The level design, music, and overall difficulty factor win it for DK in my opinion.

3D World. DK:TP is great too, but I was hoping for a game like 3D World since SMB2 and NSMBW And I can play as Rosa too! xD

Tropical Freeze. More personality.

Retro's DKC games are very well made, but they don't feel/play quite the same as the old SNES games. The original trilogy had a better feel/physics to it.

But putting these two head-to-head, I'd pick SM3DW. It brought back a fair deal of Mario 2 aesthetic, and honestly if there was one major knock on the game, that would be it: that to me, I think they didn't go Mario 2 hard enough. They had vague homages to it, such as 4 player with that classic lineup, such as more "picking up and throwing" mechanic, such as having cherries and a few more Mario 2 enemies. Even the fairy girls look very much like the Subcon people.

I just wish they would have made the homages blatant: The game should have returned to Subcon, the boss should have been Wart, not Bowser, and it really should have just been full bore Mario 2, with bosses like Mouser, Clawgrip, Fryguy, Triclyde, etc. That would have sealed the deal for me. As is, 3D World is a great game, and a huge step over 3D Land. But, IF it had been a straight up Subcon game, and not just vague hints of it, that would have put it over the top.

3D World easily, I dont think its fair to compare 2D and 3D platformer.

Tropical Freeze

3D World. Tropical Freeze is stunning and much more of a challenge but 3D World is so much fun, I might just start it again from scratch soon.

Both are very good games, but Tropical Freeze's music and level design give it the win in my book.

I think 3d World is the best wii u game period.