Donkey Kong Barrel Blast

"Barrel Blast" redirects here. For the Jungle Jam event in DK: King of Swing, see Barrel Blast (event). For the Adobe Flash game from Camp Hyrule, see Mario Sports Complex: Barrel Blast.

Donkey Kong Barrel Blast
North American box art For alternate box art, see the game's gallery.
Developer	Paon Nintendo SPD Group No.4
Publisher	Nintendo
Platform(s)	Wii
Release date	June 28, 2007 October 8, 2007 October 8, 2007 January 25, 2008 February 7, 2008 July 12, 2008
Language(s)	English (United States) French (France) German Spanish (Spain) Italian Japanese
Genre	Racing
Rating(s)	ESRB: - Everyone PEGI: - Three years and older CERO: - All ages ACB: - General USK: - Six years and older
Mode(s)	Single player, multiplayer
Format	Wii: Optical disc
Input	Wii: Wii Remote and Nunchuk
Serial code(s)	RVL-RDKJ-JPN

Donkey Kong Barrel Blast (known as Donkey Kong Jet Race in PAL regions) is a racing game in the Donkey Kong franchise. Initially announced for release on the Nintendo GameCube with support for the bongo controller, it was released for the Wii in mid-late 2007 in Japan and North America and early 2008 in Europe and Australia. The game was developed by Paon, who previously developed DK: King of Swing and its sequel, DK: Jungle Climber.

This racing game, unlike most other racing games, takes place in the sky, where three dimensions of navigation are used rather than two. Players race around courses by using rocket-powered bongos, and during a race, players are able to use items, Wild Moves, and shortcuts in an attempt to reach first place. The items are used to give players advantages over their competitors, similarly to the Mario Kart series, though the game has various other elements unique to it, such as using Wild Moves to gain a speed boost and riding on animal friends to smash through obstacles. The game makes heavy use of motion control during the race, where players are required to use the Wii Remote and Nunchuk accordingly to perform various moves, such as accelerating or jumping. The game supports up to four players, but only in the Jungle Grand Prix and Single Race modes; the other game modes are for only one player. Jungle Grand Prix, the main mode of the game, features eight racers in a multi-lap race to the finish line on a given racetrack.

This game requires 22 blocks on the player's Wii system to save game data, and the game data can also be copied and moved to an SD card or transferred to another Wii.

Gameplay

Donkey Kong racing on Mt. Dynamite.

The vehicular form of transportation in Donkey Kong Barrel Blast is rocket-powered bongos; due to their aerial nature, the racers are unaffected by the course's grounded terrain, but they move slower underwater and automatically reach their top speed inside a wormhole and when entering a Launcher Barrel. As with all racing games, players pick a character with varying stats, strengths and weaknesses, and race around an obstacle filled course in an attempt to finish in first place out of eight competing racers. During a race, players can obtain items from balloons and use them to interfere their rivals progress, which draws inspiration from that of the general Mario Kart series. Additionally, also drawing inspiration from the Mario Kart series, more powerful items are awarded to racers who are further behind; players in first place are likely to get either the weaker Banana Bunches or Backward Barrels items, while those near last place may get a Crystal Coconut, Mega TNT Barrel or Quawks. When a race is completed, players receive a certain amount of points depending on which position they finished a race in. The player with the most amount of points at the end of the set of races is the winner.

Donkey Kong riding on Enguarde on Salty Sea.

Donkey Kong riding in a mine cart on Scorching Canyon.

Bananas are found on the racetracks and are used to fill up a gauge that contains Wild Moves, which give players a small speed boost when used; this move can be extended by repeatedly crashing into barrels, certain enemies like Zingers or other players, making them lose ten bananas. Players can carry up to six Wild Moves. Players are also able to attack obstacles and other players, and any player hit by an item loses ten bananas. Additionally, players can perform a jump to avoid obstacles.

