Players who traveled the lands of the original Donkey Kong Jungle Beat will notice some changes to the kingdoms, such as additional enemies and obstacles, plus features like Skull Stones, Shock Spheres and classic Cannon Barrels. In addition, new monkey friends appear on many levels. Helper Monkeys give hints about how to survive the kingdoms and score more bananas, while Checkpoint Monkeys let players restart from midway through a level with their checkpoint banana total intact. The game also includes two surprises at the end: a boss-rush against all the Kongs and a victory feast for Donkey Kong once he has become the king of everything.