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.

What an immaculately perfect platforming experience. This game is legitimately one of the greatest 2D platformers of all time!
Almost as if it's in response to how stale and boring the 2D Mario games have become with their simple, repetitive level design and complete lack of difficulty, Tropical Freeze takes everything that was great about Returns and pushes it to the next level. Every single level is filled with unique and imaginative ideas and enough difficulty that make for a very satisfying clear every time. The boss fights are also pretty great.
The animation is so detailed for how quick things happen in this game that I feel like I'm doing a disservice to the game whenever I just mindlessly speed through a level; even more so because of how beautiful the backgrounds of each level are.
With the legendary David Wise returning to compose again, the music is perfect. Every great element from the scores of the original SNES games returns in modern form.