I sometimes wish those of us working on this in our spare time could hook up and share info/offer suggestions in front of a DK. I had a revelation just two days ago about that rivet level "pattern" breakdown issue. It was a moment of "duh" and now I'm losing lives far less frequently. The pies and crazy barrels along with unforced errors are getting me now (mostly the unforced errors).
I'm not sure of the value of this, but I was way too determined to finish the rivets in the "jump on Kong's foot" zone. After getting the bottom hammer, I started getting in trouble on the rivet at the right side of that level. You can get trapped there if the fireballs don't cooperate. So now, when that happens, I just go ahead and clear the rivets on the top right while choosing which area, right side or center, to strand most or all of the fireballs. The time spent up there clearing the upper right rivets to the right of Kong's cage lures those fireballs up and away from that lower right rivet. Then there's usually an easy path down there, making that your final jump.
Sure, you don't get the fun of jumping in Kong's cage, but the bonus time is running down so fast by then, it doesn't make much difference in points. I'm at the early stages of becoming ok at playing DK so I can get many times more points by having that extra life than by jumping on Kong's foot. Live on to keep playing instead of dying to get a couple of hundred points!
Your thoughts?