Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest introduces a purple variant of the animal buddy Squawks, known as Quawks, who reappears in its sequel, Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! Quawks would later appear as an item in Donkey Kong Barrel Blast, and make a cameo appearance as a background element in the "DK Island & Emerald Rush" DLC for Donkey Kong Bananza. Rare themselves never seem to have given Quawks a name, and just referred to him as simply "Purple Squawks" in DKC2's Player's Guidebook, and Squawks' "purple cousin" in DKC3's Player's Guidebook. It was the Japanese-localized material for these games that would give him the コークス (Kōkusu) or "Quawks" moniker, and the Japanese-created Donkey Kong Barrel Blast years later would be the first time the name was used in English.

The "starburst" effect that occurs when bouncing on enemies is usually meant to expand, but in the first two Donkey Kong Country games, they were mistakenly coded to contract instead. This issue was fixed in the third game and the subsequent re-releases of all three games on the Game Boy Advance.

According to an anonymous whistelblower, the developers of the GBA remake intended to include both Eveline Novakovic's soundtrack from the SNES version and the new soundtrack by David Wise. However, space limitations on the GBA cartridge and time constraints forced the staff to solely use Wise's soundtrack.

Due to some unknown error, many US copies of the SNES version are missing the KONG letter 'G' in the level Rocket Rush. All other regions and the GBA re-release have the letter present.

An anti-piracy routine can be triggered when no SRAM is present, similar to Donkey Kong Country 2.

When you go to Bazaar's General Store and buy a shell, you have the option to ask him about the castle in the distance. He'll tell you about it for 2 coins, but if you decline he'll tell you something much more interesting:


This is a reference to The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening in which sea shells were collectible items.

When visiting Wrinkly Kong's Save Cave, she can be seen playing a Nintendo 64, and "Inside the Castle Wall" (Peach's Castle Theme) plays on the background. It can be assumed that she's playing Super Mario 64.