfway through the fight.
• Excited Title! Two-Part Episode Name!: The boss levels are given this treatment in the Japanese localization.
• Eye Pop: Comically done by Diddy and Dixie at the start of a boss fight.
• Fastball Special: If you have both characters in play, you can use one to grab the other and throw them to reach high ledges.
• Feathered Fiend: The Mini-Neckies, Krow, and Screech. The former two are vulture pirates in the Kremling Krew (Krow is the King Mook of the Mini-Neckies), while Screech is a mean-looking parrot who races against Squawks in the final world.
• Feed It a Bomb: K. Rool is damaged by tossing cannonballs into his blunderbuss when it's trying to suck you in, causing it to backfire on him.
• Floating Platforms: The game takes this trope one step further, having conveniently-placed hooks to swing off from that are attached to the sky.
• Flunky Boss: The game has King Zing, who, about halfway through the battle, shrinks, turns red (literally, not the trope) and gets a few bodyguards. You then have to knock a couple of the surrounding Zingers out and spit eggs at him before they respawn (how many you knock out doesn't affect respawn speed, though). The same game has Kreepy Krow, who summons ghostly Mini-Neckies to attack you. You have to kill the living Mini-Necky so that a barrel will appear, which you can use to attack Kreepy Krow with.
• Friendly Neighborhood Spider: Squitter is a Giant Spider who assists the Kongs in their quests. He creates two different types of webs; ones that can be used as ammunition against enemies, and ones that can be used as temporary platforms to get across dangerous places or reach higher places and/or items.
• Game-Breaking Bug:
  • In the SNES version, there is the infamous Castle Crush glitch. By grabbing and dropping a DK barrel and then immediately picking it up the kongs will be holding an invisible barrel. Releasing this barrel by throwing it causes the game to try and pull the nearest actor entity to its position and depending on when this barrel is released, a mismatched entity pointer will try to load whatever is now sitting in its place within memory. This leads to arbitrary code execution as the game will try loading garbage data and causes a myriad of effects from pulling enemies and bosses from other areas into the level with broken palette data and if the Rambi transformation barrel is called, it causes an array overflow in tandem and normally crashes the game. This was fixed in revised releases of the game, the Game Boy Advance port and apparently patched out of the Wii Virtual Console version. It was not fixed however in the Wii U Virtual Console or Nintendo Switch Online versions, as they use the original 1.0 ROM.
  • A similar glitch also occurs within Mudhole Marsh with the BARRALAX cheat in effect by breaking treasure chests with DK Barrels in them and then grabbing it as it launches into the air. Another breaking bug can occur in Rickety Race if the player remains last throughout the level and then defeats the second to last racer as the final race position is displayed at the end of the level.
• Gangplank Galleon: The first world and Trope Namer, continuing the theme of the previous game's final boss stage. Its levels include ship decks, an underwater storage area, and rope-covered masts.
• Ghastly Ghost:
  • The Kloak enemies are ghostly waistcoats who cackle and throw basic objects at Diddy and Dixie.
  • In "Haunted Hall", Diddy and Dixie are riding a roller coaster through a giant library inhabited by a ghostly crocodile pirate named Kackle, who chases them down. As Kackle chases them, a time limit appears at the top of the screen. If time runs out, then Kackle catches Diddy and Dixie, costing them a life, and cackling as he does so. Collecting Green + Barrels adds more time to the time limit, but collecting Red - Barrels takes time away.
  • The boss of Gloomy Gulch is Kreepy Krow, the ghost of Krow, a giant Mini-Necky who served as the game's first boss. Kreepy Krow is trying to kill Diddy and Dixie as revenge for killing him, and he summons ghostly Mini-Neckies to attack them. By killing the living Mini-Necky, a barrel appears, which Diddy and Dixie can use to attack Kreepy Krow with.
• Ghostly Animals: The vulture boss Krow comes back as a ghost called "Kreepy Krow" after the Kongs defeat him in the first world, Gangplank Galleon. The game also features skeletal ghost Kremlings named Kackles.
• Ghost Pirate: Kloak and Kackle are Kremling Ghost Pirates, as well as Kreepy Krow, the ghost of the first boss in the game. As you may expect, you'll encounter them within Gloomy Gulch.
• Ghost Town: According to the guides, Gloomy Gulch was once a thriving Western Town until unknown circumstances (Presumably Kremling interference) turned it into a figurative and literal version of this.
• Giant Hands of Doom: Kerozene, a boss in the GBA remake, attacks with its massive fists.
• Giant Mook: The Krunchas are the only giant Kremlings in the game. Neither Diddy nor Dixie can damage them by themselves; it takes a barrel/cannonball, a team attack, or an animal buddy to kill them, and any ineffective attack enrages them instead.
• Gimmick Level: The game's level proportion is roughly half-and-half (half gimmick levels, half traditional levels). One such example of the former is Rickety Race, where Diddy and Dixie are racing against nine Klanks in a Minecart Madness railtrack; it's not necessary to get past or defeat them, but each of them yields a prize, and the first one in particular holds the level's DK Coin, so catching that Klank is the only way the two Kong lovers can gather the desired special item.
