In the game's single-player Adventure mode, King K. Rool steals the prize medals from the upcoming Jungle Jam tournament, prompting Donkey Kong to chase after him and retrieve the stolen medals. Players control Donkey Kong as he travels across five worlds, each made up of four stages and a boss battle. Scattered across each stage are bananas for Donkey Kong to collect, which the player can spend at any time during gameplay to recover Donkey Kong's health or grant him temporary invincibility. Players can find one of 20 Crystal Coconuts hidden in each stage, which are used to unlock bonus content. A stolen medal can also be found in nearly every stage, as well as earned from defeating each boss. Completing the game with all 24 medals collected will unlock "Diddy Mode", a more difficult version of Adventure where the player controls Diddy Kong. A time attack mode for the Adventure stages can also be unlocked.