Bonus room

A Bonus Area  (also known as a Bonus Room , Bonus Level  , Bonus Stage   , or Bonus Game ) is a hidden area in the Donkey Kong franchise games; particularly the Donkey Kong Country and Donkey Kong Land games.

Bonus Areas are usually revealed by finding either a secret passage or by jumping into a Bonus Barrel. Bonus Areas usually have a challenge that the Kongs must accomplish to earn a prize needed for 100% completion.

Donkey Kong Country


Bonus Areas first appear in Donkey Kong Country. Here, they are entered by either breaking open certain walls with Barrels or Animal Friends to reveal secret passages, or by jumping into certain Auto-Fire Barrels (changed to Bonus Barrels in the Game Boy Advance port). In Oil Drum Alley, there is a Bonus Area entrance hidden within a Bonus Area, which can be entered by a Barrel need a barrel needed to smash open its entrance.

Bonus Areas appear in every level except for the underwater stages and Mine Cart Carnage. There are usually two or three Bonus Areas in a level, although five of them appear in Orang-utan Gang, which has the most Bonus Areas out of every level.

Unlike in subsequent appearances, the main idea of Bonus Areas is obtain common items, such as bananas, Animal Tokens, or even an Extra Life Balloon. The Kongs do not have to complete a challenge or collect the items within to add to their completion percentage—this only occurs by simply entering the Bonus Area itself. There are 67 Bonus Areas in the game.

In the Game Boy Color port, Candy Kong hosts a challenge in each world. The challenges are very similar to Bonus Areas, except for an award at the end (a Banana Coin); the challenges even have the same theme as a Bonus Level.

There are several types of Bonus Areas. In the Game Boy Advance version, each type received its own title and a splash screen to differentiate it from the other types:

* Levels with a (B) are accessed via a Bonus Barrel. Levels with a number (e.g. 2) tells how many of that type is in the level.

There is also a specific type of Bonus Areas that features an Animal Friend, either Rambi, Expresso, Winky, or Enguarde. Each Animal Friend's stage has a unique theme and layout, and some are based on their most common environment. Additionally, just like regular Bonus Areas, each of the Animal Buddy ones also received their own splash screen and title in the Game Boy Advance port. The Bonus Stages revolving around Animal Friends do not reappear in any of the subsequent Donkey Kong Country or Donkey Kong Land titles.

An Animal Friend's Bonus Area can be accessed by collecting three Animal Tokens of the same Animal Friend. Upon collecting the third token, the Kongs are warped into a Bonus Area, where they play as the corresponding Animal Friend. The goal of these Bonus Areas is for the Animal Friend to collect as many Mini Animal Tokens within the time limit. A Big Animal Token is also hiding in the location, which doubles the Kongs' Mini Animal Token total. When the time runs out, the Mini Animal Tokens are subtracted, and the Kongs receive an extra life for every 100 Mini Animal Tokens they have collected (similar to bananas). Additionally, if an Animal Friend manages to obtain 600 Mini Animal Tokens (400 for Enguarde), a photograph of that Animal Friend is added into the Scrapbook.

Donkey Kong Land
Bonus Areas reappear in Donkey Kong Land. Just like with Donkey Kong Country, the Bonus Area variations do not have a name, and every Bonus Area must at least be accessed to add to the 100% completion score. While many of the Bonus Areas are accessed via the same methods, some are accessed via a new method: by falling on a ground patch from a height, causing a vertical rope to fly out. By grabbing on the rope, the Kong is dragged up into a Bonus Area.

A new type of Bonus Area is introduced in the game. In it, the Kongs' collected Kong Tokens are shot out of a revolving Barrel Cannon. The cannon fires out one Kong Token a time, if DK or Diddy jump on a ground switch. By collecting a Kong Token, the Kongs win an extra life. The only other type, which is also the most common one, involves the active Kong trying to reach the end goal, much like "Find the Exit!" from Donkey Kong Country.

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest / Donkey Kong Land 2
In Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest, Bonus Areas are entered much like in its predecessors, except that the Auto-Fire Barrels leading to a Bonus Area were replaced with Bonus Barrels. Every level has between one to three Bonus Areas. The types of Bonus Areas were narrowed down to three, none of which reappeared from Donkey Kong Country. Each type is a time-based challenge that the Kongs must complete to be rewarded with a Kremkoin. In the Lost World, every level only has a single Bonus Area, with a DK Coin as a reward (given that Kremkoins' purpose is to unlock a level of the Lost World). Bonus Areas were also featured in Donkey Kong Land 2 where their role is unchanged, and the same three types were retained.

