Plus and Minus Barrels

Plus and Minus Barrels (shortened to + and − Barrels in an issue of Nintendo Power) are types of barrels that appear in Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest. A Plus Barrel has a green plus sign on it, while a Minus Barrel has a red minus sign on it. Plus and Minus Barrels are similar to Stop & Go Barrels from Donkey Kong Country mainly because they are both used to temporarily prevent an invincible enemy from attacking the Kongs. Plus and Minus Barrels are featured in the level Haunted Hall, where they appear in midair and on the track rails throughout it. Diddy Kong and Dixie Kong must hit the Plus Barrels to increment the onscreen timer, but they must avoid Minus Barrels, which decrease the onscreen timer. If the timer reaches zero, the Kongs will be attacked by the Kackle pursuing them. Minus Barrels are more frequent in later ports of the level.

In an earlier level, Rickety Race, a Plus Barrel appears at the start, hidden beneath a wooden platform. This Plus Barrel has a different functionality; when the Kongs jump into the first Roller Coaster, if the player holds Left on the as the race start is signaled (thus going against the flow of play), it rides backwards into the Plus Barrel, which speeds up the Roller Coaster to ride on the remaining track segment. Similarly, another Plus Barrel also appears in Haunted Hall's first Bonus Area, and it causes the Roller Coaster to travel backwards at a high speed.

Trivia

 * The Plus and Minus Barrels do not reappear in Donkey Kong Land 2, but an unused sprite of a Minus Barrel is hidden within the game data. There is not one for the Plus Barrel.
 * The Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest instruction booklet has Cranky Kong jokingly state that the Minus Barrel can send the Kongs to the Minus World, then he realizes he was talking about the wrong game.