A few months after my initial attempt at playing through it, I've finally finished Donkey Kong Country 2. And yeah, it's really good. The characters feel great to control, the levels are well-designed, and the music and visuals were pretty ahead of their time. That said, for every few cool bits of level design or moments of satisfying movement, there's a frustrating moment. Maybe I got too reliant on the NSO SNES rewind function or maybe I just need to get good, but there are a few too many rough spots for me to consider this an all-time favorite.

Still, I respect what it does and I get why it struck a chord for so many people!