Spiked shaft (Tiki Tong Terror)

Spiked shaft
Screenshot of Tiki Tong Terror from Donkey Kong Country Returns
First appearance	Donkey Kong Country Returns (2010)
Latest appearance	Donkey Kong Country Returns HD (2025)
Comparable Skewer

Spiked shafts are objects in Donkey Kong Country Returns (as well as its Nintendo 3DS port and its Nintendo Switch port) that appear only in Tiki Tong Terror. They are red drums with elongated shells surrounded by yellow rings, just like the non-spiked shaft drums in the level. However, the necks of spiked shafts are shrouded in deep red smoke, and spiked shafts have spikes on the front ends. Spiked shafts always appear in pairs.

Spiked shafts are a recurring threat in the level's Rocket Barrel segment. Each time, one spiked shaft appears from the left side of the screen and the other spiked shaft appears from the right side of the screen. They extend to collide in the middle of the screen, with the collision dispersing the smoke around them. Their movement is such that the only way through is to speed up to slip through the opening between the shafts; both the drum and the necks are solid objects, and together, they quickly take up the entire width of the screen. Rocket Barrels explode on contact with any solid object, so players cannot go around the spikes.

There are three groups of spiked shafts. The first two pairs appear early on, as the level's fourth and fifth obstacles. Then, after the drums following the section with balloons, there is another pair of spiked shafts. Lastly, the level ends with two pairs of spiked shafts followed by the last pair of drums in the level.