A unique feature in this game is the ability to ride a toboggan, a mine cart, as well as animal friends. The former two pits the player in a small bonus game were they can obtain more bananas and use the bonus area as a shortcut, while the latter allows a player to break through obstacles. Several types of barrels are also present, each with a different purpose. Normal barrels are weak obstacles that are essential to Wild Move combos, Iron Barrels significantly slows down a player who bumps into them while Launcher Barrels can be used as shortcuts. Players also encounter some wooden panels with a red !-mark on them. These are known as Surprise Panels, and they summon a wide variety of items after being touched. Some examples are Golden Bananas, barrels, and Launcher Barrels. Three difficulty levels not only control the difficultly of CU players during a race, but how fast a player will move once they reach their top speed, with Rookie being the slowest, Pro being medium and Expert being the fastest.

Point spreads works identically to Mario Kart: Double Dash!! and Mario Kart DS. In multiplayer mode, only four racers are present but the point spread remains the same.

Point Spread
1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th
10	8	6	4	3	2	1	0

Controls

Navigating menus

Action	Buttons used
Select	/
Confirm
Cancel
Home

Racing

Action	Buttons used
Accelerate	Shake the and
Rocket Start	Shake the and simultaneously as soon as the word "Start" appear on-screen during the countdown
Steer	Shake the to go right and the to go left
Jump	Raise the and simultaneously. Players can slow down their descent by shaking the and
Attack	Press
Use item	Press /
Charge a Wild Move	Tilt the in any direction. The charge can be canceled by jumping or using an item
Use a Wild Move	Release the
Pause / Resume
Home

Jungle Grand Prix

The cup selection screen.

Jungle Grand Prix is the main mode in the game; it manages similarly to the Mario Kart series, though some cups have fewer tracks to race on depending on their difficulty level. Also, like Mario Kart Arcade GP, more than one track takes place in a certain area. Three are from the DK Jungle course, three are from the Seaside course, three are from the Mt. Dynamite course, two are from the Desert course, two are from the Snowy Mountain course and two are from the Sky Temple course. Only one racetrack is in a course of its own, which is in outer space. Difficulty selection ranges from Rookie (Beginner in Europe and Australia), to Pro, to Expert, the latter two which must be unlocked before the player can use them. To unlock Pro Difficulty, the player needs to win the Sapphire Cup on Rookie difficulty. To unlock Expert difficulty, the player needs to win the Platinum Cup on Pro difficulty.

Topaz Cup
Jungle	Seaside	Volcano

Sapphire Cup
Desert	Jungle	Seaside	Snow

Diamond Cup
Seaside	Volcano	Desert	Temple

Platinum Cup
Volcano	Jungle	Snow	Temple	Space

Selection Cup

The player selects two to five of any of the race courses, but one race course cannot be selected twice. This trophy is not displayed on the selection screen no matter how many times it is beaten.

Random Cup

The computer randomly picks out five tracks for the player to race on. Like the Selection Cup, the trophy is not displayed on the selection screen. The trophies given during the award ceremony have differing designs and sizes, depending on which cup was beaten.

Cup unlocking criteria

Cup	Criteria
Sapphire Cup	Win the Topaz Cup on Rookie difficulty.
Diamond Cup	Win the Sapphire Cup on Rookie difficulty.
Platinum Cup	Win the Diamond Cup on Rookie or Pro difficulty.
Selection Cup	Win the Diamond Cup on Rookie or Pro difficulty.
Random Cup	Win the Selection Cup (any difficulty level and course combination can be used).

There is also the Practice Course, which is not used in any of the cups, but it is used in Cranky's Flight School, some of Candy's Challenges and during the credits upon winning the Platinum Cup.

Other modes

The selection menu.

• Single Race: Players can choose one racetrack to play on.
• Time Trial: Like the Mario Kart series, Diddy Kong Racing, and its DS remake, players can choose to race on a single track for the best time, and save ghost data.
• Free Run: Players can choose a course and run it without other competitors, a time limit and a lap limit.
• Cranky's Flight School: The informative part of the game where Cranky gives eight lessons on how to play the game, from accelerating, to using items and Wild Moves.
• Candy's Challenges: In this mode, Candy Kong gives out four sets of eight challenges (a similarity to other games like Mario Kart DS, Mario Strikers Charged, and Super Smash Bros. Melee.) These challenges range from collecting a certain amount of bananas, to winning a race without getting hurt, to completing a race against the clock. Completing all of the challenges will unlock Ultra Barrel DK.
• Records: This is where players can look at records and stats for the courses, such as highest amount of bananas collected, highest Wild Move combo count and best time when clearing a cup.
• Options: This is where players can turn the items in the game on or off in Single Race and Jungle Grand Prix, change the button settings, the dominant hand to play on (left or right), and check the controls.

