All time great level design (except for moments like Gusty Glade's baffling required leap of faith or that part in Castle Crush with the FOUR hedgehogs, which I didn't know at the time you could roll into--they're literally covered in spikes!--yes, I'm still mad), all time garbage lives system. Maybe I'm not great at the game (I'm not), but consider that some of my favorite levels were still some of the most challenging ones; they just happened to also give you access to a save point before playing them, which made the challenge exciting rather than exhausting. Replaying a level you've already thoroughly mastered just to get to the one you haven't is rarely, if ever, fun. Unless you're willing to compromise the developer's "intended experience" by using save states if you're playing on a modern platform (which you should, seriously), this severely bogs down what should be some of the most thrilling and engaging parts of the game. I appreciate a good challenge, but the tedious save system in conjunction with levels which demand either trial-and-error repetition or more precision than this game's sometimes-sketchy hitboxes and tight camera allow make it a more tiring, frustrating experience than its streamlined predecessor.

Still, most of the early worlds, before the stingy save system gets so brutal as to be frustrating, and the last few levels, where you rarely need to play many in a row without saving, are truly intense and massively rewarding in a way that few platformers ever accomplish. Rare was even kind enough to include the surprisingly easy Toxic Tower right near the end as a token of gratitude for making it that far. When it's at its best, Diddy's Kong Quest promises to be an even better game than DKC1. It doesn't quite see that through, but I appreciate it all the more for trying.