• Global Currency: This and the next game involve using two types of coins: "regular" coins for getting important items (banana coins and bear coins respectively), and "special" coins for unlocking hidden levels (Kremkoins and "Bonus coins"). Actually, both games also have a third type: a giant one with "DK" on it, but those are just for getting 100% Completion.
• Golden Ending: The true ending, only accessible by completing the Lost World, sees Crocodile Isle sinking and K. Rool escaping in a fit of Evil Laughter, with Donkey, Diddy and Dixie watching from a cliff.
• The Goomba: Neek, the rat enemy and first enemy you encounter. They only ever move in one direction and die from any attack.
• Grim Up North: Both of the game's ice-themed levels are in the northern-most area of the map. And it is a pretty grim place. And it's definitely "up".
• Grimy Water: The water in the swamp levels is extremely murky and is entirely non-swimmable unlike other instances of water throughout the SNES games. Falling into it has the same effect as a Bottomless Pit.
• Guide Dang It!: While most of the bonus areas and collectibles aren't as obscure as the ones from the first game (it helps that Cranky gives out hints), there are still some out-there ones.
  • The hero coin in Kannon's Klaim, which is hidden not in the main level, but a bonus level (and is the only coin hidden like this).
  • The hero coin in Bramble Scramble, which expects you to jump through a fake wall of brambles. Only a stray banana and the subtle movement of the camera tips the player off. You'll find the exit to this secret area later in the level, blocked by a one-way barrel. It's possible to enter between the barrel and the bramble, but you'll likely sacrifice a Kong in the process.
  • The second bonus in Chain Link Chamber, in the door behind the Kannons. Not only does it seem just like a background element, even if you see it, you have to find a certain walk-through wall in order to reach it.
  • The cheat to unlock all 75 Kremkoins is so obtuse it wasn't discovered until several years after the fact. Somewhat justified in that it seems to be a leftover debug tool.
• Gusty Glade: The Trope Namer level itself is in Gloomy Gulch, where wind blows the Kongs back and forth as shown by the movement of leaves; the gimmick returns in Animal Antics, which mixes this with Squawks and brambles. There's also the vertical-based Windy Well, which can also count as Gravity Screw since it involves the Kongs being blown upwards by updrafts at set areas.
• Hailfire Peaks:
  • The game features a level that is a Lethal Lava Land merged with Down the Drain, this is because there's an Animal buddy who can turn the lava into swimmable water.
  • The fourth world, Krazy Kremland, consists of a Hornet Hole region in the south and an Amusement Park of Doom in the north. Both areas each have a Bubblegloop Swamp level as well, due to the world's proximity with the swampy Krem Quay.
  • Even more directly, the Game Boy port Donkey Kong Land 2 merges the 2nd (a lava world) and 3rd (a swamp themed world) into one.
• Hard Levels, Easy Bosses: The bosses are more challenging than those in the first game, but none of them will make you tear your hair out in frustration. Many of the levels, however, are absolutely brutal. This doubly applies to the Lost World levels which are the hardest in the game. Beating all of them unlocks a hidden rematch against K. Rool who is somewhat easier to beat compared to his battle at the end of the game, but he lets out a long string of attacks you have to dodge before you get the chance to land a blow on him and he's a One-Hit-Point Wonder to boot.
• Haunted House: Haunted Hall is a coaster level that takes place in a haunted library.
• The Hedge of Thorns: The Bramble levels: Bramble Blast, Bramble Scramble, and Screech's Sprint. All three of them take place inside giant bushes of spiky brambles, with only a few planks as safe ground.
• Helicopter Hair: Dixie Kong uses her hair to slow her descent.
• Hints Are for Losers: The game has a section in the manual called "Cranky's Hint", but there, Cranky just laughs at you and tell you to buy the Nintendo Power guide instead. Within the game itself, the last hint you can buy from Wrinkly Kong is "All but one of my hints are useful to you." Her hint for the final boss battle is "Make sure you have plenty of lives!"
• Hint System: Wrinkly Kong sells gameplay tips at Kong Kollege in exchange for Banana Coins, while Cranky Kong's Monkey Museum sells hints towards the locations of DK Coins, bonus areas, and extra lives.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • Krow is first beaten by the very eggs he tries to throw at you.
  • You ultimately beat K. Rool by clogging his gun with his own cannonballs. This can happen to you immediately afterwards, too, since the ensuing explosions launch said cannonballs back at you.
• Hollywood Acid: The acid from Toxic Tower is bright lime green, acts exactly like rising water and instantly kills anything it touches.
• Hooks and Crooks: The Krook enemy throws boomeranging hooks at you.
• Hornet Hole: Krazy Kremland has a stage that is the Trope Namer, along with a couple more in the same world (including the boss stage) and one more in Gloomy Gulch. These levels feature a lot of Zingers, as well as honey trails covering many surfaces that can be used to Wall Jump.
• Iconic Sequel Character: This game marked the debut of Dixie Kong, one of the most prominent members of the Kong family. She would later star the following game, alongside Kiddy Kong.
• Idle Animation: When Diddy is left alone for a few seconds, he will pull out some balls and juggle them. When Dixie is left alone for a few seconds, she will chew some bubble gum and blow a bubble or drink some juice.
