Donkey Kong: Barrel Blast

"Barrel Blast" redirects here. For other uses, see Barrel Blast (disambiguation).

Donkey Kong: Barrel Blast
North American box art For alternate box art, see the related gallery.
Developers	Paon Nintendo SPD Group No.4
Publisher	Nintendo
Platform	Wii
Release dates	June 28, 2007 October 8, 2007 October 8, 2007 January 25, 2008 February 7, 2008 July 12, 2008
Languages	English Japanese French (Europe) German Italian Spanish (Europe)
Genre	Racing
Ratings	ESRB: - Everyone[?] CERO: - All ages[?] PEGI: - Three years and older[?] USK: - Six years and older[?] ACB: - General[?]
Modes	Single player, multiplayer
Format	Wii: Optical disc
Input	Wii: Wii Remote and Nunchuk
Serial code	RVL-RDKJ-JPN

Donkey Kong: Barrel Blast (known as Donkey Kong: Jet Race in PAL regions, both names occasionally spelled without a colon) is a racing game in the Donkey Kong franchise. Initially announced for release on the Nintendo GameCube with support for the bongo controller, it was released for the Wii in mid-late 2007 in Japan and North America and early 2008 in Europe and Australia. The game was developed by Paon, who previously developed DK: King of Swing and its sequel, DK: Jungle Climber.

This racing game, unlike most other racing games, takes place in the sky, where three dimensions of navigation are used rather than two. Players race around courses by using rocket-powered bongos, and during a race, players are able to use items, Wild Moves, and shortcuts in an attempt to reach first place. The items are used to give players advantages over their competitors, similarly to the Mario Kart series, though the game has various other elements unique to it, such as using Wild Moves to gain a speed boost and riding on animal friends to smash through obstacles. The game makes heavy use of motion control during the race, where players are required to use the Wii Remote and Nunchuk accordingly to perform various moves, such as accelerating or jumping. The game supports up to four players, but only in the Jungle Grand Prix and Single Race modes; the other game modes are for only one player. Jungle Grand Prix, the main mode of the game, features eight racers in a multi-lap race to the finish line on a given racetrack.

This game requires 22 blocks on the player's Wii system to save game data, and the game data can also be copied and moved to an SD card or transferred to another Wii.

Gameplay

Donkey Kong racing on Mt. Dynamite.

The vehicular form of transportation in Donkey Kong: Barrel Blast is rocket-powered bongos; due to their aerial nature, the racers are unaffected by the course's grounded terrain, but they move slower underwater and automatically reach their top speed inside a wormhole and when entering a Launcher Barrel. As with all racing games, players pick a character with varying stats, strengths and weaknesses, and race around an obstacle filled course in an attempt to finish in first place out of eight competing racers. During a race, players can obtain items from balloons and use them to interfere their rivals progress, which draws inspiration from that of the general Mario Kart series. Additionally, also drawing inspiration from the Mario Kart series, more powerful items are awarded to racers who are further behind; players in first place are likely to get either the weaker Banana Bunches or Backward Barrels items, while those near last place may get a Crystal Coconut, Mega TNT Barrel or Quawks. When a race is completed, players receive a certain amount of points depending on which position they finished a race in. The player with the most amount of points at the end of the set of races is the winner.

Donkey Kong riding on Enguarde on Salty Sea.

Donkey Kong riding in a mine cart on Scorching Canyon.

Bananas are found on the racetracks and are used to fill up a gauge that contains Wild Moves, which give players a small speed boost when used; this move can be extended by repeatedly crashing into barrels, certain enemies like Zingers or other players, making them lose ten bananas. Players can carry up to six Wild Moves. Players are also able to attack obstacles and other players, and any player hit by an item loses ten bananas. Additionally, players can perform a jump to avoid obstacles.

A unique feature in this game is the ability to ride a toboggan, a mine cart, as well as animal friends. The former two pits the player in a small bonus game were they can obtain more bananas and use the bonus area as a shortcut, while the latter allows a player to break through obstacles. Several types of barrels are also present, each with a different purpose. Normal barrels are weak obstacles that are essential to Wild Move combos, Iron Barrels significantly slows down a player who bumps into them while Launcher Barrels can be used as shortcuts. Players also encounter some wooden panels with a red !-mark on them. These are known as Surprise Panels, and they summon a wide variety of items after being touched. Some examples are Golden Bananas, barrels, and Launcher Barrels. Three difficulty levels not only control the difficultly of CU players during a race, but how fast a player will move once they reach their top speed, with Rookie being the slowest, Pro being medium and Expert being the fastest.

