Item Handle

The Kongs, pulling an Item Handle from the ground at the beginning of Zip-Line Shrine

Item Handles are objects from Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. They are widespread throughout the levels of the game and are always found stuck to the ground. The Kongs are able to latch on the handles and pull them upward.

The majority of Item Handles can be removed from the ground, revealing collectables and other items, much like containers do. These include bananas, Banana Coins, Hearts, and Puzzle Pieces, as well as barrels and Watermelon Fuse Bombs, which can be carried and thrown. Other elements hidden under Item Handles are Flying Bananas and Slot Machine Barrels, as seen in Cliffside Slide. Groups of bananas may burst from the ground, which reward the player a certain item once all of them are collected in the allotted time.

Some Item Handles, on the other hand, do not hide objects, but act as switches, triggering a certain phenomenon or occurence after being pulled out. For instance, plucking one of the Item Handles in Mangrove Cove sprouts an enormous tree which can be scaled using Blast Barrels. The first Item Handle in Zip-Line Shrine has to be pulled in order to access the inside of the shrine. The Item Handles in Seashore War cannot be pulled out, but are used to raise ship debris above the water instead.

The red tufts of grass seen in Super Mario Bros. 2 (and further before in Yume Kōjō: Doki Doki Panic) have inspired the creation of Item Handles, since the plucking feature in Tropical Freeze was brought over from Super Mario Bros. 2.