• Impossibly Cool Weapon: Kaptain K Rool's blunderbuss. It can fire cannonballs, sure, but it can also... suck in objects, fire spiky mines, fire mines that bounce across the screen, fire mines that rotate and fly around, sometimes in pairs, fire barrels that rotate and fly around, be used as a sort of engine, fire gasses that freeze Kongs in place, reverse the controls and slow them down, and it even manages to turn K Rool invisible.
• Improvised Platform: Squitter, one of the animal companions in the game, lets you create platforms out of webs.
• Indy Escape: The stage Rambi Rumble. The player had to flee from a giant wasp that chased them down a long tunnel. This can double as terrifying for some. The chase is started by falling down a hole, and with no forewarning, the giant wasp (about twice the size of your character) begins chasing you to an intense, heart-pounding soundtrack. The abruptness of the whole situation can catch even experienced players off-guard.
• Infamous, but in Charge: Klubba seems to imply that K. Rool is an unpopular leader amongst the Kremlings.
  "Kap'n K. Rool treats us rotten. I hope yer scupper his plans!"
• Infinite Flashlight: Glimmer, being a friendly anglerfish, is mostly the same except for the narrower beam.
• Insect Queen: King Zinger is a male example, harassing Squawks during the boss battle of Krazy Kremland. His weak point is the sting.
• Insurmountable Waist-Height Fence: In the Krazy Kremland area, the heroes find themselves outside a Circus of Fear. They enter and pass through all obstacles, only to emerge in a swamp about twenty in-game feet from the entrance. Separating them is nothing but a grassy knoll.
• Interface Screw: One of the ghost types Kaptain K. Rool fires from his blunderbuss reverses the controls if touched. Another type will freeze the Kongs, and a third type puts the Kongs into slow motion.
• Invincibility Power-Up: The game introduces a barrel that grants this ability for a limited time.
• Invincible Minor Minion:
  • Red Zingers can only be killed with barrels full of explosives or with the assistance of a "!" invincibility barrel. They can even survive being jumped on by a rhino. Looks rather silly when the boss version of the Zinger can be defeated by a bird that spits eggs.
  • There's the skeletal kremling phantom, Kackle, that you find in the mineshaft level of the haunted woods area. This guy is more or less invulnerable to any attack or thrown object you have (not that you could throw anything since you meet them in the middle of mine cart tracks) and will kill you if the timer above you runs out, which is easy since they chase you for portions of the time you're in the cart. The only way you can avoid being killed by them is by beating the time you get from the beginning of the phantom's chase portion (marked by a door you enter) and make it to that portion's "exit" (another door) before time runs out. If not, that phantom will automatically kill one of your Kongs.
  • The blood-red piranha-like Lockjaws. Most underwater enemies are unkillable unless you ride/are a certain animal buddy, but Lockjaws are both VERY fast and out for your blood.
• It's a Wonderful Failure: The game has Diddy and Dixie locked in a cell (with the screen turning red) while the letters "GAME OVER" descend upon their doom.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Klubba will be mean and threatening towards you, but if you manage to pay his toll, he will suddenly change his tune and be really nice to you.
• Jump Scare: Downplayed. "Rambi Rumble" features one, when you fall down a chasm, only for the music to suddenly change to the frantic "Run! Rambi! Run!" and a giant bee starts chasing you.
• Jungle Japes: Much of the Lost World takes place in a jungle - namely Jungle Jinx, Klobber Karnage and parts of Animal Antics. Unlike the jungles in the first game however, this is more of a Hungry Jungle, with denser vegetation, Spikes of Doom and skulls littering much of the ground, and a generally darker, more savage atmosphere accompanied by tribal music.
• Kaizo Trap: After landing the final hit on K. Rool, it's possible to get hit by the cannon ball and die. Especially noticeable since the delay between the final blow and it firing is much longer than the previous attacks.
• King Mook: King Zing, Krow and Kreepy Krow. The former one is a giant versions of the Zingers, like Queen B. was in the first game. The latter two are giant versions of the Mini-Neckies.
• Kung Fu-Proof Mook: The game adds Spinies, who can't be jumped on, but can be rolled into.
• Lava Is Boiling Kool-Aid: The red hot water in Lava Lagoon, which you must cool with Clapper's help before taking a swim.
• Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: The ending results screen shows Earthworm Jim's blaster and Sonic's shoes lying discarded by a trash can with a sign that says "No Hopers".
• Leap of Faith: A careful analysis of the game's use of this trope is available here. In a couple of them, you can just see the top of a barrel, but not often. However, the port to the GBA made several of them more obvious, and removed a couple, such as the one at the start of the first roller coaster level.
• Left Stuck After Attack: Kutlass will sometimes get his cutlasses stuck in the ground after attacking, giving you a brief period of time in which he can be Goomba Stomped. Green Kutlasses recover almost immediately, though.
• Lethal Lava Land: Crocodile Cauldron is a volcano-theme world, with its levels taking place above dangerous lava pits. However, the lava in these levels is actually just a cosmetic coverup for Bottomless Pits, so you can touch the lava (using cartwheel + midair jump) without it actually harming you, so long as you don't cross that invisible line where you die.