Point spreads works identically to Mario Kart: Double Dash!! and Mario Kart DS. In multiplayer mode, only four racers are present but the point spread remains the same.

Point Spread
1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th
10	8	6	4	3	2	1	0

Controls

Navigating menus
Action	Buttons used
Select	/
Confirm
Cancel
Home
Racing
Action	Buttons used
Accelerate	Shake the and
Rocket Start	Shake the and simultaneously as soon as the word "Start" appear on-screen during the countdown
Steer	Shake the to go right and the to go left
Jump	Raise the and simultaneously. Players can slow down their descent by shaking the and
Attack	Press
Use item	Press /
Charge a Wild Move	Tilt the in any direction. The charge can be canceled by jumping or using an item
Use a Wild Move	Release the
Pause / Resume
Home

Jungle Grand Prix

The cup selection screen.

Jungle Grand Prix is the main mode in the game; it manages similarly to the Mario Kart series, though some cups have fewer tracks to race on depending on their difficulty level. Also, like Mario Kart Arcade GP, more than one track takes place in a certain area. Three are from the DK Jungle course, three are from the Seaside course, three are from the Mt. Dynamite course, two are from the Desert course, two are from the Snowy Mountain course and two are from the Sky Temple course. Only one racetrack is in a course of its own, which is in outer space. Difficulty selection ranges from Rookie (Beginner in Europe and Australia), to Pro, to Expert, the latter two which must be unlocked before the player can use them. To unlock Pro Difficulty, the player needs to win the Sapphire Cup on Rookie difficulty. To unlock Expert difficulty, the player needs to win the Platinum Cup on Pro difficulty.

Cup	Courses
Topaz Cup	DK Jungle	Salty Sea	Mt. Dynamite	N/A	N/A
Sapphire Cup	Scorching Canyon	DK Jungle Falls	Shimmering Sea	Mammoth Glacier	N/A
Diamond Cup	Open Ocean	Mt. Dynamite Remix	Parched Palace	Cranky's Temple	N/A
Platinum Cup	Dynamite Run	DK Jungle Sunset	Alpine Peak	Temple Heights	Cosmic Highway

Selection Cup

The player selects two to five of any of the race courses, but one race course cannot be selected twice. This trophy is not displayed on the selection screen no matter how many times it is beaten.

Random Cup

The computer randomly picks out five tracks for the player to race on. Like the Selection Cup, the trophy is not displayed on the selection screen. The trophies given during the award ceremony have differing designs and sizes, depending on which cup was beaten.

Cup unlocking criteria

Cup	Criteria
Sapphire Cup	Win the Topaz Cup on Rookie difficulty.
Diamond Cup	Win the Sapphire Cup on Rookie difficulty.
Platinum Cup	Win the Diamond Cup on Rookie or Pro difficulty.
Selection Cup	Win the Diamond Cup on Rookie or Pro difficulty.
Random Cup	Win the Selection Cup (any difficulty level and course combination can be used).

There is also the Practice Course, which is not used in any of the cups, but it is used in Cranky's Flight School, some of Candy's Challenges and during the credits upon winning the Platinum Cup.

Other modes

The selection menu.

• Single Race: Players can choose one racetrack to play on.
• Time Trial: Like the Mario Kart series, Diddy Kong Racing, and its DS remake, players can choose to race on a single track for the best time, and save ghost data.
• Free Run: Players can choose a course and run it without other competitors, a time limit and a lap limit.
• Cranky's Flight School: The informative part of the game where Cranky gives eight lessons on how to play the game, from accelerating, to using items and Wild Moves.
• Candy's Challenges: In this mode, Candy Kong gives out four sets of eight challenges (a similarity to other games like Mario Kart DS, Mario Strikers Charged, and Super Smash Bros. Melee.) These challenges range from collecting a certain amount of bananas, to winning a race without getting hurt, to completing a race against the clock. Completing all of the challenges will unlock Ultra Barrel DK.
• Records: This is where players can look at records and stats for the courses, such as highest amount of bananas collected, highest Wild Move combo count and best time when clearing a cup.
• Options: This is where players can turn the items in the game on or off in Single Race and Jungle Grand Prix, change the button settings, the dominant hand to play on (left or right), and check the controls.

Playable characters

This section needs Donkey Kong franchise improvement. Specifically:

• Replace nested tables with simpler tables like with the Mario Kart game articles

Requested improvements must be clear, pertinent, and well-formed. Please refrain from adding bullet points such as "Add more information" or "Write the rest of the article".

The character select screen.

