Bonus room
A Bonus Area (also known as a Bonus Room or Bonus Level) is a hidden area in the Donkey Kong series of games; particularly the Donkey Kong Country and Donkey Kong Land games.
Bonus Areas are usually revealed by finding either a secret passage or by jumping into a Bonus Barrel. In Bonus Areas, there's almost always a prize of some nature. In games following Donkey Kong Country, there is always a goal of some sort in the Bonus Areas that the Kongs need to accomplish, and a useful reward for meeting it like a Puzzle Piece in Donkey Kong Country Returns.
History
Donkey Kong Country series
Donkey Kong Country
In Donkey Kong Country and Donkey Kong Land, Bonus Areas are entered by either breaking open certain walls with Barrels to reveal secret passages, or by jumping into certain Auto-Fire Barrels. Levels can have anywhere from zero to five Bonus Areas, but most levels have two or three.
There are several different kinds of Bonus Areas. In one, Donkey and Diddy Kong can explore the area at their leasure and collect any treasures they find. In others, they have to play minigames of sorts to collect prizes, such as lining up prizes in the correct order, spelling words with floating letters and jumping on Klaptraps in succession, among others.
There are also Bonus Areas that can only be reached by collecting three Animal Tokens of any animal. Upon collection of the third token, the Kongs will be warped to a special Bonus Area, where they'll play as the animal whose tokens they had collected. The goal of these Bonus Areas is to collect as many Mini Animal Tokens as possible before time runs out. The player will receive an extra life for every 100 mini tokens they collected.
Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest
In Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest, Bonus Areas are entered much like they were in Donkey Kong Country, except that the Auto-Fire Barrels that led to Bonus Areas have been replaced with Bonus Barrels. All levels have between one and three Bonus Areas. The Bonus Areas now have time-based challenges to complete, with Kremkoins as prizes. In the Lost World, DK Coins were the prizes instead.
- Find the Kremkoin! – Diddy and Dixie have to make it to the end of the Bonus Area and collect the coin before the time limit expires.
- Destroy Them All! – Diddy and Dixie have to defeat all the enemies to make the Kremkoin appear.
- Collect the Stars! – Diddy and Dixie must collect all the Stars in the Bonus Area to make the Kremkoin appear. In a few cases, there are more Stars than the amount required.
Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!
In Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!, Bonus Areas work similar to the way they did in Donkey Kong Country 2, except now they're always entered through Bonus Barrels, and never by secret passages. There are also always two per level, except in Krematoa, where the amount varies between zero and three. Lastly instead of Kremcoins, Dixie and Kiddy Kong collect Bonus Coins in the Bonus Areas.
- Find the Coin! – Identical concept to Find the Kremkoin!.
- Bash the Baddies! – Identical concept to Destroy Them All!.
- Collect __ Stars! – Same concept as Collect the Stars, except that the amount of Stars that the Kongs need to collect is displayed when the Kongs enter the Bonus Area.
- Collect 15 Bananas! – Dixie and Kiddy must collect fifteen randomly appearing Green Bananas within the time limit to make the Bonus Coin appear.
[Note: The Bonus Areas in Donkey Kong Land III are similar to those here, except Collect 15 Bananas! is eliminated, and in Collect __ Stars! there is now no set number of stars for the player to collect; the level is renamed Collect All the Stars!.]
Donkey Kong Country Returns
In Donkey Kong Country Returns and Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D, the Bonus Areas returns, but this time, the Kongs have thirty seconds to get all of the Bananas, Banana Bunches, Banana Coins, and Extra Life Balloons. If they successfully collect all of them, then the clock will stop and a Puzzle Piece will appear for them to collect.
Donkey Kong 64
- Batty Barrel Bandit!: Get four bananas on a slot machine. Do this the required number of times to win.
- Peril Path Panic!: Shoot melons at the Klaptraps to save the Banana Fairies so they can safely cross to the other side.
- Big Bug Bash!: Controlling a giant flyswatter, the player must smash a required number of flies in the time limit.
- Searchlight Seek!: Using a spotlight, the player has to find and shoot the Klaptraps from above.
- Kremling Kosh!: Use a watermelon-shooting cannon to shoot the Kremlings that pop out of the barrels. Regular Kremlings are worth one point, and red ones are worth two points. Shoot the required number before time runs out to win the game.
- Mine Cart Race: In a mine cart, try to collect the required number of coins before the exit.
- Splish Splash Salvage!: In a big barrel, swim and collect all the coins.
- Speedy Swing Sortie!: Swing on vines and collect the coins.
- Mad Maze Maul!: Go through the maze and defeat enemies.
- Mine Cart Mayhem!: The player rides around a minecart. Avoid TNT barrels by switching lanes left and right. Speed up and slow down by pushing up and down respectively.
- Stealthy Snoop!: Sneak through a maze avoiding the flashlights from the Kops.
- Teetering Turtle Trouble!: Shoot melons at snakes to keep them fed and prevent the spinning turtles on the snakes' tails from falling.
- Busty Barrel Barrage!: Standing the middle of a big barrel, the player must shoot at Kremlings. If they touch the player the player loses.
- Beaver Brother!: The player controls a Klaptrap and tries to chase the Gnawtys into the hole in the center of the barrel. The player must be careful not to fall into the hole themselves, or they will automatically lose the game.
- Krazy Kong Klamor!: Lights will repeatedly flicker on and off. The player must shoot bananas and avoid shooting the Kongs.
- Stash Snatch!: While going around a maze, the player must collect all the coins and avoid Krushas.