• Level Goal: Every level ends with a "Test Your Strength" Game, where your strength is determined by if you've fallen on the target from high enough. This goal also contains an item on the top that cycles between different options, requiring a bit of timing if you want a particular prize.
• Light 'em Up: Glimmer, an animal buddy only found in Glimmer's Galleon. He follows the Kongs and shines a light forward so they can see in the darkness.
• Lighter and Softer: The Game Boy Advance remake uses brighter colors and more cartoonish qualities. The ending was also slightly altered. In the original version, K. Rool falls from his ship after his defeat and gets eaten by sharks, but in the Game Boy Advance remake, he falls into the Lost World and vows for revenge, which hints at getting the Golden Ending. The Golden Ending is changed, too. In the original version, K. Rool rides away in Evil Laughter as Crocodile Isle collapses, whereas in the Game Boy Advance remake, additional dialogue was added and Funky drops a bomb on K. Rool.
• Living Weapon: Kleaver, a giant cutlass that serves as the second boss of the game. At first it looks like something’s holding it from below the lava pool it sits in, but halfway through the fight it starts floating on its own accord.
• Logo Joke: Like the first game, this one has the Rareware logo be drawn in with green wireframe and fill with color, before shrinking to the bottom right to accomodate the Nintendo logo.
• Losing Horns: An extension of the classic "wah-wah-wahhhhh" appears in Stronghold Showdown, after Donkey Kong is lifted out of the room and away from Diddy and Dixie.
• The Lost Woods: Gloomy Gulch has many forest levels, which are darker and more dangerous than the ones from Vine Valley in the first game. It is a haunted forest with spooky inhabitants like rope-like ghosts that can be used as vines (except they fade in and out periodically, so timing is key), Kloaks that are dressed with waistcoats, and stalking skeletal ghosts that inhabit a mansion. One of the levels is the trope-naming Gusty Glade, where wind currents are frequent and shift their rate and direction. The boss is the ghost of Krow, who was previously killed in the first world.
• Lost World: The game has an area actually called Lost World that is filled with several types of fauna and it isn't found anywhere else on the island. K. Rool is found in an ancient temple of sorts and defeating him sends him flying into the center of the light the temple is radiating, causing the Lost World to implode and sink the island.
• Megaton Punch: After Donkey Kong breaks free of his restraints, he delivers the final blow to K. Rool, knocking him through the roof of his airship and into shark-infested waters.
• Minecart Madness: Carnival versions in Target Terror and Rickety Race and a haunted version in Haunted Hall, all using a skull-shaped roller coaster cart as the Kongs' vehicle of choice.
• Minigame Zone: Swanky's Bonus Bonanza, where successfully beating quiz games can gain you lives.
• Mook Maker: Kloaks sometimes throws Spinies in addition to their normal damaging objects.
• Mook-Themed Level: The game has Kannon's^note a cannon-wielding enemy Klaim, Lockjaw's^note a piranha-like enemy Locker and Klobber^note a barrel-wearing enemy Karnage. There's also the Hornet Hole-themed levels, referring to the Zingers, giant wasp enemies, that are always omnipresent in them.
• Mordor: Crocodile Island is oddly both this and a Polluted Wasteland. It's both a Death World filled with dangerous monsters and polluted to the point it makes any real life environmental trainwrecks look quite pleasant in comparison. It actually sinks into the ocean after the final boss is defeated.
• Musical Nod: "Snakey Chantey", heard in Rattle Battle (and the SNES version of Glimmer's Galleon), starts out with a re-orchestrated portion of "Gang-Plank Galleon" from the first game.
• My Species Doth Protest Too Much: When Diddy and Dixie first meet Klubba, he's a jerk and demands they pay his toll in Kremkoins, and trying to fight him results in the pair getting smacked off the screen. But after paying his toll, he acts quite friendly to the Kongs and becomes their only Kremling ally in the game (unless you count the Krocheads). He even roots for them to take down K. Rool, on principle that he doesn't treat his minions very well.
• Never Say "Die": Klubba can say "Try that again an' it's Davey Jones Locker f' ye! A-harrh!" if you choose to fight him at any Klubba's Kiosk.
• Night of the Living Mooks: The Kackles and Kloaks. Kackles are skeletal Kremlings with pirate bandannas that hover to move around; they appear only in the level Haunted Hall. Meanwhile, Kloaks are spectra dressed with waistcoats that throw objects (or even enemies) at Diddy and Dixie.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: There's a rollercoaster level in which you are persued by a pirate crocodile skeleton ghost. The Big Bad K. Rool himself is a pirate crocodile king that is sometimes a scientist, too.
• Nintendo Hard: Often considered the hardest of the trilogy, which says a lot. Levels are longer and involve tougher gimmicks (especially ones where you're forced to play as an animal buddy), and the boss fights are more involved as well. Even the commercial boasts, "it's even tougher than the original one."
• Non-Indicative Difficulty: Hard mode removes all DK barrels, but levels always start with both Kongs, which is beneficial in Tool-Assisted Speedruns since they don't have to waste time getting the DK barrels which might be out of the way or wait for the animation of the imprisoned Kong getting freed to finish.
• Non-Indicative Name: In the SNES version, Stronghold Showdown doesn't contain a showdown. Averted in the GBA version, where there's a showdown with Kerozene.
