Donkey Kong Country 2 by a soulcrushing landslide. It goes like this DKC2>>>>>>>DKC3>>DKC1>>>>DKCR. And don't get me wrong, I LOVE all the games, with the exception of Returns which I'm just kind of meh about. I think I'd like that one if I got the 3DS version without the motion controls, and that'd put it just barely below the original. I've played all three SNES games, and felt that the first was the blandest experience by far. DKC2 on the other hand was the coolest experience by far. The second and third had really unique bosses, and I liked the music more for both of them. DKC3 is only as much lower as I put it because I hated the baby character, the story was weird, and I just generally liked the atmosphere of the second better. The first had fairly boring bosses, and less exploration. What you call collectathon, I call incentive to explore. Once you've played a level in 1, there isn't much reason to go back. Some of them were downright painful. The bonus rooms had little incentive to find them. In 2, the levels were much bigger and full of hidden secrets, and each bonus room felt important. You didn't just get bananas, you got coins that you could use to unlock a secret extra world. It was like Super Mario World all over again, finding secret exits to get to the Star World. Finding the DK coin in each level was just so satisfying. They were often cleverly hidden and made me feel clever to have found them. Exploring was that much more rewarding because of it. Tropical Freeze looks like it could end up anyway from above DKC1 to above even DKC2 for me. It looks to have a lot of what made me love the SNES games, and I'm so excited for it. Particularly Cranky, because his unique mechanics sound interesting. That's another thing I liked better about 2 and 3, Dixie's floating hair mechanics allowed for me to be creative and get to places that made me feel clever and skilled, and Cranky looks like he'll do the same.
