Screaming Pillar

Screaming Pillars are tall living pillar structures, which mostly serve as obstacles in the games they appear in. Usually, they are found asleep or overall inactive, until a certain movement or action alerts and wakes them up from their slumber. Screaming Pillars startle so suddenly that, on occasion, they might totter and fall on the ground, crushing any creature lying underneath them and remaining completely inert afterwards.

Appearance
Screaming Pillars resemble narrow stone totems, which display carved symbols. They are erected on semi-pyramidal stands, and feature cracks towards their bottom, pointing out their precarious state of standing upright. Their zigzag-shaped mouths, placed underneath two empty sockets which serve as eyes, are part of their facial features. A Screaming Pillar is adorned on each of its head's sides with feather tufts, which detach after the enemy has made a sudden movement.

Donkey Kong Country Returns / 3D
In Donkey Kong Country Returns and its enhanced port, Screaming Pillars can be encountered throughout the Jungle, Ruins, and Volcano areas, and are initially seen idle in the section they are placed in. If the Kongs approach these pillars, they awake with a scream and collapse onto the ground, potentially crushing any creature standing beneath them, including the Kongs; their feathers also fall off during their sudden awakening. Should the heroes receive the shocking treatment, they lose one heart from their health counter. The Kongs can destroy the Screaming Pillars by pounding their feeble heads after they have fallen. Sometimes, Screaming Pillars might give out precious items, such as Banana Coins or even Puzzle Pieces.

As an exception from the usual behavior of these petrified foes, a level called Five Monkey Trial contains several Screaming Pillars which collapse regardless of the Kongs' close presence, and also instantly break upon hitting the ground without the heroes' intervention.

Enormous sub-species of Screaming Pillars, the Giant Pillars, are present in the levels Canopy Cannons and (exclusively to the Nintendo 3DS port) Crushin' Columns. Their scream is much louder and more intense, and they take out the Kongs completely when falling onto them.

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
Exceptionally close relatives of Screaming Pillars, the Flaming Falling Totem Poles, appear in Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. Having an otherwise unchanged behavior from that of Screaming Pillars, the more recently introduced species sustain an inner fiery core, which spawns a stream of flames out their hollow eyes and mouths whenever the pillars scream and prepare to fall. Additionally, their heads are always on fire before falling on the ground; the fire intensifies whenever the stone creature notices the Kongs, and it is seemingly used as primary object of defense against the primates, despite not damaging them more than a regular Screaming Pillar could. In effect, these are all aesthetic additions, and, as stated above, they do not change the enemies' method of attack. What is more, Flaming Falling Totem Poles cool down after crashing into the ground, ultimately granting the possibility to be destroyed the same way as Screaming Pillars. They can only be seen lounging around in Scorch 'n' Torch, a level that features a savannah affected by a wildfire, which the enemies allude to.

Mario Kart series
Screaming Pillars return in Mario Kart 7 as obstacles on the DK Jungle racetrack. While usually dormant, they scream every once in a while, powerfully blowing air to push hanggliding players back. With the inclusion of DK Jungle as a retro track in Mario Kart 8, Screaming Pillars have been replaced with Giant Pillars, which seem to exhale smoke when making noises.

Super Smash Bros. series
In the E3 2013 trailer for Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U, Screaming Pillars can be seen very briefly in the background when Donkey Kong is first seen. They also appear in the Wii U version of the game itself as stage hazards on the Jungle Hijinxs stage, where they can be toppled by the playable characters so as to potentially fall over rival fighters.