• Offscreen Start Bonus:
  • The Rickety Race level. When you first land in the cart to start the race, logic tells you to go forward, lest you fall off the edge of the track. However, if you do go backwards as soon as the race starts, you eventually hit a booster that speeds you up significantly and makes the level quite a bit easier.
  • One level has an entire level section to the left of the starting point. At the end is the level's DK Coin.
• Oh, Crap!: Diddy and Dixie's reaction to the appearance of bosses is having their eyes cartoonishly bug out of their head. Donkey Kong does it too during the final battle when K. Rool appears defeated only to get back up, though only the first two times.
• One-Hit-Point Wonder: A notable example happens with the rematch with Kaptain K. Rool, who is defeated with only one cannonball into his blunderbuss, but has a very long sequence of attacks before you finally get your turn. It makes sense given that by this point he's already suffered three backblasts from his first fight with Diddy and Dixie in addition to Donkey Kong clocking him when it became apparent that they weren't quite strong enough to beat K. Rool alone.
• Over 100% Completion: The game clocks at 102% in the completion meter, and achieving it is how you can unlock the true ending.
• Painfully Slow Projectile: In "Web Woods", two of the Kannon enemies fire cannonballs that move very slowly. Since you play as Squitter in this level, an Animal Friend with no wall-breaking abilities, you'll have to follow the cannonballs so they can break the walls for you (hinted at by arrows made of bananas pointing to them) in order to enter the level's bonus rooms.
• Painful Pointy Pufferfish: Porcufish-like baddies called Puftups are common aquatic enemies. Some Puftups explode after inflating, causing them to unleash spikes in four directions. They could be defeated only when deflated.
• Patchwork Map: Once you reach Crocodile Isle, you go from a volcanic region, then to a swamp, then to an amusement park in the swamp, then to an ancient deciduous forest, then to a castle on an ice cap. Here it seems that the lower parts of the island, which connect with the sea, are all swamp except for the volcanoes, and the forest is much higher on the map than the swamp.
• Piranha Problem: The game has two different types of piranha enemies; Lockjaw and Snapjaw. Lockjaws are common enemies in underwater levels, they charge at Diddy or Dixie when they get near them, and can be killed by Enguarde. Snapjaw is an Invincible Minor Minion who inhabits two levels; "Slime Climb" and "Arctic Abyss". In the former level, he lurks in the rising water, chasing Diddy and Dixie down if they fall in it, and in the latter, Diddy and Dixie have to use Clapper the Seal to freeze the water and cross it before it thaws.
• Pirate Episode: This game does this with its villains. King K. Rool becomes Kaptain K. Rool and he and his henchmen, the Kremlings, all don pirate attire as they capture Donkey Kong. The Kremlings also carry weapons like cannons and cutlasses around, and the game's worlds include pirate ships, swamps, ghost-infested structures, and a castle.
• Polluted Wasteland: Crocodile Island is both Mordor and a Polluted Wasteland. It has Gangplank Galleon, an Amusement Park of Doom called Krazy Kremland, a forboding Evil Tower of Ominousness, is filled with dead trees, Zingers (wasps), Brambles and danger, and the whole place and ocean around it is dark murky green. It actually sinks into the ocean after the final boss is defeated.
• Pop Quiz: Swanky's Bonus Bonanzas. They are optional bonus rounds that offer One Ups. Ironically, your number of extra lives don't get saved, but the fact that you completed a Swanky Quiz does, so they're strictly a one-off bonus that stays locked on loading a "Quiz Completed" save.
• Proj-egg-tile:
  • Krow's main form of attack (and also the Kongs' main form of counterattack, since they can pick up his eggs and throw them back) is to drop eggs from a crow's nest. In his rematch as a ghost, he still launches eggs, although from offscreen this time.
  • Squawks can attack by shooting eggs from his mouth.
• Promoted to Playable: There are now sections where the various Animal Buddies outright replace the Kongs as player characters, as opposed to being Power Up Mounts (or, in Squawks's case, not even that).
• Public Domain Soundtrack: The theme for Haunted Hall borrows from "Night on Bald Mountain" in places.
• Pun-Based Title: Diddy's Kong Quest — i.e. "conquest."
• Punch-Clock Villain: Klubba is only threatening until you pay his toll, and then he's polite as can be. He will also comment that he hopes you take down K. Rool because he doesn't treat his crew well.
• Punch! Punch! Punch! Uh Oh...: Kruncha responds to being jumped on or spun into by roaring, turning red, moving faster, and killing your character just from touching him.
• Racing Minigame:
  • "Screech's Sprint" has Squawks race against Screech through a field of bramble to get to the Flying Krock.
  • In the Game Boy Advance version, you can play a racing game with Expresso at Cranky's Cabin, using feathers collected throughout the game to boost his stats.
• Removed Achilles' Heel: Kaptain K. Rool's weakness is that the cannonballs fired from his blunderbuss can be picked up and thrown back at him to plug it up. This is not the case for King K. Rool in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, who can use his blunderbuss to vacuum up cannonballs thrown at him and fire them back.
