Puzzle Piece (Donkey Kong Country series)
| Puzzle Piece | |
|---|---|
| |
| First appearance | Donkey Kong Country Returns (2010) |
| Latest appearance | Donkey Kong Country Returns HD (2025) |
Puzzle Pieces are items in Donkey Kong Country Returns (as well as its Nintendo 3DS port and its Nintendo Switch port) and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (as well as its Nintendo Switch port) Each one is orange and curved, and they have a shiny texture. There are either five, seven, or nine Puzzle Pieces hidden in every level, except for boss fights. They can be hidden in a number of ways: some are in secret portions of level geometry, others are in Item containers or objects the player can Blow on, still others appear if the player collects certain groups of bananas and/or Banana Coins, and some are clearly visible but require the player to move in specific ways to reach them. Completed bonus rooms reward the player with a Puzzle Piece. Puzzle Pieces do not appear in Time Attack mode. On the results screen for a level, the gathered Puzzle Pieces automatically come together to form an image. The entire picture is revealed when the Kongs obtain every Puzzle Piece, and unlike KONG Letters the player can achieve this across multiple attempts at a level. Puzzle Pieces that have been collected on past playthroughs appear to be faded. If Squawks is equipped, he calls out when the player is near an uncollected Puzzle Piece.
Once complete, the picture the Puzzle Pieces created swaps to a representative icon of a Puzzle Piece. In Donkey Kong Country Returns and its ports, this is a silver Puzzle Piece on a green background. In the original Donkey Kong Country Returns, the second state of the picture replaced the first state, but in the ports of the game the completed picture flips over to reveal the silver design. In Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze it is instead a black Puzzle Piece with a yellow outline on a green background. After this occurs, the player unlocks a new photo in each game's Image Gallery (Returns) (Tropical Freeze). On the world map, the icon of the representative design appears on levels that the player collected every Puzzle Piece in.
Five Monkey Trial in Donkey Kong Country Returns is unique among levels for requiring the player collect every Puzzle Piece. In each of the level's five sections a Puzzle Piece appears after collecting every Banana Coin. The Puzzle Piece must be collected to make the Barrel Cannon to move further into the level appear. In Time Attack mode, the Puzzle Piece is skipped so the Barrel Cannon instead appears for collecting all Banana Coins.
Gallery[edit]
Donkey Kong Country Returns (3D / HD)[edit]
Completed puzzle for levels with five Puzzle Pieces
Completed puzzle for levels with seven Puzzle Pieces
Completed puzzle for levels with nine Puzzle Pieces
Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze[edit]
Completed puzzle in Lost Mangroves
Completed puzzle in Autumn Heights
Completed puzzle in Bright Savannah
Completed puzzle in Sea Breeze Cove
Completed puzzle in Juicy Jungle
Completed puzzle in Donkey Kong Island
Completed puzzle in Secret Seclusion
Names in other languages[edit]
| Language | Name | Meaning | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Japanese | パズルピース[?] Pazuru Pīsu |
Puzzle Piece | |
| Italian | Tessera del puzzle[1] | Puzzle piece | |
| Russian | Кусочек пазла[2] Kusochek pazla |
Puzzle Piece | |
| Spanish (NOA) | Pieza de rompecabezas[?] | Puzzle Piece | |
| Spanish (NOE) | Pieza de puzle[?] | Puzzle Piece |
References[edit]
- ^ Nintendo of Europe (March 12, 2025). Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (sito ufficiale). Italian. Retrieved from Nintendo.it.
- ^ Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze | Nintendo Switch | Игры | Nintendo. Nintendo of Russia (Russian). Archived January 14, 2018, 12:48:14 UTC from the original via Wayback Machine. Retrieved August 2, 2024.
