Balloon (Donkey Kong Barrel Blast)

A red balloon and a blue balloon

A balloon is an object in Donkey Kong Barrel Blast. Balloons, when touched, grant the racers with items to attack their opponents or improve the racers' performance. Many balloons appear in every course in the game. When touched, the balloons break and disappear for a short amount of time, but appear soon after for another player to grab. There are two types of balloons: red balloons and blue balloons. The effects of a red balloon are boosted by Kongs, while the effects of a blue balloon are boosted by Kremlings.

These balloons can be seen as a spiritual successor to the Weapon Balloons from Diddy Kong Racing. They may also be based on the Extra Life Balloons from the Donkey Kong Country series.

Items

Descriptions from the manual.

Red balloon
Image	Name	Description
	Prop Monkey	Hops on the opponent in front of you and tosses out their bananas. (Boost: The effect will last longer.)
	Squawks	Hops on the opponent in front of you and prevents them from using Wild Moves. (Boost: The effect will last longer.)
	Quawks	Attacks the player in first place and slows him or her down. (Boost: Also makes the player drop all bananas.)
	Banana Fairy	Allows you to pick up bananas in a wide range. (Boost: The effect will last longer.)
	Blazing Banana	Places flaming bananas around the course. Players who hit them will slow down. (Boost: Throws out extra Blazing Bananas.)
	Tasty Melon	Makes you invincible for a short time. (Boost: The effect will last longer.
	Crystal Coconut	Makes you invincible and grants you unlimited Wild Moves.
	Banana Bunch	Gives you 30 bananas.
Blue balloon
Image	Name	Description
	Mini-Necky	Chases and attacks the character behind you. (Boost: The targeted character will lose one Wild Move.)
	Whirlwind	Takes bananas from all the other characters. (Boost: Takes more bananas.)
	Backward Barrel	Gives you a barrel to throw at a character behind you. (Boost: The barrel will become a TNT Barrel (p. 20)).
	Mini-Zinger	Drops a swarm of Mini-Zingers on the course. Any character who touches them will slow down and must get rid of them by shaking the Wii Remote and Nunchuk. (Boost: The effect will last longer.)
	Pineapple Launcher	Attacks the character in front of you with a pineapple. (Boost: Two pineapples will be launched.)
	Wild Elixir	Gives you an extra Wild Move. (Boost: Gives you two Wild Moves.)
	Mega TNT Barrel	Launches powerful TNT Barrels at all other racers. Struck racers will lose their Wild Moves and slow down. In addition, their right and left directions might get reversed.
	Banana Bunch	Gives you 30 bananas.

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning
Italian	Palloncino rosso Palloncino blu	Red balloon Blue balloon

Trivia

• In early versions, the red balloon had a "DK" emblem on it. In addition, a green balloon has artwork instead of a blue balloon.