Playable characters

The character select screen.

Including Ultra Barrel DK as a separate character from Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Barrel Blast features a total of 17 playable characters (consisting of 9 Kong characters and 8 Kremling characters). 6 characters are available from the start and 11 are unlockable. Kip, Kass, Kopter, Kalypso, Kludge, and Klump make their playable debuts, with Kip, Kass, Kalypso, and Kludge also making their first appearances in any game. The game also marks the first game appearance of Lanky Kong (excluding remakes) since his debut, which was released 8 years prior. Unlockable characters can appear during races, but Wrinkly Kong, Cranky Kong, and King K. Rool need to be unlocked before they can appear as CPU opponents. Ultra Barrel DK never appears as a CPU opponent even after being unlocked, as he can only be used by human players.

It is also not possible for one player to use Ultra Barrel DK while another player uses Donkey Kong or vice versa, due to them sharing the same character slot. If a character has not been unlocked yet, a black silhouette of Donkey Kong takes its place on their character slot, except for Ultra Barrel DK. Once he is unlocked, the player sees a small speech bubble when hovering over DK's character slot that explains the buttons that needs to be pressed in order to select him. In order to select Ultra Barrel DK on the character select screen, the player needs to highlight Donkey Kong, hold and press .

Each character has three stats, all of which are shown when highlighting them on the character select screen.

• Boost: The time required to reach to the character's top speed.
• Speed: The character's top speed.
• Agility: How tight a character can turn.

Kongs
Default
Donkey Kong Description: "The most balanced Kong." Boost: ★★★☆☆ Speed: ★★★☆☆ Agility: ★★★☆☆ Rival: Kritter	Diddy Kong Description: "Sacrifices speed for greater agility." Boost: ★★★☆☆ Speed: ★★☆☆☆ Agility: ★★★★☆ Rival: Kip	Dixie Kong Description: "Minimal speed, but high agility and maxed out boost." Boost: ★★★★★ Speed: ★☆☆☆☆ Agility: ★★★★☆ Rival: Kass
Unlockable
Lanky Kong Description: "Very high speed, but low boost and poor agility." Boost: ★★☆☆☆ Speed: ★★★★⯨ Agility: ★☆☆☆☆ Rival: Klump To unlock: Win the Topaz Cup with a Kong.	Tiny Kong Description: "Maxed out boost and high speed, but low agility." Boost: ★★★★★ Speed: ★★★★☆ Agility: ★★☆☆☆ Rival: Kalypso To unlock: Win the Sapphire Cup with a Kong.	Funky Kong Description: "Maxed out speed, but poor agility and boost." Boost: ★☆☆☆☆ Speed: ★★★★★ Agility: ★☆☆☆☆ Rival: Kludge To unlock: Win the Diamond Cup with a Kong.	Wrinkly Kong Description: "Average boost and speed with maxed out agility." Boost: ★★★☆☆ Speed: ★★★☆☆ Agility: ★★★★★ Rival: Kopter To unlock: Win Candy's Challenge 26: Let Wrinkly Kong win!	Cranky Kong Description: "High boost, speed, and agility." Boost: ★★★★☆ Speed: ★★★★☆ Agility: ★★★★☆ Rival: King K. Rool To unlock: Win Candy's Challenge 24: Challenge Cranky!
Kremlings
Default
Kritter Description: "The most balanced Kremling." Boost: ★★★☆☆ Speed: ★★★☆☆ Agility: ★★★☆☆ Rival: Donkey Kong	Kip Description: "High agility and average boost with low speed." Boost: ★★★☆☆ Speed: ★★☆☆☆ Agility: ★★★★☆ Rival: Diddy Kong	Kass Description: "Maxed out boost and high agility, but minimal speed." Boost: ★★★★★ Speed: ★☆☆☆☆ Agility: ★★★★☆ Rival: Dixie Kong
Unlockable
Kopter Description: "Maxed out agility with average boost and speed." Boost: ★★★☆☆ Speed: ★★★☆☆ Agility: ★★★★★ Rival: Wrinkly Kong To unlock: Win the Topaz Cup with a Kremling.	Kalypso Description: "Low agility, but maxed out boost and high speed." Boost: ★★★★★ Speed: ★★★★☆ Agility: ★★☆☆☆ Rival: Tiny Kong To unlock: Win the Sapphire Cup with a Kremling.	Kludge Description: "Maxed out speed, but poor boost and agility." Boost: ★☆☆☆☆ Speed: ★★★★★ Agility: ★☆☆☆☆ Rival: Funky Kong To unlock: Win the Diamond Cup with a Kremling.	Klump Description: "Very high speed, but poor agility and low boost." Boost: ★★☆☆☆ Speed: ★★★★⯨ Agility: ★☆☆☆☆ Rival: Lanky Kong To unlock: Win Candy's Challenge 16: Beat Klump!	King K. Rool Description: "High boost, speed, and agility." Boost: ★★★★☆ Speed: ★★★★☆ Agility: ★★★★☆ Rival: Cranky Kong To unlock: Win Candy's Challenge 31: Showdown vs. King K. Rool.
Powered up character
Unlockable
Ultra Barrel DK Description "All stats are maxed out." Boost ★★★★★ Speed ★★★★★ Agility ★★★★★ Rival: None To unlock Complete all 32 of Candy's Challenges.

