The original DKC is a good game that is held back massively by screen crunch, which can be horrible in many levels. There were other features in level design from this era in gaming also that make you feel like you didn’t deserve to die, and it was the game killed you that DKC also possesses. An other smaller critique I have is that the environments here don’t feel that varied or vibrant, possibly due to the dark color palette each world uses.

As for the good: the level design is pretty good for the most part, music is great, and I think the spritework has aged pretty well.