I like Retro but nothing comes close to Rare. Those DKC games on the SNES is some of Rares best ever work and that's coming from a studio with some of the best video games ever made.

Tropical Freeze is the best 2D platformer I've ever played. None of the Rare entries can even hope to get close to that. Retro wins hands down.

TF is the best DK game followed by DKC2 while the original DKC trilogy were something for their time TF is probably the best 2d platformer made.

I'm not old enough to have played the Rare games, so it's an easy win for Retro in my book.

I’ve played the Rare games, but never played the Retro games because they didn’t interest me. I guess that says it for me.

I grew up with the Rare trilogy, so perhaps there's a bit of nostalgia in play, but I prefer their games over the Retro ones. Retro put out some great games of course, but they can't match the atmosphere, music and overall fun factor of the Rare games. Plus Rare don't have bosses as tedious as Retro's, or any levels as horrible as though rocket levels.

RARE.

They broke barriers in terms of visual design. - (Pre-Rendered CGI was new and novel.)
They broke barriers in terms of audio design. - (The tracks still sound freaking amazing on my high-end Edifiers especially Stickerbush Symphony and Mining Melancholy.)
The gameplay was absolutely rock solid.
The characters were memorable.

Everything else that came after in the franchise essentially built on top of those foundations RARE had laid, so I cannot in good conscience give it to Retro over RARE.
That's not to say Retro's attempts are bad... Far from it.

DK 2 and 3 for SNES are masterpieces and will never be topped.

As for my "Donkey Kong experience", I played DKC1 as a kid, and let me tell ya, if you weren't there for it, its hard to overstate how ahead of the game it looked and sounded back in the SNES era. I hear a lot of folks say it was all about the presentation and the gameplay was mediocre, but that's BS in my opinion, that game still has some of the best platforming controls around as well as varied and well paced level design.

My parents never bought me 2 and 3 so as soon as I was old enough to have my own money I bought them myself, and loved them too. 

When DKCR was announced at E3 2010 I nearly burst with excitement. I went in expecting a different and more modern take, and I loved it. Similarly, I was one of the minority who was happy when Tropical Freeze was revealed at E3 2013, and I loved it too.

Choosing between them for me is like trying to choose between pizza or ice cream, coffee or Baileys, they're both just so damn superb I couldn't place one over the other.

Trine 2 is better, imo, and the one I was referring to. Trine 3 is an entirely different type of game and I've never tried it. And I love DK64, but a ton hate the game, so I honestly don't know if you would like it. The music of that game (even the cheesy intro songs) still makes me feel nostalgic. Playing it around the same time as Banjo Tooie was a blast as a kid!