Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest

The sequel to the wildly successful Donkey Kong Country, and the second game in Rare's SNES trilogy overall, Diddy's Kong Quest was released in 1995 and would go on to become the SNES's best-selling stand-alone game (as in, not bundled with the console), and it's sixth best seller overall. The plot, like with the last game, is simple: Donkey Kong is kidnapped by the villainous King K. Rool, now going under the identity of Kaptain K. Rool. Holding him hostage at Crocodile Isle, K. Rool demands the Kongs' entire banana hoard if they want to see DK again. But DK's little buddy Diddy isn't about to take this lying down: with his girlfriend Dixie Kong by his side, he sets up on an adventure that's even bigger than his first and takes the fight straight to Crocodile Isle.

Building on an already solid foundation, Diddy's Kong Quest would expand upon the first game's formula in many ways. First of all, going for 100% completion (or rather, 102%) is a lot more fulfilling than in the original. Not only is there an extra world with a different ending after beating K. Rool a second time, but to get there you'll need to beat the game's revamped bonus rooms, which are fleshed-out challenges that reward you with special collectibles. Another set of collectibles, Hero Coins, are also needed to fully beat the game. And this formula would carry on into the third game, Dixie's Double Trouble.


 * Action Girl: Dixie Kong kicks just as much ass as Diddy, and the ability to hover around by spinning her ponytail around makes her the better choice for the game's nasty late-game platforming challenges.
 * Advancing Boss of Doom: Before you properly fight him, an invincible King Zing will ambush you at the end of Rambi Rumble and chase you through the last stretch of the level.
 * Alluring Anglerfish: One named Glimmer helps you out in Glimmer's Galleon. Only appearing once in the entire game, he's the rarest Animal Buddy and his only purpose is to light your way through the darkness a'la Squawks from the first game.
 * Amusement Park of Doom: Krazy Kremland is half this, half Hornet Hole, and it's home to a few levels that require you to ride dangerous roller coasters.
 * Ash Face: Every time you attack Kaptain K. Rool, he gets this courtesy of his blunderbuss backfiring on him.
 * Attack Its Weak Point: To hurt King Zing, Squawks has to spit eggs at his stinger. In the second phase of the fight however, you can shoot King Zing anywhere on his body and hurt him since he's shrunken down to the size of his Zinger minions.
 * Battle Couple: Diddy Kong and Dixie Kong are dating, and make for quite the unstoppable duo in their fight against the Kremlings.
 * Big Bad: King K. Rool again, but this time he's going by the name of Kaptain K. Rool and has forced his minions to adopt his pirate motif.
 * Big Creepy-Crawlies: Zingers return from the first game, and are accompanied by giant dragonfly enemies called Flitters and sturdy beetles called Click-Clacks. Then there's Squitter, a giant spider who serves as one of the game's Animal Buddies.
 * Big Freaking Gun: K. Rool wields an impressive blunderbuss that's as long as he is tall.
 * Big Freaking Sword: Kleever, the game's second boss is a living sword that is twice as big as the Kongs. Kutlass enemies also haul swords bigger than themselves around, which proves to be their undoing since their tiny size makes it difficult for them to pull them free from the ground after missing an attack.
 * Bubblegloop Swamp: Krem Quay, the third world is a vast swamp with a ship wreck half-sunken in the bog (It was even the original trope namer on TV Tropes). And outside of that, individual swamp levels can be found around the world.
 * Cats Are Mean: The Cat-O-9-Tails is very mean, to the point that he'll hurl you to your death if he catches you with his spin attack.
 * Chest Monster: Be careful around barrels, because some of them are actually a Klobber in disguise. And depending on the color, getting hit by one can really suck.
 * Cold-Blooded Torture:.
 * Curb Stomp Battle: Trying to pick a fight with Klubba instead of paying him will simply result in him effortlessly swatting Diddy and Dixie away from his post.