Enemies

These characters act as obstacles and tries to attack racers. Racers slow down when struck by their attack or by colliding with them directly. A defeated enemy rewards a racer with ten bananas. Defeated enemies respawn after a while.

Enemies
Enemy	Location	Description
Flipflap	Mt. Dynamite, Scorching Canyon, Mt. Dynamite Remix, Dynamite Run	A bat that flies around in a set pattern. One hit defeats it.
Zinger	DK Jungle, Scorching Canyon, DK Jungle Falls, Cranky's Temple, DK Jungle Sunset	A large wasp that flies around in a set pattern. Unlike other Donkey Kong games, one hit defeats them.
Necky	Mt. Dynamite, Cranky's Temple, Temple Heights	A vulture that flies around high in the sky, and it rams into a racer it sees. One hit defeats it and they can help a racer with Wild Move combos.
Chomps	Salty Sea, Shimmering Sea, Open Ocean	A large shark that is encountered only underwater. Regular ones appear in Salty Sea, Shimmering Sea and Open Ocean and electrified variants appear only in Open Ocean. One hit defeats them. Electrified ones slow down racers significantly if attacked unless they are attacked while invincible or with Enguarde.
Hurley	Salty Sea, Shimmering Sea, Mammoth Glacier, Open Ocean, Alpine Peak	A monkey that throws bananas and barrels at the racers. They cannot be defeated, and other Hurleys can also be seen spectating the race or doing something in the background.
Lockjaw	DK Jungle Falls, DK Jungle Sunset	A piranha that is encountered only near waterfalls. They attack racers by leaping out of the water and biting them. Regular ones appear in DK Jungle Falls, while electrified variants appear in DK Jungle Sunset. As the Chomps, both can be defeated in one hit, but electrified variants can be defeated safely only by attacking it while invincible.
Giant Centipede	Scorching Canyon, Parched Palace	A pink centipede that crawls near the finish line after being summoned by touching a specific Surprise Panel. It cannot be defeated, only avoided. It also tries to eat the Golden Banana that spawns along with it, as well as any bananas it may come across.
Giant Squid	Salty Sea	A large white squid found only underwater. A player can attack its tentacles and make it retract them briefly inside the rocks, and the head can also be attacked to stun the squid for a while, though only if the player crashes into it while using a Wild Move or attacks it while riding on Enguarde.
Big Frog	DK Jungle Falls, Mt. Dynamite Remix, Dynamite Run, DK Jungle Sunset	A frog usually found in groups. The green ones in the DK Jungle courses attacks by breathing green bubbles, while red ones found in the Mt Dynamite courses breathe fire. Neither can be defeated.
Cyber Kong	Cosmic Highway	A robotic DK look-alike that shoots lasers. One hit defeats it. There is also a giant version of this that shoots multiple lasers and homing missiles that cannot be defeated, but it can be stunned temporarily by crashing into it while using a Wild Move.

