In the original game, Donkey Kong will play a Nintendo DS if left idle for a long enough time. In the Nintendo 3DS version, these animations were removed for unknown reasons. In the Nintendo Switch version, the animations were swapped out with the Nintendo Switch idle animations previously used for Funky Mode in Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze.

If you scroll over the DK Barrel, an exclusive item for the 3DS version of the game in Cranky's shop, Cranky will say "It's dangerous to go alone. Buy this!" This is a reference to the original Legend of Zelda, in which an old man gives you a sword and says "It's dangerous to go alone! Take this."

In the original Wii version of the game, there was a mechanic where defeated enemies would retain their collision for about 25 frames, a window lasting a fraction of a second. In cooperative play, this allowed for a second player to trail behind and quickly use defeated enemies as a platform, allowing for two players to traverse platforming sections without one or the other frequently dying by falling into a pit. However, for unknown reasons, this mechanic was removed in the Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo Switch versions of the game, making the multiplayer gameplay more difficult and unfair in certain sections. This mechanic was later restored in an update for the Nintendo Switch version in 2026.