Item container

Item containers, or simply containers , are background objects in the Donkey Kong Country series. They generally yield an item if the Kongs perform a Ground Pound or an equivalent action in front of one. Containers can have bananas, Banana Coins, Red Balloons, or Puzzle Pieces inside them.

The appearance, nature, and even names of specific kinds of item containers differ between environments, but they all mostly function the same. Item containers, as they are presented in the games' official game guides, form a different gameplay concept from barrels and DK Barrels.

Donkey Kong Country Returns / Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D
In Donkey Kong Country Returns and Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D, many kinds of containers are scattered on Donkey Kong Island, usually varying from world to world. Below is a list of every type of container included in the game, each accompanied by a physical description.
 * Pods – also called yellow gourds or just gourds, these are plants whose flowers resemble swollen gourds, as their name implies. Common gourds are small and completely colored yellow. They oftenly surround relatives of bigger size, called large gourds , which display red spots and are pigmented with a brighter tint of yellow. Once their terrain is pounded, gourds gradually wilt by splurging their fluid, along with a precious item. Yellow gourds are preponderant in places with high vegetal living, with the Jungle and Forest being the most propitious places for them.
 * Treasure chests – objects which contain bananas, Banana Coins and more items the Kongs can interact with. They are only found in the second world of the game, the Beach; additionally, they are also present in Gushin' Geysers, a level exclusive to the enhanced port.
 * Cacti – two distinct species of cacti, as suggested by the Prima guide, appear in the game, each being characteristic to either the Cave or the Cliff areas. Cave cacti resemble swollen spores, with their bulbed stems being olive and showing brown spots. They have orifices on their top, from which bubble clusters continuously come out until the plant gets wilt by the character's shocks. Cliff cacti look more like actual cacti, each being short, green, and globular.
 *  – a very round object resembling a squash fruit, supported by a few sticks. It has a firecracker tucked within, which can be launched if the Kongs pound the ground in front of the squash. Shortly after letting it loose, the firecracker detonates, spreading a firework and leaving an item. Only one of its kind can be encountered in the first level of the Forest world.
 * Ruins/Key Temple containers – brown amphorae that lie on spiraled supports. They form the only kind of container in hidden temple levels, as well as the main kind in the Ruins world. After their terrain gets pounded, they fall off the supports and break on the floor. They are amongst the most common types of containers in the game.
 * Factory containers – objects that resemble upside down water dispensers, supported by metal frames. Upon receiving the pounding shock, the water bottles rise up in the air and blow up, leaving out the item inside.
 * Volcano containers – metal flasks, whose contents boil on some burning material. If the ground they stand on is pounded, their lids open up and reveal items. They are only found in the Volcano world.
 *  – stone sculptures, modeled after Toothberries or Acks. They are supported by plinths and most of them can be collapsed and destroyed just like the other containers of the game, uncovering items. Worth to be noted is that some Ack statues hide actual Acks and Toothberries, which quickly free themselves out of the sculptures upon the Kongs' arrival, without their intervention. Ack statues guard inside the ancient building where Itty Bitty Biters, the fifth level of the Ruins world, takes place.

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
Containers in Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze and its Nintendo Switch port are even more diverse than the ones in the predecessor, with the game introducing underwater containers that can be opened up with a corkscrew. Some item containers spew multiple bananas arranged in a certain shape, which players have an amount of time allotted to collect in order to earn a more valuable item such as a Banana Bunch, a Banana Coin, or even a Puzzle Piece. Containers, in general, include:
 * Plump Yellow Fruit – the previously-called "large gourds" from Donkey Kong Country Returns. As such, they retain the exact same appearance, but are named differently. Plump Yellow Fruit are the most common item containers in the game, found in many of the game's worlds.
 * Wooden Canisters with Metal Lids – cylindrical vases. They decorate the earlier levels of Autumn Heights.
 * Purple Fungi – spacey violet mushrooms with white spots. They display three different sized lobes stacked on each other. As very uncommon item containers, they are only found in the caves of Autumn Heights.
 * Giant clams – pink bivalve mollusks and the first item containers to be ever encountered underwater. After getting deranged by a corkscrew move, they simply open up their mantle to uncover items.
 * Dilapidated Barrels – barrels wrecked ashore or sunken underwater, cut in halves to resemble and function as chests. The narrow aperture between the two parts of a dilapidated barrel reveals that it is full of sand, but upon pounding its terrain or sweeping it across with a corkscrew move, it opens up and produces an important item.
 * Baskets of fish – containers that store fresh fish (looking like the ones utilized by Archies and Chum Chucker Charlies as weapons) and also items. After being shaken by a Ground Pound, a basket of fish collapses and reveals the item inside.
 * Flower Bulbs – large purple flowers coiled in vines. They can only be encountered in Juicy Jungle.
 * Treasure Chests – containers that return from the past game, but in rarer instances. A slight design tweak has been made to them, as they now seem to contain precious jewelry and gold instead of being completely empty. A hidden treasure chest, for example, guards a secret Puzzle Piece on a cliff in Shoal Atoll, a level of Sea Breeze Cove. Frozen treasure chests are present in Seashore War, a stage of Donkey Kong Island set in the environment of the island's Beach world.
 * Fruit Boxes – crates containing fruit and lesser items.
 * Stack of logs – logs usually stacked in threes that hide items such as bananas and Banana Bunches or block something from view.
 * Purple Glass Vases – ornamental objects found only in hidden temple stages. They look like vials decorated with pairs of golden wings and having corks tucked inside their heads. They are placed on small metal stands, and fall down when their terrain is pounded. Afterwards, they shatter on the ground and reveal items.
 * Rambi the Rhinoceros Boxes – also known as Rambi Crates, these objects contain a rideable Rambi in the stages Mountain Mania, Frantic Fields, and Meltdown Mayhem.

WarioWare: Get It Together!
In WarioWare: Get It Together!, a large gourd appears as a background element in level 2 of the Donkey Kong Country Returns microgame.