Bonus Barrel

A Bonus Barrel, introduced in Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest, is a semi-common type of Barrel that later appears in Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!, Donkey Kong Land 2, Donkey Kong Land III, Donkey Kong 64, and DK: Jungle Climber. In the Country and Land games, there is usually at least one Bonus Barrel hidden in most of the levels. When jumped into, the barrel automatically launches or warps the Kongs to a Bonus Area. In the Bonus Level, the Kongs can earn various rare collectibles to unlock secret worlds and add to the completion percentage. The symbol on the side of this wooden barrel is the letter "B" in front of an orange and yellow explosion. These barrels also replace certain Auto-Fire Barrels in the Game Boy Advance version of Donkey Kong Country.

In the first two Donkey Kong Country games, if all the bonus levels (including the Bonus Barrels) are found within a level, an exclamation mark will be added to the end of the level name; in Donkey Kong Country 3, the End of Level Flag will fly fully instead.

Bonus Barrels work a little differently in Donkey Kong 64. In this game, they have a picture of a Golden Banana on them, and when approached, purple sparkles appear around them. When a Kong jumps into one of these, they are taken to a Bonus Stage. If the player beats that mini-game, they are rewarded with a Golden Banana. In Hideout Helm, there are five rooms, with each rooms containing two Steel Keg versions of Bonus Barrels and a Banana Medal. Those special Bonus Barrels do not give Golden Bananas, and are instead required to complete to deactivate the Blast-o-Matic and collect the Banana Medals.

In DK: Jungle Climber, they no longer have Bonus Coins in them, and are used to get a large amount of bananas in the bonus game Banana Bonanza, often resulting in extra lives. One of these barrels can be found in Sun Sun Beach in plain sight.

In DK Country, one of 18-Volt's microgames from WarioWare: D.I.Y. Showcase, the player must set the position of a Bonus Barrel and tap it to shoot Diddy Kong from it while avoiding a Zinger.