In the original Donkey Kong Country, there is an infamous bonus room in Oil Drum Alley hidden inside another bonus room.
While in Bonus Room 45, go for the single banana prize by matching three single bananas in the three barrels. This will give you a barrel. Use the barrel on the right wall, but you have to jump towards it, otherwise the wall will break but the kongs won't enter it.
The official player's guide (page 89) claims you only have one chance to find this room.
Take note—for the entire game you can only get into the second Bonus Area once. You’d better do it right the first time.
This sounded a bit strange. I couldn't find any other guide mentioning that this room was missable, outside of a few unverified forum posts claiming the room is required for 101% completion.
Do you only have one chance to find the hidden Bonus Area in Oil Drum Alley? Or did the player's guide make a mistake?
02 Answers
The sources I have found do not say anything specific about whether or not this is the case (aside from the page you provided in the question).
This speedrunning guide states that this room is required to complete 101%, but it is not necessary to complete it; simply to gain access to it.
Additionally, the guide also states:
When the barrel drops from lining up the 3 bananas, DO NOT run at the wall. This will result in the victory animation and you won't actually make it into the bonus. You need to jump into the wall instead.
This implies that entrance to this level is bugged, and requires specific manoeuvring to gain access to the room.
I also investigated any possible changes between versions of the game, and this appears to be the same, regardless of version. (No mention of this level being "fixed" in alternate versions of the game).
Edit: after playing this, I have determined that this is in fact not "missable". I tested this by:
- entering the "sub" bonus room, and failing, dying, then returning
- failing the main bonus (so I could not enter the sub room), dying, and returning
- entering the "sub" bonus room, completing it, dying and returning
- entering, failing, and completing the whole level
- entering, completing the bonus, and completing the level.
In all of these instances, I was able to return to this room. This makes it an excellent way to farm lives.
Best I can figure is that YES, if you don't get it the first time your Game percentage will not increase. I have very carefully and tediously gone back through every single level with various guides to find every bonus room and I'm saying that it only adds to your score the once. You can go back to farm lives, but if you miss the room the first time you cannot get 101% so you will need to restart the game without saving in order to replay the level until you do it correctly any time you enter this room for the "first" time.