Items

A red balloon and a blue balloon

Items are obtained from balloons on the racetracks. There are red balloons and blue balloons, the former being associated with the Kongs and the latter being associated with the Kremlings. When a racer goes into a balloon of their team's color, the effect of the item may last longer than if the other team got it. Some balloons change color after being picked up. The item that racers get from a balloon is influenced by their current race position.

Red balloon items

Image	Name	Description
	Prop Monkey	A toy version of Hurley. It flies to the opponent in front of the user and tosses out their bananas onto the race track. If used by a Kong, it tosses more bananas.
	Squawks	The green parrot from the Donkey Kong series. He flies to the opponent in front of the user and hovers around them, preventing them from performing Wild Moves. If the player tries to perform a Wild Move, Squawks attacks. This causes the player to lose ten bananas. If used by a Kong, he circles around the target longer. Squawks can be eliminated by using a Wild Move while invincible.
	Quawks	The purple parrot from the Donkey Kong series, now with a name. He flies to the player in first place and attacks, causing ten bananas to be lost (however, this can be avoided by jumping or turning sharply before he attacks). If used by a Kong, the player that gets hit instead loses all of their bananas.
	Banana Fairy	A glowing fairy. When used, it pulls in bananas close to the user. If used by a Kong, the effect lasts longer. It can pull in balloons but not Golden Bananas.
	Blazing Banana	A banana on fire that users can place onto the track. When opponents run into it, they lose ten bananas. If used by a Kong, they leave more of them behind.
	Tasty Melon	It makes players invincible for a while. If used by a Kong, the effect lasts a little longer. Unlike the Crystal Coconut, touching players while invincible does not hurt them.
	Crystal Coconut	The best Kong power-up, using it makes players invincible and have unlimited Wild Moves. Touching another player while under the effects of this item causes them to lose ten bananas. The effect of the item remains the same regardless if a Kong or Kremling used it.

Blue balloon items

Image	Name	Description
	Mini-Necky	A miniature version of Necky. It flies to the opponent behind the user and rams them, making them lose ten bananas. If used by a Kremling, the opponent also loses one Wild Move.
	Whirlwind	A small twister. It takes away bananas from all the racers and gives them to the user. If used by a Kremling, more bananas are taken.
	Backward Barrel	A barrel that is thrown backwards by the user. It splits into three barrels for more chances of hitting someone from behind. If used by a Kremling, the barrels turn into TNT barrels. Neither barrel can be destroyed by attacking it or running into it while using a Wild Move. Both barrels causes a player to lose ten bananas if they run into one.
	Mini-Zinger	A swarm of small Zingers that, when used, stays on a part of the track. Players that run into the swarm are attacked, with their speed slowed down, where they must accelerate to get rid of them. If used by a Kremling, the Zingers are harder to get rid of. The swarm can be removed instantly if the player runs into it while invincible.
	Pineapple Launcher	Originally Chunky Kong's weapon in Donkey Kong 64, the Pineapple Launcher is a wooden bazooka that shoots homing pineapples, though opponents can dodge it by jumping before it hits them. If used by a Kremling, two pineapples are shot instead of one. A player that gets hit by a pineapple will lose ten bananas.
	Wild Elixir	A drink that gives the user an extra Wild Move. If used by a Kremling, it gives two extra Wild Moves.
	Mega TNT Barrel	The best Kremling weapon, using it drops TNT Barrels on all opponents, making them lose all Wild Moves, get their controls reversed, and not be able to use their items. This item's effect is not affected if the user is a Kong or a Kremling.

Both

Image	Name	Description
	Banana Bunch	A bunch of bananas that gives the player 30 bananas when used.

Bananas

The key to winning is collecting bananas to fill the Wild Move gauge. It takes 50 bananas to fill it and obtain a Wild Move. Collected bananas respawn on the racetrack after a while.

Image	Name	Description
	Banana	Worth one banana.
	Banana Bunch	Worth five bananas.
	Golden Banana	Worth 50 bananas. Many of them are usually found by touching a Surprise Panel.

