Originally posted by: moobox
To survive the barrel levels I just play it safe and make sure not to be standing under any ladders at any time. When you get the hammer that little tune loops 8 times I'm pretty sure, so I always time it so I don't run out of the hammer powerup while near any barrels. The rivet level is just patience, and I try to rack up a couple thousand points by using the hammer on the enemies, not much to that level. The bouncing spring level is my hardest I find, I have a hard time getting past it starting on level 5. At this point I just consider it luck lol. The first 90% of this stage though is just timing your jumps so you don't fall too far.
Indeed, the spring level is the make it or break it point once you reach level 5. The trick to not get hit by that spring gives me headache personally. You need to watch carefully from where the spring spawn from the left of the screen, and when it spawn from the tip of DK's left foot you can go safely.