I gave it to Yoshi's Island even though I like Donkey Kong Country a bit more, but I'm only doing that because I'm under the impression that DKC is only the first one released in 1994 vs Yoshi's Island, which was released in 1995.
If it was ANY of the DKC games vs Yoshi's island, I'd give it to DKC2 or DKC3, since DKC1 is the weakest of the trilogy by far.
Yoshi's Island basically birthed Modern Nintendo. Every level is unique, they did the four-step level design philosophy that introduced an idea, iterated on it, intensified it, then put it all together at the end all while having some of the best art and sound direction of any game. It also created a game that's timeless by make its art direction one that is simple buy stylized and therefore timeless. DKC still looks wonderful but it doesn't look AS good today as it did in 1994.
My ranking of the DKC/Mario games:
1 - Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble
2 - Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's King Quest
3 - Super Mario World
4 - Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
5 - Donkey King Country
Though Nostalgia plays a huge part in Mario World besting Yoshi's Island.
My Console Library:
PS5, Switch, XSX
PS4, PS3, PS2, PS1, WiiU, Wii, GCN, N64 SNES, XBO, 360
3DS, DS, GBA, Vita, PSP, Android