Animal friends

Image	Name	Description
	Rambi	Rambi bashes everything in his path, and players collect bananas when objects are bashed. Rambi can be found on the rocky road before the lavafall on Dynamite Run.
	Enguarde	Like Rambi, Enguarde plows through all sorts of obstacles, and players collect bananas from them. Enguarde can be found in the underwater portions of Salty Sea and Open Ocean.

In order to hitch a ride on either of them, the player must run into the animal crate on the track with their picture, where the box either stays still or moves back and forth in a line for players to catch. They cannot hurt another racer by touching them, but they are immune to being damaged by both racers using Wild Moves, their attacks, as well as all items, except for the reversed control effects and loss of Wild Moves from a Mega TNT Barrel. Their animal crates respawns to their original location once a riding racer reaches the end of the animal friend's area.

Barrels

Donkey Kong Barrel Blast features a variety of Barrels. Some of them can be spawned by touching a Surprise Panel.

Image	Name	Description
	Launcher Barrel	A type of Barrel Cannon. Racers who enter one gets sucked in and shot out at high speed. This is commonly found in all racetracks. There are also two other, rarer variants of the Launcher Barrel that are manually controlled by moving the and upwards simultaneously.
	Spinning Launcher Barrel	A Launcher Barrel that spins around when a racer is in it, then shoots them out at an angle, usually pointing to the next Spinning Launcher Barrel if there is one.
	Barrel	The most common obstacle, essential for Wild Move combos. Players can avoid them by turning around them or jumping. They are easily broken when attacked by a racer or ran into while using a Wild Move (which they earn five bananas for each destroyed barrel). Simply colliding into a barrel causes a minor speed drop. Destroyed barrels regenerate after a while. Some are also spawned by touching a Surprise Panel.
	Iron Barrel	The second-most common obstacle in the game. Players that run into one loses a significant amount of speed. They can be destroyed only if the player is invincible or is using an animal friend. Destroyed Iron Barrels regenerate after a while. They give five bananas when destroyed.
	TNT Barrel	The least-common barrel on racetracks, but the most dangerous. Players that run into one causes the barrel to blow up, as well as anything adjacent to it. They can destroyed safely only if the player is invincible, and it gives five bananas when destroyed. Destroyed TNT Barrels regenerate after a while.
	Barrel Cannon	These barrels shoot out smaller, cream-colored barrels that spin around and disappear when they reach the other side of the track. The small barrels can be destroyed as normal barrels and gives five bananas when destroyed. These types of barrels are found in the DK Jungle courses and Cranky's Temple.
	Style Barrel	A special red Launcher Barrel. Players that are shot out from one of these start a small game, where they must point the Wii remote a certain direction to have their racer perform stylish moves. The first three correct moves earns them ten bananas, but getting all four commands right earns them an additional fifty for a total of eighty bananas. This type of barrel is rarely seen and is found on few tracks.
	Yellow Launcher Barrel	A special yellow Launcher Barrel. When a player enters it, a gauge is shown above it. The player can stop the gauge by moving the and upwards simultaneously and they are shot out from it. The strength of the shot and the distance traveled depends on how close the player stopped the gauge near the blue area. If they stopped the gauge at the blue area, they are always shot out at max speed and travel the furthest distance. These barrels are rare, as they are seen only on Mammoth Glacier and Mt. Dynamite Remix.
	DK Launcher Barrel	A special Launcher Barrel with the DK logo on it that is found exclusively on Mt. Dynamite. When a player enters it, the barrel aligns its firing position before allowing the player to shoot themselves out by moving the and upwards simultaneously. If the barrel is pointing straight ahead and the player fires, they are successfully launched at a high speed to a Spinning Launcher Barrel that shoots the player to the very bottom of the downhill path. If the player instead fires while the barrel was pointing upwards, they are blasted to a dangerous area of the racetrack filled with many Spiked Balls, Iron Barrels and Blazing Bananas. When exiting this area, the player ends up near the finish line.

Pre-release and unused content

Main article: List of Donkey Kong Barrel Blast pre-release and unused content

The game was originally planned for the Nintendo GameCube for use with the DK Bongo Controller. The red balloons originally had the DK logo on them, before being changed into question marks in the final version. Some of the character sprites, such as Donkey Kong, Funky Kong and Kritter were originally artwork reused from DK: King of Swing. Donkey Kong Barrel Blast had gone through some working titles, such as "DK Bongo Blast" (when it was going to be a GameCube title) and "Donkey Jet".

