For me, Donkey Kong Country feels unfinished. Even as a kid, owning the entire trilogy since I could first actually play a game, DKC1 felt looser somehow. That the game was throwing a ton of ideas at the wall and didn't quite know how to make them stick. Animal buddies function a lot more like limited Yoshis, having some applications and rules but mostly serving as neat bonuses for the level they're in. Diddy is just outright better than DK unless you want to take DK's "take every banana back" literally and mug every single Kremling for a single potassium. Things are a bit slippery, edges feel more rounded, levels don't have a set pace and can end either way too quickly or way after they've worn out their welcome. It's a messy effort of a game.

Anyway Diddy's still the best-controlling 2D platformer character before combat is taken into account, level design is still incredibly snappy, the flow state that DKC has is absolutely unparalleled when it gets going, and it's still challenging enough that I die a couple times despite my dozens of clears over the years. DKC shows brilliance in understanding basic momentum concepts and utilizing them well - you're only brought to a stop when there's fear in your heart and you hesitate, otherwise there's very few games that let you make up lost ground as quickly or as confidently as DKC does. It makes every individual obstacle you get hung up on feel like a fantastic triumph rather than a slog trudging your way back there, and like... it just feels GOOD, okay? It's sloppy, most of the bonus stages suck to get to, it's not its sequels, but NONE of DKC's sequels with the possible exception of Returns play as fast and streamlined as this game does. It remains one of the best platformers to blaze through as levels lean into DK and Diddy's momentum and leave more opportunities to find optimal pathing or weird secrets. It's its own, weird little beast amongst the DKC series before the games discovered what they really wanted to be. And it's good! Big monkey jump good!