TNT Barrel

TNT Barrels (also called TNT Drums ) are barrels found in the Donkey Kong franchise. Like normal barrels, TNT Barrels can be picked up and thrown as a weapon. However, a TNT Barrel will explode upon contact with an enemy, the floor, or a wall. The fiery explosion of a TNT Barrel will defeat just about any enemy caught in the blast radius. TNT Barrels are often used to reveal hidden bonus rooms in many levels, or to defeat enemies that cannot be defeated with a jump attack (like Zingers). They normally look like a regular barrel with a fuse and the words TNT painted on the front in white. However, in Donkey Kong 64, they were considerably smaller and red. Cranky Kong also uses a TNT Barrel to wreck Donkey Kong's boom box in the intro as retaliation for Donkey Kong knocking him out of the trees and ruining his phonogram.

History
In Donkey Kong Country, if a Kong picks up a TNT Barrel and puts it down, it'll self-destruct by itself. This feature was not used in the game's sequels.

Some enemies have been known to hide in TNT Barrels and act as suicide bombers, sacrificing themselves in an attempt to destroy the Kongs. These include the Kremlings, Kaboom from Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest, and Kracka and Klasp found in Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!. Other Kremlings, such as Bazuka, can shoot TNT Barrels out of their cannons at the Kongs in an attempt to destroy them. In Donkey Kong 64, TNT Barrels are mostly used against bosses, such as Army Dillo and Dogadon. Kabooms also reappear in this game, hiding inside TNT Barrels that don't have fuses. In this game, TNT Barrels are colored red.

TNT Barrels also appear in DK: Jungle Climber. They can be used to destroy dense objects around them, and will explode if attacked.

In several places in the course DK Jungle from Mario Golf: World Tour, TNT Barrels lay on the ground. They blow up when the golf ball bumps into them, and will send it high up to the sky. TNT Barrels are found near Hole 3, Hole 4 and Hole 9.

Donkey Kong Country: Rumble in the Jungle
In Donkey Kong Country: Rumble in the Jungle, miniature TNT Barrels (stylized as mini-TNT Barrels) are used by Donkey Kong on several occasions throughout the novel. Before the Kongs leave their treehouse to travel to Big Ape City, Donkey Kong takes a backpack full of miniature barrels, including some that "could even explode". TNT Barrels are first used while the Kongs are battling some Kremlings and their barrel cannons in Tree Top Town. Donkey Kong launches several TNT Barrels by slinging back a tree branch, allowing the barrels to reach high above in the tree tops. Donkey Kong later uses one to break open Funky Kong's prison door within the Kremling's factory in Big Ape City, although the sound of the explosion attracts Kritter and a group of Kremlings.

Donkey Kong later also a TNT Barrel to destroy the defense system's control room, and then later to create a hole in the factory wall so that the Kongs are able to escape in Funky's barrel plane. While in the plane, Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong decide to jump from the plane to infiltrate King K. Rool's zeppelin. They plant the zeppelin with many time-delayed TNT Barrels, and they escape to watch it fall on top of the Kremling's factory, which causes a powerful explosion.

An illustration shows that the TNT Barrels resembles their artwork for Donkey Kong Country, although lacking a fuse at the top. And despite the novel claiming to describe "miniature" TNT Barrels, their illustrated size in proportion to the prison door appears to be closer to a regular-sized barrel.

Donkey Kong Country television series
A barrel similar to TNT Barrels appears in the Donkey Kong Country animated series. Here they are referred to as Exploding Barrels and bear a resemblance to Auto-Fire Barrels. They are seen during the first half of Booty and the Beast, where King K. Rool takes over Bluster’s Barrel Works and begins manufacturing exploding barrels. However, Donkey Kong chased off K. Rool and production was halted.

In Kong for a Day, K. Rool made a second attempt to seize control of the Barrel Works to manufacture more exploding barrels, but this time Donkey Kong foiled his plans before production could commence.

In Speak No Evil, Dude, it is revealed that Rool has an arsenal of TNT Barrels large enough to destroy the entire island, as General Klump attempts to do just that after misinterpreting King K Rool (who was unable to communicate as he was mute from the Kongo Bongo Gone Wrongo disease.)

While Rool possesses these barrels, he never directly uses them against the Kongs. It's possible that Rool sees no point in trying to kill any of the Kongs and he can use Klaptraps as a weapon anyways.

Super Mario-Kun
The TNT barrel makes an appearance in Super Mario-Kun in issue 14. During a fight with Army, Diddy Kong gives Donkey Kong a TNT barrel. Donkey Kong then hurls it, only to have it explode on Mario and Yoshi while defeating Army. Mario then yells at Donkey Kong.