Development

Concept art for the game, depicting an unused small Kremling named Karry (キャリー), an unused female Kremling named Kressa (クレッサ), and Krusha.

Following the completion of DK: King of Swing, producer Toshiharu Izuno and the Paon development team wanted to follow it up with a home console game that could be enjoyed by the whole family together in front of the TV Screen. Initially, Barrel Blast was developed as a more traditional racing game as the developers had difficulty letting go of certain genre conventions, but when the prototype of this version of the game was demoed inside Nintendo, there were multiple feedbacks expressing that the game needed a bigger sense of fun and be more intuitive to make sense as a Wii title. The developers experimented with having all controls done through the Wii Remote. Tuning the game's controls was a difficult balancing act: assistant producer Ryunosuke Suzuki described an instance where, after playtest feedbacks complained the timing for making jumps was too strict, the revised version had the opposite issue of having jumps be too easy to trigger by accident.

Speaking of the game's use of the Donkey Kong theming, Izuno explained that Nintendo did not want Paon to feel constrained in making the game, asking them to first design an interesting racetrack before considering how well it fits the Donkey Kong world. Paon suggested the idea of new Kremlings characters, prompting Nintendo's internal character design team to design the new character. The development team approached Barrel Blast as a "racing action game", wanting to emphazize features such as avoiding obstacles, triggering course features and jumping over or destroying objects. As Paon knew the game would be one of the first 4-player racing title on the console, it was deliberately designed to be simple and accessible.

Staff

Main article: List of Donkey Kong Barrel Blast staff

The game director is Kenichi Imaeda, and supervising is done by Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. Paon's president Rikiya Nakagawa is one of the three producers of the game, Eiji Akahori is the lead programmer and Takashi Kouga composed the game's music.

Critical reception

Donkey Kong Barrel Blast was met with mostly negative reviews for its slow racing, imprecise controls, a lack of online mode, and that the Bongo Controllers were left out of the game even though GameCube controllers are completely compatible with the Wii. It has an average score of 43.94% from 32 reviews on GameRankings and an average of 46 based on 34 reviews on Metacritic. It is the lowest-rated Super Mario-adjacent game on Metacritic, as well as the only one to have a negative score.

Reviews
Release	Reviewer, Publication	Score	Comment
Wii	Matt Bozon, IGN	4.5/10	What a waste of a game Donkey Kong Barrel Blast has become. Racers move incredibly slow, and even follow the specific point on the track regardless of player input, so once you drum up to full speed you could literally put the controllers down and watch the rider race around the track, if not for a slight bit of drifting within their lanes and the occasional hazard on the road. When looking at the presentation elements DK Barrel Blast shows at least a bit of merit. The game even runs in 16:9 and 480p, and goes as far as to include Mii support for profiles, IR menus, and a motion-based trick system in-game, but it just doesn't matter when you realize DK Barrel Blast looks the part, but doesn't act it. It isn't all bad with DK Barrel Blast, but unfortunately the weaker elements far outweigh the game's higher points.
Wii	KnucklesSonic8, Wiiloveit.com	23/30	One thing the game gets right is the variety of modes. Rather than simply limiting players to a barebones setup, Barrel Blast features a few other gameplay modes beyond the ones you'd come to expect. The game has over 10 characters to choose from, all hailing from the Donkey Kong universe. Even some unlikely characters show up in the roster and it's great to see such a wide selection of characters. Best of all, though, the musical stylings found within the game are really catchy and they suit each level almost perfectly. Sadly, the level of enjoyment that one may experience in the game's single-player modes doesn't translate into a fun multiplayer experience. While the game is enjoyable for younger audiences who may have trouble with running into walls in other racing games, the split-screen is just too confining for matches of 3 or 4. Unfortunately, the framerate also drops significantly during races with larger numbers and it's rather unappealing.
Wii	Alex Navarro, GameSpot	4.5/10	Donkey Kong: Barrel Blast is one in a very long line of half-baked Mario Kart wannabes, and it's one that just so happens to be published by the Mario Kart maker itself, Nintendo. If you can give Barrel Blast credit for anything, it's that there's no shortage of things to do. You can also play the game with up to three friends, including the grand prix mode. While adding other folk to the mix does alleviate some of the catch-up AI business, it doesn't make the controls any less flimsy, meaning you'll probably just end up with a few frustrated friends at the end of it. It's impossible to know whether or not Donkey Kong: Barrel Blast would have been any better with bongo drum controls instead of Wii Remote action, but in truth, it doesn't really matter. The lackluster track designs, inconsistent difficulty level, and no-personality presentation are more than enough to sink the game all by themselves, and when you throw in the wonky motion controls, that just sinks things even deeper. Skip out on Barrel Blast.
Aggregators
Compiler		Platform / Score
Metacritic		46
GameRankings		43.94%