Including Ultra Barrel DK as a separate character from Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong: Barrel Blast features a total of 17 playable characters (consisting of 9 Kong characters and 8 Kremling characters). 6 characters are available from the start and 11 are unlockable. Kip, Kass, Kopter, Kalypso, Kludge, and Klump make their playable debuts, with Kip, Kass, Kalypso, and Kludge also making their first appearances in any game. The game also marks the first game appearance of Lanky Kong (excluding remakes) since his debut, which was released 8 years prior. Unlockable characters can appear during races, but Wrinkly Kong, Cranky Kong, and King K. Rool need to be unlocked before they can appear as CPU opponents. Ultra Barrel DK never appears as a CPU opponent even after being unlocked, as he can only be used by human players.

It is also not possible for one player to use Ultra Barrel DK while another player uses Donkey Kong or vice versa, due to them sharing the same character slot. If a character has not been unlocked yet, a black silhouette of Donkey Kong takes its place on their character slot, except for Ultra Barrel DK. Once he is unlocked, the player sees a small speech bubble when hovering over DK's character slot that explains the buttons that needs to be pressed in order to select him. In order to select Ultra Barrel DK on the character select screen, the player needs to highlight Donkey Kong, hold and press .

Each character has three stats, all of which are shown when highlighting them on the character select screen.

• Boost: The time required to reach to the character's top speed.
• Speed: The character's top speed.
• Agility: How tight a character can turn.

Kongs

Character	Boost	Speed	Agility	Rival	Description	Unlock Method
Donkey Kong	★★★☆☆	★★★☆☆	★★★☆☆	Kritter	"The most balanced Kong."	Unlocked by default
Diddy Kong	★★★☆☆	★★☆☆☆	★★★★☆	Kip	"Sacrifices speed for greater agility."	Unlocked by default
Dixie Kong	★★★★★	★☆☆☆☆	★★★★☆	Kass	"Minimal speed, but high agility and maxed out boost."	Unlocked by default
Lanky Kong	★★☆☆☆	★★★★⯪	★☆☆☆☆	Klump	"Very high speed, but low boost and poor agility."	Win the Topaz Cup with a Kong.
Tiny Kong	★★★★★	★★★★☆	★★☆☆☆	Kalypso	"Maxed out boost and high speed, but low agility."	Win the Sapphire Cup with a Kong.
Funky Kong	★☆☆☆☆	★★★★★	★☆☆☆☆	Kludge	"Maxed out speed, but poor agility and boost."	Win the Diamond Cup with a Kong.
Wrinkly Kong	★★★☆☆	★★★☆☆	★★★★★	Kopter	"Average boost and speed with maxed out agility."	Win Candy's Challenge 26: Let Wrinkly Kong win!
Cranky Kong	★★★★☆	★★★★☆	★★★★☆	King K. Rool	"High boost, speed, and agility."	Win Candy's Challenge 24: Challenge Cranky!
Ultra Barrel DK	★★★★★	★★★★★	★★★★★	N/A	"All stats are maxed out."	Complete all 32 of Candy's Challenges.

Kremlings

Character	Boost	Speed	Agility	Rival	Description	Unlock Method
Kritter	★★★☆☆	★★★☆☆	★★★☆☆	Donkey Kong	"The most balanced Kremling."	Unlocked by default
Kip	★★★☆☆	★★☆☆☆	★★★★☆	Diddy Kong	"High agility and average boost with low speed."	Unlocked by default
Kass	★★★★★	★☆☆☆☆	★★★★☆	Dixie Kong	"Maxed out boost and high agility, but minimal speed."	Unlocked by default
Kopter	★★★☆☆	★★★☆☆	★★★★★	Wrinkly Kong	"Maxed out agility with average boost and speed."	Win the Topaz Cup with a Kremling.
Kalypso	★★★★★	★★★★☆	★★☆☆☆	Tiny Kong	"Low agility, but maxed out boost and high speed."	Win the Sapphire Cup with a Kremling.
Kludge	★☆☆☆☆	★★★★★	★☆☆☆☆	Funky Kong	"Maxed out speed, but poor boost and agility."	Win the Diamond Cup with a Kremling.
Klump	★★☆☆☆	★★★★⯪	★☆☆☆☆	Lanky Kong	"Very high speed, but poor agility and low boost."	Win Candy's Challenge 16: Beat Klump!
King K. Rool	★★★★☆	★★★★☆	★★★★☆	Cranky Kong	"High boost, speed, and agility."	Win Candy's Challenge 31: Showdown vs. King K. Rool.

Enemies

These characters act as obstacles and tries to attack racers. Racers slow down when struck by their attack or by colliding with them directly. A defeated enemy rewards a racer with ten bananas. Defeated enemies respawn after a while.

