It really depends on what game you played first.
If DKC would've never existed and it just got released this year with modern graphics(everything else is the same), I doubt it would've gotten as good reviews as DKCR did.
I like it when the levels are very dynamic plus I also like the back- and foreground interaction. The older games just don't have that.
But if your question is how good the DKC games were relative to the other games that were available back then... In that respect the older games might be better than the new one yes...
Because let's be honest, if a kid from the '90s was able to play Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze there's no way he'd think the original trilogy of DKC was better...







