Cranky's Video Game Heroes

Cranky's Video Game Heroes is an awards ceremony in Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy Kong's Quest and Donkey Kong Land 2, to see who can collect the most DK Coins. The player may be in this event after they beat the game, or by pressing the L button after they beat it.

When the player first sees Cranky's Video Game Heroes, Mario is found in first with 39 coins, Yoshi appears in second with 29 coins, and Link is seen in third place with 19 coins. To beat the three characters, the player must collect DK Coins on their adventure, and Diddy Kong will appear as one of the top three if he gets at least 19 coins, eliminating Link from the standings.

In the Game Boy Advance remake of Donkey Kong Country 2, a few things have been changed. Mario now has 67 coins, Link has 50, and Yoshi has 39. Also, Yoshi is put in third place, while Link is in second place. Therefore, if the player gets over 39 coins, Yoshi will be eliminated from the standings, instead of Link.

Trivia

 * In the corner of the screen here, Sonic's shoes and Earthworm Jim's raygun are seen next to a sign that says "No Hopers", most likely meaning that they failed to collect enough coins. Why those are there and not the characters in question is unknown. (A possible reason is that Nintendo did not want to pay Sega and Shiny ((the company that made Earthworm Jim)), and desided to make indirect references.) The scores for those two are probably Sonic getting 9 coins and Jim getting none.
 * The Donkey Kong Land 2 version of Cranky's Video Game Heroes is simply known as "Video Game Heroes", due to Cranky not appearing in the game.