The Bonus Area types first received their own title card each in Donkey Kong Country 2, and the title cards were retained for Donkey Kong Land 2:

Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! / Donkey Kong Land III
In Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!, Bonus Areas have a similar role as in Donkey Kong Country 2, except that all of them are accessed by entering a Bonus Barrel and none from breaking open a wall. The reward for completing a Bonus Area was changed from a Kremkoin to a Bonus Coin. There is always a consistent number of two Bonus Areas per level, except for Krematoa, where the number of Bonus Areas varies from zero to three. Rocket Rush is the only level without any Bonus Areas. All the Bonus Areas from the previous game returned (although with different titles), and a fourth, new type was introduced, "Grab 15 Bananas!". "Collect the Stars!" was renamed to feature the number of stars in the title, for example, "Collect 50 Stars".

In Donkey Kong Land III, the Bonus Areas have a similar role as in Donkey Kong Country 3, except that Grab 15 Bananas! is not featured. Therefore, every Bonus Area type is the same as in Donkey Kong Country 2 and Donkey Kong Land 2, even going as far to retain the original names (except for "Bash the Baddies!"). An extra exclamation mark was added in each Bonus Area's title, except "Collect the Stars!".

Donkey Kong 64
Bonus Areas return in Donkey Kong 64, where they are named Bonus Stages. Most Bonus Stages are accessible by jumping in a Bonus Barrel. Only the Minecart Race is the one that can be entered by entering a specific area. After the player has cleared a stage, the player is rewarded with a Golden Banana. Most of the stages can be played in Snide's H.Q. after collecting all Blueprints. The following is the list of all Bonus Stages in Donkey Kong 64:


 * Batty Barrel Bandit: Get four bananas on a slot machine. Do this the required number of times to win.
 * Peril Path Panic: Shoot melons at the Klaptraps to save the Banana Fairies so they can safely cross to the other side.
 * Big Bug Bash: Controlling a giant flyswatter, the player must smash a required number of flies in the time limit.
 * Searchlight Seek: Using a spotlight, the player has to find and shoot the Klaptraps from above.
 * Kremling Kosh: Use a watermelon-shooting cannon to shoot the Kremlings that pop out of the barrels. Regular Kremlings are worth one point, and red ones are worth two points. Shoot the required number before time runs out to win the game.
 * Mine Cart Ride: In a mine cart, try to collect the required number of coins before the exit.
 * Splish Splash Salvage: In a big barrel, swim and collect all the coins.
 * Speedy Swing Sortie: Swing on vines and collect the coins.
 * Mad Maze Maul: Go through the maze and defeat enemies.
 * Minecart Mayhem: The player rides around a minecart. Avoid TNT barrels by switching lanes left and right. Speed up and slow down by pushing up and down respectively.
 * Stealthy Snoop: Sneak through a maze avoiding the flashlights from the Kops.
 * Teetering Turtle Trouble: Shoot melons at snakes to keep them fed and prevent the spinning turtles on the snakes' tails from falling.
 * Busy Barrel Barrage: Standing the middle of a big barrel, the player must shoot at Kremlings. If they touch the player the player loses.
 * Beaver Bother: The player controls a Klaptrap and tries to chase the Gnawties into the hole in the center of the barrel. The player must be careful not to fall into the hole themselves; if they fall, they automatically lose the game.
 * Krazy Kong Klamor: Lights repeatedly flicker on and off. The player must shoot bananas and avoid shooting the Kongs.
 * Stash Snatch: While going around a maze, the player must collect all the coins and avoid Kremlings.

Enguarde and Rambi each have an unlockable mini-game (somewhat in the style of a Bonus Stage) that can be played from the main menu. The minigames are respectively titled Enguarde Arena and Rambi Arena. Both games can be unlocked after capturing six Banana Fairies in the main game. These Bonus Stages are somewhat similar to the ones from Donkey Kong Country that feature an Animal Friend, as an Animal Friend are also the main feature of both mini-games.

Donkey Kong Country Returns / 3D
Bonus Stages return in Donkey Kong Country Returns and Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D, once again accessed by Blast Barrels (as Bonus Barrels do not return in this game) and secret passages, although now with only one objective. The Kongs have thirty seconds to get all Bananas, Banana Bunches, Banana Coins, and Red Balloons available. If they successfully collect all of them, the clock stops and a Puzzle Piece appears for them to collect.

Like in the past Donkey Kong Country games, the setting of a Bonus Stage depends on the world it can be found in, and it is always set in a cavernous or dimly lit room. Despite the aesthetic changes, Bonus Stages repeat themselves throughout the course of the game, meaning they are not unique to their levels, unlike in previous games.

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
The objective of Bonus Stages in Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze remains almost the same as in the previous game – the player has to collect all 100 bananas on-screen within thirty seconds, receiving an additional Banana Coin and a Red Balloon along with the Puzzle Piece. However, the setting of a Bonus Stage is not related to the world it appears in anymore. Instead, all Bonus Stages take place in what appears to be a treasury, with some of them being adorned with large statues in the background, suggesting they are connected to or branched off Secret Seclusion. As in the previous game, Bonus Stages repeat themselves.