Sales

According to Famitsu sales data, Donkey Kong Barrel Blast sold 79,201 copies in Japan by the end of 2007.

Gallery

For this subject's image gallery, see Gallery:Donkey Kong Barrel Blast.

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  The game's logo

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  The title screen

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  Group artwork

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  Donkey Kong, Diddy, Dixie, Lanky, Tiny, Funky, a Kritter, Kip, Kass, a Kopter, Kalypso, and Kludge on a size comparison chart.

Media

For a complete list of media for this subject, see List of Donkey Kong Barrel Blast media.

Donkey Kong Barrel Blast - Title screen theme.

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Donkey Kong Barrel Blast - Main menu theme.

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DK Jungle Falls - DK Jungle Falls playthrough.

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Donkey Kong Barrel Blast - Japanese commercial of the game.

File infoMedia:DKBB Review.ogv 1:48

Help:Media • Having trouble playing?

References to other games

• Donkey Kong: Parts of Cranky's Flight School and Cosmic Highway's music originate from this game's opening.
• Donkey Kong Country: Several enemies from this game return. The theme that plays in Cranky's Flight School is a remix of the music that plays in Cranky's Cabin. When Kritter rides in a mine cart, he resembles a Krash. The music that plays during a lesson in Cranky's Flight School or during one of Candy's Challenges is a rearrangement of "DK Island Swing", the music that plays in Jungle Hijinxs.
• Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest: Lockjaw returns as an enemy.
• Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!: Quawks returns and is named for the first time. Kopter also returns. Many Rocket Barrels are seen in the background of Cosmic Highway.
• Donkey Kong 64: Lanky Kong and Tiny Kong return. Chunky Kong's Pineapple Launcher, Banana Fairies, Golden Bananas, and Crystal Coconuts return as items. Flipflaps return as enemies.
• Diddy Kong Racing DS: Tiny appears in her older teenage redesign which originated from this game.

References in later games

• Super Smash Bros. Brawl: Artwork of Kalypso and a Banana Bunch appear as stickers. Kip, Kass, Kalypso and Kludge also appear as trophies. Additionally, the trophies of Funky Kong, Candy Kong, Lanky Kong, Tiny Kong, Cranky Kong, and Kritter mention this game. The theme that plays on the DK Jungle course is available as a music track on Rumble Falls.
• Mario Kart Wii: Some of Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, and Funky Kong's voice clips from Donkey Kong Barrel Blast are reused for this game.
• Super Smash Bros. for Wii U: Kritter's trophy description in the North American version mentions his appearance as a playable character in this game.
• Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: Kip, Kalypso, and a Kritter appear as spirits, using their artwork from Donkey Kong Barrel Blast.

Names in other languages

Language	Name	Meaning	Notes
Japanese	ドンキーコング たるジェットレース[?] Donkī Kongu Taru Jetto Rēsu	Donkey Kong Barrel Jet Race
Chinese	大金剛噴射木桶賽 Dàjīngāng Pēnshè Mùtǒng Sài	Donkey Kong Jet Barrel Racing

Trivia

• In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, the trophies for the characters originating from Donkey Kong: Barrel Blast were completely rewritten for the NTSC release, focusing on the characters' performance rather than details about the characters themselves. The PAL and Korean releases of Super Smash Bros. Brawl retains the information from the Japanese version.

External links

• Official Japanese website
• Official North American website (archived)
• North American manual (EN/FR/ES)