DKCR is a true return-to-form for the Donkey Kong Country series, bringing everything great about the original SNES games to a more modern audience. Level design is great, the visuals are pretty impressive for a Wii title, and it is an overall fun experience that poses a big challenge even to people accustomed to the older games.
For as much as I love the remixed music tracks present in the game, I felt like this was what made Returns feel a little stale after a while. It seems to rely too much on the older games for its own identity, and while this doesn't make it a bad game per se, it lacks a certain amount of flavor and distinctiveness. However, whenever it tries to do its own thing, it almost always gets it right, which makes me wish there was some kind of sequel to Returns that rectified all the issues it had with identity......oh wait.