In Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest, Puftups appear in many underwater levels. When Diddy Kong and Dixie Kong approach a Puftup, it inflates itself up. Depending on their color, some Puftups explode after puffing up and release spikes in four direction; if a blue-tinted Puftup explodes, its spikes are unleashed in every cardinal direction, and if a green-tinted Puftup explodes, its spikes are unleashed in every ordinal direction. The brown Puftups do not explode, and they deflate themselves shortly after inflating. Puftups can be defeated by Enguarde the Swordfish, although he is still vulnerable to Puftup's spikes. In the Game Boy Advanceremake, all Puftups are brown, regardless of behavior.
During the end credits' cast of characters, Puftups are featured under the "Submerged Seadogs" category.
Puftups make a second appearance in Donkey Kong Land 2. Unlike their previous appearance, Puftups never explode to attack. They commonly swim up and down puffing in and out.
Puftups return as underwater enemies in Donkey Kong 64 and were changed to purple. Puftups are usually stationary and act more like hazards than enemies: if the active Kong approaches a Puftup, it explodes like an aquatic mine. Puftoss, the boss of Gloomy Galleon and fourth overall boss, is a large Puftup. During the boss fight against King Kut Out, a few Puftups appear in the surrounding water, though unlike in other levels, they are mobile.
Puftups were originally going to appear in Donkey Kong Country,[1] with blue tail and fins, but were removed from the final version.[2]
In the Rareware game Banjo-Tooie, the Donkey Kong 64 Puftups were recycled into the Swellbelly enemy. The Swellbelly almost acts exactly the same as Puftups from Donkey Kong 64: its only difference is that it is orange and is fought slightly differently, swelling larger but not exploding.