Haven't gotten around to Bananza? Or not really your kind of game?

To me, the original DKC are definetly the best Donkey Kong games, easly surpassing the DCK Retro games, including the belove DKC Tropical Freeze.

Donkey Kong Country 3 was easily my least favorite of the trilogy. I think the two first levels, specially the first one, a huge step down from the levels from the 2 first games. It's a lukewarm first impression. To me, the game improves a lot in the later levels, though, even though they relies a little too much on gimmicks in my opinion.

So my favorite is Donkey Kong Country or Donkey Kong Country 2. I used to be very confused when picking my favorite. DKC 2 is considered the superior game and I have a lot of fun playing it but I had always been reluctant to choose it as my favorite. Years later I understood the reason: I felt that the levels in DKC 1 made more sense asthetics-wise than the DKC 2's levels. I mean, DKC2 were a little bit odd to me. Levels with pirate ships, vulcanic levels, thorn vines for walls, inside of honeycombs, carnival-themed... they were so weird. I was used to the nature vs human theme of Donkey Kong Country levels. For nature level we had jungles, caves, aquatic and snowy and for human levels we had mines and factory ones, with the abandoned temple levels being the meeting of these two worlds.

Everything made so much more sense in DKC 1. And with more details like me prefering Winky to Rattle, Aquatic Ambience to DKC 2's water theme (and levels) and me missing Expresso and the Animal Tokens and levels bonus in DKC 2, I would end up stating DKC 1 was my favorte

That changed when I realised the reason for why the levels in DKC 2 were the way they were. I mean, the Kongs were now in the enemy territory. All the weirdness stems from the levels taking place in the Kremlings' home. I know this is literally shown to us in the level selection screen as we move from level to level, but it took me some time to connect the dots for how this has a direct impact in the level's ambience... and that blew my mind! Add this Squitter the Spider, the Kremlings and DK Coins, the Special World and the fun item poles at the end of each level and I was sold: DKC 2 is the best DKC game.

Edit: I haven't played Bananza yet

Totally agree. Those jigsaw puzzle and phots we unlock were sooo boring. The extra content in the SNES games were way more interesting. DKC 3's world is a delight indeed, one of the highlights of the game.

I read "I haven't played only four" My bad!  

Tropical Freeze is an absolute classic and will always remain one of my favourite games. Every level is so distinct, the soundtrack has so many amazing songs, it's all incredibly memorable and endlessly replayable. Whenever I boot it up again, after having played through it 8, 9, 10, 11, god knows how many times, I think "by this point it's probably gotten old, right?" and it never does.

I've moved on from every other Donkey Kong game shortly after finishing them, but never Tropical Freeze.

edit: All that said, I wish the bonus stages were better. Them being generic bore-fests is what keeps the game from being perfect.

edit²: as a disclaimer, the only DK games I've played fully through were DKC2, DKC3, Returns and TF. I never made it through all of DKC1 as I found it too difficult, and only played a bit of Bananza which I didn't personally enjoy much. Never played DK64 or the GameCube entries.

The original Donkey Kong is a timeless classic.

I had all three DKC games in my childhood. All of them were masterpieces for their time. A perfect balance of good gameplay, amazing soundtrack, great graphics and lots of useful secrets, specially 2 and 3.

Donkey Kong 64 was Ok, but I wouldn't put it ahead of Banjo-Kazooie, another Rare game from that time.

Never played the Bongo titles, neither do I have interest on them.

I was very excited for Returns, but after playing it... Well, I finished it, but most of the levels and the secrets are totally forgettable. Tropical Freeze... I played three worlds, and gave up. Also, it was an awful idea to force people to play as DK only, and having the other Kongs as "gadgets". And where are the Kremlings?

DK Bananza is another game that I have no interest. I'm not a fan of that gargantuous strong Donkey Kong. I mean, yeah, he is strong, but he shouldn't be breaking planets with his punch. Also, I dislike Pauline.

I voted prematurely for DKC2 -- I didn't notice the original was there until after. I would have to go with the original Donkey Kong because it broke ground for so much -- what a platformer was, story progression (even if primitive for what we know this to be now), and gameplay that more than stands the test of time and is still fun almost 45 years later.

Otherwise, it's DKC2 -- the best gameplay, (level design, controls, setting) visuals, animal sidekicks, and music in the series. I think it's the best platformer on the SNES.

Lol all good!

So I technically have 20hr in the game (somehow??) but I only got through like six layers. I wasn’t really paying attention, had a lot of stuff going on during that point in my life. (I was also dealing with sensory overload issues, and DKBananza was not sitting well with me… so kinda? To answer your second question.)

Yeah sorry for the weird placement of DK 1981 last, I accidentally put it in the "poll question" box when I first posted the thread, and by the time I realized and went to fix it, it was too late to rearrange the other options and put it first as votes had already been cast.