Definitely not the best DKC (still the first imo). It moves too far away from the cool jungle feel of the original for my tastes, Kiddy Kong is not a good character (why not just pair Dixie with Donkey Kong this time?) and the level design is frequently cheap.
There are some really fun levels in here. There are also some absolute pigs. The one full of pink versions of Koin in particular is gruelling because I'm not convinced it's programmed entirely correctly. Even if it is, you can get buffeted off the level through no real fault of your own. Every level where you have to control one of those bloody parrots is also a low point, with their infuriating flappy bird controls that you're expected to do almost pixel perfect platforming with. Oh and it's weirdly hard to throw barrels (or partners) straight up in this.
The expansion of the overworld elements is interesting though and feels like a preview of how Rare would approach platformers on the N64, with gameplay bleeding out of levels into the hubs and the menus in a way and the unsettling feeling that you've never actually left the game. Also unfortunately the collectathon aspects that defined the N64 games are here. There's three separate types of coins to collect, the standard bananas and KONG letters, various items for trading puzzles, banana birds and then cogs too. It feels very cluttered compared to the relative simplicity of the original.
There are some really fun levels in here. There are also some absolute pigs. The one full of pink versions of Koin in particular is gruelling because I'm not convinced it's programmed entirely correctly. Even if it is, you can get buffeted off the level through no real fault of your own. Every level where you have to control one of those bloody parrots is also a low point, with their infuriating flappy bird controls that you're expected to do almost pixel perfect platforming with. Oh and it's weirdly hard to throw barrels (or partners) straight up in this.
The expansion of the overworld elements is interesting though and feels like a preview of how Rare would approach platformers on the N64, with gameplay bleeding out of levels into the hubs and the menus in a way and the unsettling feeling that you've never actually left the game. Also unfortunately the collectathon aspects that defined the N64 games are here. There's three separate types of coins to collect, the standard bananas and KONG letters, various items for trading puzzles, banana birds and then cogs too. It feels very cluttered compared to the relative simplicity of the original.