TNT Barrel

TNT Barrels (originally called TNT Drums ) are barrels found in the Donkey Kong series. 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 both knocking him out of the trees as well as ruining his phonogram.

In Donkey Kong Country, if a Kong picks up a TNT Barrel, and puts it down, it'll self-destruct all 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.

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

In the animated series
A barrel similar to TNT Barrels appear 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 Kong 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 Claptraps 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.