Karbine

Karbines are small robotic owl-like enemies that appear in Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! and Donkey Kong Land III. They are named after s, which are firearms similar to a rifle or musket.

Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!
In Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!, Karbines only appear in one level, in which they are the main obstacle: Fire-Ball Frenzy. Karbines carry large cannons similar to those of Bazukas. They appear in the background where they follow around Dixie Kong and Kiddy Kong and shoot fireballs out their cannon at the Kongs. After releasing a fireball, the Karbine takes a few second interval before firing out the next one. Karbines cannot be defeated and should only be avoided by the Kongs. After a while, the Karbine stops following Dixie and Kiddy.

Karbines often appear together in small groups, where they often rhythmically fire in succession from right to left. Sometimes, in groups of threes, the first and third Karbines fire simultaneously, followed by the middle one. Some Karbines shoot out three fireballs in a row before pausing. There are four Karbines that appear just before the Level Flag.

In Dixie Kong's Photo Album, during the ending, Karbines are categorized under Flying Fiends.

In the Game Boy Advance version, some Karbines have shorter intervals between shooting fireballs, which means that the Kongs have less time to avoid their fireballs.

Donkey Kong Land III
In Donkey Kong Land III, Karbine appear in four levels: Karbine Kaos, Bazuka Bombard, Kuchuka Karnage, and Barrel Boulevard. Karbine's name is featured in their first level appearance, Karbine Kaos. In the same level, Squitter appears, and he is shown to be immune to Karbine's fireballs as long as he remains on the ground.

Karbine's fireballs have the same sprite as Bleak's snowballs in Donkey Kong Land III. In the Game Boy Color port, this includes the color palette, where both share a faint purple color.

Trivia

 * Karbine originally had the appearance of a chrome-plated robotic humanoid with a glowing red visor and helicopter propellers, as seen in page 33 of the 89th issue of Nintendo Power.
 * Karbines are one of the few non-Kremling enemies whose name starts with a 'k'.

Reference
Karbine