• Rescue Reversal: During the final battle with Kaptain K. Rool, just as it seems that Kaptain K. Rool is about to finish off Diddy and/or Dixie after being knocked out by them a third time, Donkey Kong (whom the two have been trying to rescue) breaks free from his ropes and delivers the final hit to Kaptain K. Rool, punching him out of his helicopter and sending him falling thousands of feet below, into the swamp.
• Rise to the Challenge:
  • "Slime Climb" is like this, except that since the DKC series doesn't feature Super Drowning Skills, the actual reason the player has to avoid the water is the Invincible Minor Minion Snapjaw lurking in it. Because Snapjaw could not be implemented on the Game Boy, touching the slime hurts you in Donkey Kong Land 2.
  • "Toxic Tower", which does indeed involve rising toxic waste, namely a pool of acid that hurts on contact.
  • "Castle Crush" features a rising floor and several narrow passages that guaranteed that a slow Kong will be crushed. This level is also infamous for the Castle Crush glitch present in the original SNES version and the Wii U Virtual Console port capable of bricking the game if performed.
• The Ruins I Caused: The 102% ending shows Diddy, DK, and Dixie watching Crocodile Isle sink into the ocean as K. Rool escapes with an Evil Laugh.
• Rule of Three: Over the course of the game, each level setting is used exactly three times.
• Saharan Shipwreck: A wrecked ship is located in Crocodile Cauldron, the second world and a volcano. The ship itself is in a small lake of superheated water. The third world with the swamp theme has also a semi sunken ship in it. Given that the overall theme of this game is Pirates, there could have been even more of these in the other worlds.
• Save-Game Limits: In the original SNES version only. You can only save in Kong Kolleges, and while the first save in any given location is free (except The Flying Krock, which costs one coin), every save in the same location after that costs two coins. In the remake, saving can be done at any time on the map, and in the Wii U, New 3DS, and Switch ports of the original version, technically at any time via the restore point feature.
• Schmuck Bait: At the end of Glimmer's Galleon, there are a few Puftups, which usually swell up and move around or explode into shrapnel. There is also one that isn't swollen and doesn't seem to react to you, and right above it is a Banana Coin. If you go for the coin, the fish will immediately swell up and float upward, causing you to take a hit.
• Seadog Peg Leg: The basic Kremling enemies, Klomps, have these, fitting the general pirate motif of the game. The Kaboings have two pogo-peg legs, meaning they can only move by leaping.
• Secret Level: There's a "secret" world that allows access to a better ending, and certain items you collect are focused around gaining access to these levels.
• Self-Parody: Jungle Jinx, the first Lost World level, is essentially one of the jungle levels of the first Donkey Kong Country as interpreted by the level designers on Crocodile Isle. The name is similar to the iconic first level of the original game ("Jungle Hijinxs") and the level's gimmick involves large, bouncy, rolling rubber tires, a key mechanic of the original game that is otherwise absent in this one.
• Sinister Scimitar: There's an enemy croc named Kutlass. Three guesses for what he wields. There's also the second boss, Kleever, a Living Weapon version with glowing red eyes and the guardian of Crocodile Cauldron.
• Sinister Stingrays: Flotsam is a stingray who serves as an enemy in the game's underwater levels. He swims back and forth, harming Dixie and Diddy if the Kongs swim into him, but he can be destroyed by Enguarde the Swordfish.
• Shout-Out:
  • On the "Cranky's Video Game Heroes" screen, you can see that Mario, Yoshi, and Link ranked in respectively 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. In the original SNES version, you can also notice Sonic the Hedgehog's shoes and Earthworm Jim's gun, laying next to a trash can labeled as "No Hopers."
  • As confirmed by David Wise on Twitter, the percussion track for "Bayou Boogie" is directly based on the drum machine in Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight".
  • In the Japanese version, you can erroneously answer "Doki Doki Panic" when Swanky asks you for the name of the game's first world during his game show.
  • Chief Thunder of Rareware fighter Killer Instinct fame appears on a poster in the Monkey Museum, as does a woefully underpriced arcade cabinet for the game. There's also a sign advertising "KI Here" located over the Museum in Krazy Kremland.
• Slippy-Slidey Ice World: A couple of levels in K. Rool's Keep are ice caverns. Despite being located geographically high in the world map, these caverns are partially flooded, and in the first of them (Arctic Abyss) the water's level will change as the Kongs progress (with the help of Enguarde). In the second level, another animal buddy (Clapper the Seal) can freeze the water so the nearby Snapjaw cannot harass the Kongs.
• Sorting Algorithm of Threatening Geography: Compared to the first game, this one ups the danger level a bit by having the following sequence: Gangplank Galleon, Lethal Lava Land, Bubblegloop Swamp, Amusement Park of Doom, Big Boo's Haunt mixed with The Lost Woods, Big Fancy Castle and finishing on the The Hedge of Thorns (and a secret Jungle Japes world. Unlike the one from the first game, this one is more Hungry Jungle-flavored, with traps and skulls everywhere). This particularly aggressive lineup is justified as it happens on the homeland of the Big Bad and its followers.
• Sound Test: Like in the first game, there's a cheat that allows you to access the music menu. However, if you use all three save slots, the only way to access the music test is to delete a saved game, as it can be accessed only on the screen where you choose your game mode (press down five times with two-player mode highlighted).