Enemy	Description	Location
Flipflap	A bat that flies around in a set pattern. One hit defeats it.	Mt. Dynamite, Scorching Canyon, Mt. Dynamite Remix, Dynamite Run
Zinger	A large wasp that flies around in a set pattern. Unlike other Donkey Kong games, one hit defeats them.	DK Jungle, Scorching Canyon, DK Jungle Falls, Cranky's Temple, DK Jungle Sunset
Necky	A vulture that flies around high in the sky, and it rams into a racer it sees. One hit defeats it and they can help a racer with Wild Move combos.	Mt. Dynamite, Cranky's Temple, Temple Heights
Chomps	A large shark that is encountered only underwater. Regular ones appear in Salty Sea, Shimmering Sea and Open Ocean and electrified variants appear only in Open Ocean. One hit defeats them. Electrified ones slow down racers significantly if attacked unless they are attacked while invincible or with Enguarde.	Salty Sea, Shimmering Sea, Open Ocean
Hurley	A monkey that throws bananas and barrels at the racers. They cannot be defeated, and other Hurleys can also be seen spectating the race or doing something in the background.	Salty Sea, Shimmering Sea, Mammoth Glacier, Open Ocean, Alpine Peak
Lockjaw	A piranha that is encountered only near waterfalls. They attack racers by leaping out of the water and biting them. Regular ones appear in DK Jungle Falls, while electrified variants appear in DK Jungle Sunset. As the Chomps, both can be defeated in one hit, but electrified variants can be defeated safely only by attacking it while invincible.	DK Jungle Falls, DK Jungle Sunset
Giant Centipede	A pink centipede that crawls near the finish line after being summoned by touching a specific Surprise Panel. It cannot be defeated, only avoided. It also tries to eat the Golden Banana that spawns along with it, as well as any bananas it may come across.	Scorching Canyon, Parched Palace
Giant Squid	A large white squid found only underwater. A player can attack its tentacles and make it retract them briefly inside the rocks, and the head can also be attacked to stun the squid for a while, though only if the player crashes into it while using a Wild Move or attacks it while riding on Enguarde.	Salty Sea
Big Frog	A frog usually found in groups. The green ones in the DK Jungle courses attacks by breathing green bubbles, while red ones found in the Mt Dynamite courses breathe fire. Neither can be defeated.	DK Jungle Falls, Mt. Dynamite Remix, Dynamite Run, DK Jungle Sunset
Mecha Kong	A robotic DK look-alike that shoots lasers. One hit defeats it. There is also a giant version of this that shoots multiple lasers and homing missiles that cannot be defeated, but it can be stunned temporarily by crashing into it while using a Wild Move.	Cosmic Highway

Items

A red balloon and a blue balloon

A green balloon, replacing the blue balloon in the Japanese version of the game

Items are obtained from balloons on the racetracks. There are red balloons and blue balloons, the former being associated with the Kongs and the latter being associated with the Kremlings. When a racer goes into a balloon of their team's color, the effect of the item may last longer than if the other team got it. Some balloons change color after being picked up. The item that racers get from a balloon is influenced by their current race position.

In the Japanese version of Donkey Kong: Barrel Blast, green balloons take the place of blue balloons as the Kremling-associated item balloons.

Red balloon items

Image	Name	Description
	Prop Monkey	A toy version of Hurley. It flies to the opponent in front of the user and tosses out their bananas onto the race track. If used by a Kong, it tosses more bananas.
	Squawks	The green parrot from the Donkey Kong series. He flies to the opponent in front of the user and hovers around them, preventing them from performing Wild Moves. If the player tries to perform a Wild Move, Squawks attacks. This causes the player to lose ten bananas. If used by a Kong, he circles around the target longer. Squawks can be eliminated by using a Wild Move while invincible.
	Quawks	The purple parrot from the Donkey Kong series, now with a name. He flies to the player in first place and attacks, causing ten bananas to be lost (however, this can be avoided by jumping or turning sharply before he attacks). If used by a Kong, the player that gets hit instead loses all of their bananas.
	Banana Fairy	A glowing fairy. When used, it pulls in bananas close to the user. If used by a Kong, the effect lasts longer. It can pull in balloons but not Golden Bananas.
	Blazing Banana	A banana on fire that users can place onto the track. When opponents run into it, they lose ten bananas. If used by a Kong, they leave more of them behind.
	Tasty Melon	It makes players invincible for a while. If used by a Kong, the effect lasts a little longer. Unlike the Crystal Coconut, touching players while invincible does not hurt them.