 * Darker and Edgier: While still light-hearted and whimsical, this game's tone definitely has some edge to it compared to the first. Crocodile Isle is a lot more hostile and unwelcoming than DK Island what with its volcano area, swamps, and haunted grove, and the enemies are a lot meaner-looking and often carrying weapons.
 * Degraded Boss: Several Kleevers (the second boss) show up as enemies weilded by Kerozene in the GBA rerelease. They're a lot weaker than the boss version and die after taking a single hit.
 * Dem Bones: Kackles, which are huge skeletal Kremling ghosts that chase you through Haunted Hall, and a big source of Nightmare Fuel for quite a few 90's kids.
 * Distressed Dude: DK goes from hero of the first game to kidnapping victim, and this wouldn't be the last time it happens to him.
 * The Dog Bites Back:
 * Elite Mooks: Krunchas, which are basically Krushas with anger issues: Diddy and Dixie can't hurt them without throwable objects, and will just piss them off if they try to jump on or cartwheel/spin into them.
 * Everything's Better with Spinning: When it comes to Dixie, yes. Yes it is. Her ability to hover by spinning her ponytail is ridiculously helpful in a platformer that's as tough as this.
 * Evil Counterpart: Squawks has Screech, a dark-colored, mean-looking parrot that you're forced to race before fighting K. Rool.
 * Evil Laugh: Kloaks belt out an impressive one before chucking an item, as do the Kackles if they attack you.
 * Game-Breaking Bug: The infamous Castle Crush glitch. Thankfully, it's highly unlikely to ever be triggered by accident, but it's still not something you should play around with unless you're using an unlicensed emulator (As in, not via the Wii/Wii U virtual console or Nintendo Switch online service). By having Diddy pick up the first DK Barrel and place it on the far left-most end of the moving floor before immediately picking it back up, the barrel will explode while Diddy still acts like he's holding it. When you throw the "barrel", the game freaks out and triggers all kinds of odd effects such as attracting enemies and collectibles towards you, phasing you through the walls of the stage, and creating a Rambi barrel that can transform the player into a myriad of glitched entities. And from there, the best case scenario is a mere game crash, but you're just as likely to end up with corrupted save data or a damaged, unplayable game. Some players have even reported their consoles being bricked from this.
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar: Literally with two of Swanky Kong's quiz questions involving K. Rool's name, where the wrong answers refer to him as Kaptain K. Rapp. Then there's the level so-elegantly named Squawks' Shaft...
 * Hailfire Peaks: The map for Krazy Kremland is half clumps of giant beehives, half Amusement Park of Doom.
 * Hornet Hole: There are multiple levels that take place in giant beehives, the first of which even being the trope namer. As you'd expect, plenty of Zingers can be found buzzing around in them, and there are trails of sticky honey that can serve as obstacles and surfaces you can wall climb/jump on.
 * Invincible Minor Minion: Snapjaw, a vicious piranha that appears in a handful of levels who will immediately take a huge bite out of you if you fall in the water he patrols. He's immune to all forms of damage, and that includes plowing through him with the invincibility powerup. Red Zingers are also completely immune to damage and show up later in the game as frequent obstacles.
 * Jump Scare: The end of Rambi Rumble has this kind of effect: you've spent the entire level mauling Zingers and other enemies at your leisure, which is set to the mellow beehive level music. But once you get close to the end, BAM! A humongous Zinger is immediately on your ass while far louder, hectic music starts blaring from your speakers.
 * Jungle Japes: A majority of the Lost World's stages are this, and they're far harsher and more dangerous than the jungle levels of the first game. It's even reflected in the music's serious tone.
 * Kaiju: GBA exclusive boss Kerozene is a titan of a Kremling who's taller than the tower you fight him on top of.
 * Kaizo Trap: If you've only got one Kong left, for all that is holy do not put your controller down when you beat K. Rool. His blunderbuss will shoot one last cannonball before he goes down, and yes, it will kill you if you don't dodge it.