• Spell My Name With An S: Most official sources (such as the soundtrack album and Super Smash Bros.) name the Brambles music as "Stickerbush Symphony", but the GBA remake's sound test calls it "Stickerbrush Symphony" instead.
• Spikes of Doom: The bramble levels have thorny branches wall to wall. Timing the launches between blast barrels is vital to avoid crashing into these branches, though at one point Squawks has to be used to fly across the spiky passageways instead.
• The Spiny:
  • The porcupine enemies, literally named Spinies, hurt the Kongs if they jump on them. They can still be defeated by rolling into them from the front.
  • Kutlasses are immune to the Goomba Stomp unless they get their swords stuck in the ground. Since they hold their swords in front of them, this also means rolling into them also won't work too well.
  • Don't roll into a Klampon. Ever. They will turn around immediately to prevent back attacks, too. Some levels deviously place Klampons (immune to frontal attacks) and Spinies (immune to jumps) together in a row, forcing the player to alternate their attacks carefully.
  • Zingers take it up a notch, being unable to be injured by any of the Kongs' usual means of attack, meaning the player has to instead rely on objects like barrels and cannonballs to kill them. Red Zingers are even worse, since they don't even allow that.
• Spring Coil: The game features Rattly the Rattlesnake, an animal buddy that's a permanently coiled-up snake. It moves around by bouncing in short hops, can jump very high as a normal jump, and with a charged-up leap, it can reach even higher.
• Stealth Pun: Swanky Kong is an entrepreneur, making any business he starts monkey business.
• Super Not-Drowning Skills: The game has a contradictory depiction of Super Not Drowning Skills. In most water levels, your character can stay underwater indefinitely. However, in the swamp levels the water acts as Bottomless Pits....you are dead if you fall into it. That said, the swamp's sludge might well be too thick for the Kong to swim in, or the swamp is poisonous.
• Swamps Are Evil: The Krem Quay world is a swampy Derelict Graveyard where ghostly enemies like Kloak make their first appearances.
• Tactical Suicide Boss:
  • The player would be unable to pass beyond the first boss, Krow, if he didn't throw his own eggs at you so you can pick them up to throw back at him.
  • K. Rool shoots spiked cannonballs at the player, but will sometimes shoot out an ordinary cannonball which can be thrown back at him to jam his gun. Nine times. (Ten if you count the True Final Boss).
• Take That!:
  • In the "Cranky's Video Game Heroes" screen at the end of the game, Sonic the Hedgehog's shoes and Earthworm Jim's gun can be seen next to a trash can that says "No Hopers".
  • In the "Swanky's Bonus Bonanza" mini-game, one of the incorrect answers to the "What is the first enemy you encounter in the game?" question is "C. An ugly earthworm".
  • If you look closely on Wrinkly's promotional image, the second page on her book is a recipe for "Grammy's Worm Pie", which says "Take one ugly worm, squash it underfoot, half-bake in oven. Add groovy gravy. Don't expect to sell many, as worms are very unpopular."
• Take That, Audience!:
  • In the SNES version, the code to start a new file with 50 lives is Y, A, Select, A, Down, Left, A, Down (YA SAD LAD).
  • In the GBA version, the code to start with 15 lives is HELPME, while the code to start with 55 lives is WEAKLING.
• Taking You with Me:
  • Cat O'9-Tails, in all his spinning around, can easily topple off edges to his demise if he gets too close. If he manages to grab the Kongs while coming too close to said edge...
  • Each time the Kongs cause K. Rool's blunderbuss to backfire, it will spit out the cannonball at them, which WILL hurt them if they don't dodge it. Each time they do so, however, the timing gets faster and faster, requiring they have quick reflexes, else they may lose the battle even on the last hit.
• Temporary Platform:
  • The game has crocodile heads that dive and resurface, and temporary ropes in the form of ghosts that wail as they disappear/reappear.
  • The spider sidekick Squitter has the ability to create these as well, in the form of webs. Naturally, there's a level dedicated to this ability.
• "Test Your Strength" Game: The goal posts at the end of each non-boss level are a variation of this. Jumping on the target normally completes the level as usual, but jumping on it from a high-enough height will send the barrel up the pole and win you a prize. The prizes include a single banana, a bunch of bananas, an extra life, the "G" letter of the word "KONG", a banana coin, or a DK coin. The key to getting the prize you want is to jump from the right height at the right time.
• Timed Mission: The second half of Screech's Sprint, which kills you instantly if you don't make it to the end before Screech.
• Time Trial: The Game Boy Advance version has a time trial where you can play all the levels you've beaten in the story.
• True Final Boss: Krocodile Kore, which is unlocked after completing every level in the Lost World. It's a remixed fight against Kaptain K. Rool, where he only takes one hit but unleashes a long volley of shots before the cannonball drops.
• Turns Red: Kruncha. The boss adjusts attack patterns and gets progressively harder after each hit.
• Undead Counterpart: The first boss in the game is Krow, a giant pirate crow who you fight in the Krow's Nest. In a later world, you fight Kreepy Krow, the ghost of Krow. His fight is similar to the first, but more difficult.
• Underground Level: The various mine levels: Kannon's Klaim, Squawks' Shaft, and Windy Well. Unlike the mine levels from the first game, these involve ascending instead of going left to right.
