Really creative level design and theming. Quite challenging, but never felt unfair. Controls are substantially more intuitive than DKC Returns (at least the 3DS version), and it works to its benefit. DKCR felt harder, but it's harder to tell whether it's just the difference in inertia/weightiness. The boss battles are pretty rough and tedious, though - many of them follow the old "wait for the right moment to attack" pattern, which is never fun. All in all, I think Rayman Legends is still my favorite modern, large studio platformer, but this is pretty dang good.

DK has crazy amounts of inertia in this game, the most I've ever seen in a 2D platformer. That means that every move you make counts, and you may not be able to avert a catastrophe that you can see coming from pretty far away, because your earlier decision of moving quickly prevents you from stopping on a dime. This can be really frustrating, but it can also allow for some fantastic momentum when things DO work. Levels are well designed for it too. Ultimately this "heavy inertia" style of platforming just isn't my favorite, but it is still not something I've really seen done anywhere else. So while it will likely never be in my top platformers, I can see myself getting cravings to play it in the future, which is commendable in and of itself.