DK's Jungle Ruins

DK's Jungle Ruins is the seventh board featured in Mario Party 9, and can be unlocked by purchasing it from the Museum for 500 Party Points. This board is not playable in Solo mode, and is considerably different from the other six boards. This board appears to be heavily inspired by the game Donkey Kong Country Returns.

Instead of Mini Stars, players compete to acquire the most Bananas, and instead of Mini Ztars, players lose Bananas if they collect Z-Bananas.

Since this board is operated by Donkey Kong, games are played with the Kongs instead of boss battles happening. Diddy Kong has his own game instead of a mid-boss battle, and DK himself also has his instead of a final boss battle. However, Bowser will still enter the scene to add Bowser Spaces after the players meet with the green Toad. No Bowser Jr. Spaces are present, even if three or four players are playing. The Barrel Roller is the starting vehicle. The Jungle Junker and the DK's Banana Slider are unlockable.

Layout
This board is a circle with no branching paths, much like Bowser Station. It is different in that the players complete two laps around the board, stopping at the same Boss Space to play games with both Diddy Kong and later Donkey Kong.

To further set it apart from other boards, in DK's Jungle Ruins Bananas, Banana Bunches worth three Bananas, Z-Bananas, and Z-Banana Bunches hover over each space instead of between spaces where Mini Stars and Mini Ztars tend to reside.

This is the only board to feature DK Spaces in Mario Party 9. Here they activate the Banana Spin Wheel, which causes the Bananas and Z-Bananas in the board to spin around in a circle, and the captain who landed on the space can jump to collect Bananas — and hopefully not Z-Bananas — as they pass.

The Captain Event here is Barrel Choice, which is played twice since the players make two laps.

The characters ride a car on this board. The vehicle available when the board is unlocked is the Barrel Roller. The Jungle Junker and DK's Banana Slider can be purchased from the Museum for 200 Party Points each.

This is the only board to not feature Green Spaces, as well as the only one along with Bowser Station to not feature Event Spaces.

Barrel Choice
In this Captain Event the players watch as barrels are filled with varying amounts of Bananas and then shuffled. The captain then chooses which player claims which barrel.

The first time this Captain Event is played, Diddy Kong attempts to distract the captain from watching as the barrels are shuffled. During the second time, both Diddy and Donkey Kong play this role, and one of the barrels is filled with Z-Bananas.

Diddy Kong Minigame
Although this is not a fight, Diddy Kong asks the players to play a game with him. This game is Diddy's Banana Blast, in which the players launch themselves out of swaying Barrel Cannons that surround an area filled with Bananas in an attempt to collect the most. Unlike most Mario Party 9 minigames, in which the number of Mini Stars awarded for each place is predetermined, players earn as many Bananas as they collect. If players crash into each other, they fall back into a nearby Barrel Cannon and are momentarily stunned.

Donkey Kong Minigame
Like Diddy, Donkey Kong presents the players with a challenge rather than engage them in battle. This minigame, called DK's Banana Bonus, is somewhat similar to Diddy's, although the players must launch themselves from Barrel Cannons on the bottom of the field to collect Bananas in the air. DK throws floating Barrel Cannons into the area that the players can use to launch themselves even higher into in order to reach Bananas hovering there.

Mario Party 9

 * North American website bio: "Explore an ancient temple as you collect bananas in this secret stage that features Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong."

Trivia

 * The starting vehicle for this board (the Barrel Roller) is similar in appearance to the DK Jumbo, a kart from Mario Kart: Double Dash!!. The Jungle Junker also bears a resemblance to the Wildlife kart from Mario Kart DS, except that it is brown instead of green and has an emblem of a Banana Bunch on the hood instead of Donkey Kong's initials.
 * If a player gets zero bananas whether from their move or the spin, they will do their sad pose but the counter will do the positive jingle.