Since it was (fairly) recently made available for the Switch's online Super NES games service, I decided to go back and replay Donkey Kong Country 2 on this latest platform these latest couple days for the hell of it. In the process, I was reminded of something about the famous secret that gets you all 75 Kremkoins on the first stage, Pirate Panic: people most often seem to feel that it's more complicated than it actually is. For example, the most up-voted Game FAQs how-to includes some unnecessary precautions, as do most YouTube videos portraying it. (For example, here's the most viewed demo on YouTube.) I've experimented with every possible variable regarding this trick over the years and have found that you don't actually need to avoid defeating enemies or avoid touching Kaptain K. Rool's note in the cabin either time. Here's all you actually need to do:

1. Enter Kaptain K. Rool's cabin near the beginning of the stage, then exit without nabbing the 1-up balloon.
2. Get the banana bunch hovering over the four barrels to the right, then return to the cabin, avoiding the two bananas immediately outside the cabin entrance both ways.
3. Get the 1-up balloon this time, then exit again and repeat step 2 and voila! A special Kremkoin worth 75 appears in the cabin!

For your convenience, here's a map-out of the Pirate Panic stage to give you a visual.

Jus wanted to be of help and make everyone's life that much easier!

I never heard of this trick before a couple of years ago, and I love this game. Since I had no internet and all my friends had Playstations, it was hard to discover things like that.

However, I still know the cheat to get all Bonus coins in DKC3. I discovered by accident by entering random words at the cheat menu.

- You enter the code L R R L R R L R L R at the file select screen.
- Write "WATER" as the cheat.
- Start the game, and swim to the waterfall at the beginning.
- Solve the puzzle.

That's all, you have all Bonus coins. However, it won't count as % at your save file.

I remember that one!

I'll tell ya what, today's resources are decidedly nicer than the one's that were available in and around the time these games were first released. Like the Donkey Kong Country Atlas site, for example! You just click on the title of one of the original three DKC games there to access a fully interactive worldmap thereof, complete with animations and everything! Clicking on any one stage from there gets you a similar mapout of that particular stage. These atlases are superior to ones in my old Nintento Power strategy guides in that they're clearer, more detailed, and animated like in the game itself. The exception is the overworld map of DKC3, which was never completed, so you can only access the mapouts of the individual stages but not the overworld for that game. However, there is at least this separate page elsewhere that has an animated mapout of the DKC3 overworld. I think that gives people a clear visual of the waterfall you're talking about. Also, the old Nintendo Power strategy guides never mentioned any button codes or cheats of any kind, though there were in reality plenty in all three games! I originally discovered them in separate code books and cheat sections of game magazines long after purchasing the games. All this info had to be paid for before most people had internet access unless you happened to know someone. Ugh.

Donkey Kong Country 2 is my long-time favorite entry in the original DKC trilogy. For my taste, it strikes the best balance between giving you a definite reason to explore everything and maybe making things a bit too complicated and also has IMO the best soundtrack, the most agile, practical, and fun Kong duo to play as, the coolest array of Kong family members to meet on your journey, and just most fun ambience (the pirate theme is just cute and I still love the stereo and guitar animations you can unleash at the end of each stage!). Also, Cranky Kong has his best lines in DKC2, I think.

Don't have to choose, Rol. You could be a winner like me and collect all the Kremkoins the regular way first and then, after realizing 102% completion, go back and do the all-Kremkoins trick in Pirate Panic. That way your save file will show both 102% completion and that you have all 75 Kremkoins still somehow, as if you never paid Klubba, and make you feel more accomplished. Aren't I cool?