 * King Mook: King Zing is a literal one to the Zingers, then there's Krow, a gigantic Mini Necky with a pirate hat who commands the lesser bandana-wearing Mini Neckies.
 * Lava Is Boiling Kool-Aid: This trope's the only explanation as to why the hot red "lava" in Lava Lagoon can be cooled off into water. And why it has  sea creatures swimming around in it. And why it hasn't burned the very wooden shipwreck to ashes.
 * Lethal Lava Land: The volcanic Crocodile Cauldron. Interestingly, it's only the game's second world as opposed to most examples of this trope showing up far later in other games.
 * More Deadly Than the Male: Gender inverted with King Zing, who's even tougher than Queen B. from the first game.
 * Non-Standard Character Design: Kerozene, a boss added to the GBA rerelease sticks out like a sore thumb. In sheer contrast to how lively everything else looks, he looks like a stop-motion animated clay figure.
 * One-Hit-Point Wonder:
 * Our Dragons Are Different: His massive size, fire breath, and appearance at the end of the castle world all seem to pain Kerozene as being the Kremling equivalent to a dragon of some sort. Bonus points for him serving as the figurative Dragon to K. Rool.
 * Palette Swap: They're less common, but like in the first game several enemies appear in different colors, with different behaviors to match (Pink Krunchas are faster than blue Krunchas, pink-colored Snapjaws are invincible and aggressively stalk you as opposed to their red Lockjaw cousins). There's also Quawks, a purple version of Squawks who you ride in Parrot Chute Panic as a friendly example as well as Kudgel, the boss of Krem Quay and a grey (and beatable) version of Klubba.
 * Punch Clock Villain: He may be big and gruff, but Klubba's not that bad of a guy. Pay his toll, and he'll happily allow you to travel to and from the Lost World. He's not too concerned with giving it his all to help K. Rool because he hates the guy for treating his men like trash.
 * Real Men Wear Pink: Or in this case, real men ARE pink. Pink Krunchas are even more dangerous than their standard blue cousins, and move a lot faster when they're ticked off.
 * Recurring Boss: Krow is fought twice, with the second fight pitting you against
 * Red Eyes, Take Warning: Gray Klobbers have scary crimson eyes, and are not to be taken lightly. Why? Because they steal your extra life balloons, that's why!
 * Smarmy Host: Downplayed with Swanky Kong, a charismatic Kong who runs a quiz show where you can win extra lives if you answer his questions correctly. He's a genuinely affable guy, but if you get his questions wrong he'll waste no time in insulting your intelligence.
 * Somewhere an Entomologist Is Crying: Bees and wasps don't have stingers, let alone kings. Clearly, King Zing didn't get the memo.
 * The Spiny: A literal example in the Spiny enemies, which are porcupines that can't be jumped on thanks to their dangerous quills. You can, however, roll/spin into them to defeat them.
 * Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Since Squawks has turned into a full-fledged rideable Animal Buddy, Glimmer the anglerfish takes over as a living light source in a dark level.
 * Take That: The game takes a dig at Sonic and Earthworm Jim's expense, showing their shoes and gun sitting outside of a trash can labeled "No Hopers" during Cranky's Video Game Hero Rewards show.
 * There's also the Cat-O-9-Tails, an enemy that looks like Sonic reimagined as an ugly cat that gets worn out by its own superfast spinning, and lets out a goofy, unintelligent sounding cry of pain when defeated.
 * Took a Level In Badass: The returning animal buddies are all tougher than they were before: Rambi and Engarde have a powerful dash attack that allows them to plow through all enemies in their way, and Squawks can now carry the Kongs and pelt enemies with eggs. Hell, Squawks being a proper Animal Buddy at all instead of a glorified flashlight qualifies him for this trope alone.
 * The Klump enemies aren't invulnerable to Diddy's jump anymore, but they make up for it by going from sturdier Kritters that attack by walking back and forth to semi-threatening gunmen.
 * Wrathful Wasps: While still bee-like, the Zingers have gotten a makeover that makes them look closer to wasps then they did in the first game.