Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is an exceedingly polished, stunningly presented, and unbelievably creative title, and, in my opinion, the best 2D platformer ever made. Every single level showcases Retro’s incredible game design principles by establishing a new idea and ramping its complexity up until the stage ends. Each of the game’s six main worlds have at least two stand-out, damn-near perfect, levels that contain smarter, more fleshed out ideas than entire other games in the genre. The gradual increase in intensity and incredible stage design lead to a sufficiently challenging platformer where deaths are caused by decision-making errors rather than pixel-perfect precision, which helps deaths feel genuinely fair. Tropical Freeze is one-of-a-kind, and has more perfect stages than all other platformers I’ve ever played combined. It’s possibly the easiest recommendation for a video game I can give, no one on Earth will dislike this title.

Also quick shoutout to David Wise for writing possibly the single best soundtrack in video game history. It's just a shame that only DK fans are aware.