Thugly

Thugly is the sixth boss in Donkey Kong Country Returns and Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D, who is fought in the Cliff world and a stronger relative of Mugly. He appears in the level Thugly's Highrise, where he is hypnotized by Xylobone.

Physical description
Thugly bears a striking resemblance to Mugly, however he has a shell of hot iron plates attached to his back and is purple in color. He has a more rounded snout and sharper horns and teeth. He also has a black tongue instead of a pink one.

Attacks
Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong meet Thugly when they rocket up into a cave in the mountains. When they arrive they notice Thugly eating up their bananas. Suddenly, without warning, the Tiki Tak Tribe shows up, and Xylobone puts Thugly in a hypnotic trance and forces him to battle the Kongs. Thugly has several battle states. He will sprint and try to eat the Kongs, curling up his iron plates with each skid after the Kongs jump over him. When his back plates remain open, the Kongs are compelled to jump on his back. However, sometimes Thugly leaves his back exposed for a second before quickly flicking his iron plates back over his back, quickly turning around to face the Kongs and sprint at them again. After the second or third charge, Thugly looks around for a few seconds before covering his back. In addition, in each state, he'll dash at the duo and make boulders fall, thus soon succumbing to dizziness, and falls on his back. The Kongs must seize the opportunity to pounce on his stomach. After three hits, he will turn to orange. During this stage of the battle, he will blast streams of flame, under which the Kongs must duck. Also when he dashes at the duo, he reaches the other side in only 1 to 2 seconds, giving the Kongs less than a second to jump over him. After he is hit some more, he will turn red and spit out a fireball which splits into 3 fireballs, with fireball spliting into 3 more fireballs. After Thugly's defeat, DK will wallop Xylobone, and move on with his adventure.

Whenever Thugly sprints, dashes, lifts his back plates, uses his fire breath, and during the fireball, his plates start glowing orange with fire. Touching the plates during this state causes the Kongs to lose a heart, making it difficult to jump on his back. Just like Mugly, when Thugly eats enough peanuts, he stops to eat the peanuts, leaving his back exposed.

Trivia

 * In 2 player co-op mode, if Diddy Kong fires enough peanuts at Thugly, it retracts its armor and eat the peanuts (like Mugly). This exposes Thugly's weak spot, making him vulnerable to attack. As Thugly chews on the nuts, hearts surround its head. After a while or if the Kongs hit Thugly, it will burp loudly before continuing to fight Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong.
 * Thugly's aesthetic similarities with Mugly may reference the original Donkey Kong Country, where Really Gnawty was a palette swap of Very Gnawty, and (to a lesser extent) Master Necky Senior was a palette swap of Master Necky.
 * Thugly's name may be a portmanteau of the words "thug" and "ugly".