Golden Banana

Golden Bananas are large shiny bananas from Donkey Kong 64. They are considered a part of the Banana Hoard of the Donkey Kong series.

The main plot of Donkey Kong 64 centers around Donkey Kong and his allies trying to reclaim Donkey Kong's prized Golden Bananas from the evil King K. Rool. In this game, Golden Bananas are needed to access new worlds, since B. Locker will be blocking the world entrances. The Golden Bananas were stolen along with some of Donkey Kong's friends to distract him while the Blast-o-Matic was being charged. However, the Golden Bananas turn out to be essential in thwarting K. Rool's plot, as B. Locker will periodically grant access to the Kremlings' occupied territory as Golden Bananas are collected.

In Donkey Kong Country Returns, a single Golden Banana makes an appearance. While leaving Cranky Kong's Shop, the old ape can sometime ramble about finding a Golden Banana that transports one to another dimension. After accessing the Golden Temple via the Rare Orbs, Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong are surprised to see the giant Golden Banana, held by two golden DK-like statues. Peeling its skin and tasting it does indeed transport them to another world.

The animated series featured a single Golden Banana of a different type in the episode "Raiders of the Lost Banana". This Golden Banana is found by DK in Inka Dinka Doo's Temple, and he decides to give it to Candy Kong as a present. As a result, however, DK sets off a curse that befalls anyone nearby the beholder. K. Rool later kidnaps Candy and demands she hand over the Banana, but DK shows up to rescue her and returns the Banana to Inka Dinka Doo. Polly Roger steals the Banana back, though, but now only K. Rool is affected by the curse.

Trivia

 * The numerous Golden Bananas of Donkey Kong 64 have the Nintendo 64 logo on them, while the "huge" Golden Banana in the game, only obtainable by Tiny Kong, obtained from the Banana Fairy Princess, has the Rare logo on it.
 * There are normally 201 Golden Bananas in Donkey Kong 64. However, through the use of a glitch, a 202nd banana is obtainable.
 * Through a series of further glitches, a maximum of 280 Golden Bananas (saved onto the file) can be collected. The maximum amount a Kong can collect per world is 7 (due to being the largest unassigned 3-bit integer). You can collect more Golden Bananas with a Kong per world, and it will display correctly, however, the value saved will be Mod(GB Count, 8). Collecting 280 Golden Bananas on top of other usual 101% requirements is commonly referred to in the speedrunning community as Max% / -124% / 132%