• Under the Sea: Interestingly, Glimmer's Galleon is probably the closest this game gets to a full example, almost every other water level being a mix of land and water gameplay.
• Unexplained Recovery: Exactly how did K. Rool manage to come back from being munched on by sharks?
• Unintentionally Unwinnable: The Game Boy Advance version requires you to play a minigame with Funky Kong in the first world in order to gain access to his flight services. If you're in too much of a rush to bother with this, it's possible to get to the Flyin' Kroc level but be unable to ever return to a previous one, making the pursuit of 102% impossible.
• Unique Enemy: Quite a few — usually to serve as the particular level's gimmick:
  • The invincible Snapjaw, who serves as the enemy who hurts you if you fall in the water of Slime Climb and Clapper's Cavern.
  • Kackle, who hurts you if you mess up too much in Haunted Hall.
  • Klank, the rollercoaster enemy in the only two coaster levels, Target Terror and Rickety Race.
  • Ghostly Mini-Neckies, found only in the boss fight against Kreepy Krow.
  • Faster pink Krunchas in Castle Crush and Clapper's Cavern.
  • The extra-life-stealing black Klobbers in Chain Link Chamber, Black Ice Battle, and Klobber Karnage.
• Unwilling Suspension: The kidnapped Donkey Kong appears like this twice before the final battle against K. Rool.
• The Very Definitely Final Dungeon: K. Rool's Keep is posed to be the climactic finale of the game, not counting the bonus Lost World. It's located at the top of Crocodile Isle, and is where Donkey Kong is held captive. Diddy and Dixie traverse dangerous castle areas as they climb up to their destination. When they finally reach the final area (which is even called Stronghold Showdown), they see DK forcefully tied with a rope and approach him to free him... and then he's pulled upward to be taken outside, and the level ends. The two rescuers then venture into the true final area (The Flying Krock), which consists of a race level against Screech and then finally the battle against K. Rool. In the GBA version of the game, Stronghold Showdown does have a boss on its own: Kerozene.
• Victory Fakeout:
  • The fight against Kleever first appears to be a hand made of lava swinging around an evil-looking sword. The hand sinks down once the sword is hit with three cannonballs, taking the sword with it... only for it to rise out of the lava and start attacking directly. It takes three more hits to break the sword.
  • K. Rool falls down every three hits, dropping Donkey Kong and a DK Barrel from the ceiling, but he'll get back up and won't stop for real until after the ninth hit.
• Vile Vulture: Krow is a large vulture that serves as the boss of the first world, attacking the Kongs with eggs as well as by charging at them. Its ghost serves as the boss of the fifth world.
• Villainous Badland, Heroic Arcadia: The Kremlings' home territory of Crocodile Isle is a much less inviting environment than the Kongs' native island, with a swampy Derelict Graveyard and an active caldera along its coast, while higher up there's an Amusement Park of Doom, and a haunted forest, all under the watchful glare of a sinister tower.
• Wake-Up Call Boss:
  • The second boss, Kleever, starts out fairly simple, shooting a couple fireballs at you and slowly chasing you down a line of hooks, but after you hit him three times, he sinks into the lava, faking death for about half a second before he bursts out, lunges at you, and proceeds to chase you across the hooks (now at several vertical levels) at a much quicker pace. And now he flies. Not overly difficult (especially not compared to, say, K. Rool himself), but still dangerous enough to cost you a few lives the first time you fight him.
  • World 4 as a whole represents a major step up in challenge, but the boss, King Zing, drives the point home. Despite being a mid-game boss, he represents an entirely different challenge: He's the first boss in the series that is fought while riding an Animal Buddy (namely, Squawks the Parrot; DKC3 would later have two bosses fought with Ellie the Elephant and Enguarde the Swordfish), let alone a buddy that had only been available for a few levels at this point, the only boss in the game that does not revolve around evading attacks until a convenient barrel or cannonball spawns, the first boss in the series that is invulnerable aside from one weak point (in this case, the stinger), and only the second boss in the series, second only to the K. Rool fight in the first game, that has multiple stages. While the second stage is decidedly easy, the first stage is highly irritating; hitting the weak point requires precision timing, aim, and positioning, as Hitbox Dissonance makes it difficult to hit the target while not crashing into Zing yourself. Worse, he becomes invulnerable every two hits and breaks his predictable flying pattern to chase the player while spewing an increasingly fast volley of spines in every direction. Fortunately, there's a bug that can allow the player to defeat the first stage without leaving the (mostly) safe corridor you start in, though this requires a good deal of patience.
• Warp Zone: Every level in the first two worlds has a hidden barrel that warps you to the end of the level, making most of the first and second worlds skippable.
• Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: When you arrive at Stronghold Showdown, you'd be expecting a grand battle. However, all you see is Donkey Kong tied up, and you'll get a Kremkoin as if you've already won. Donkey Kong is quickly taken away by Kaptain K. Rool and you're forced to go through one more level before you can take on the Kaptain himself. In the GBA remake, Kaptain K. Rool briefly appears here, but summons the boss Kerozene before leaving.

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Cranky Kong: "Now, go ahead and switch that cartridge off, so I could get some sleep! I reckon I've earned it!"

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