I remember kids at school going nuts over this game, and at first I was confused because it was on a system that I’d never heard of. People I played games with had N64.

Anyway, interesting to see what you said about Sephiroth killing Aeris, because the one thing I specifically remember people talking about was how they hated Aeris and how Sephiroth was awesome for killer her because she was the worst character in the game.

I just played through the Donkey Kong Country Trilogy for the first time in probably over 20 years.

DK Country 1 - I’ve seen you bash this one for the level design, and I guess it is pretty straightforward, but I still love the aesthetics of this game and the way the characters handle. Like the other games, I also have a ton of nostalgia for it. There are really only a few hard parts. Snow Barrel Blast is the hardest level, but there’s a shortcut. TBH, I totally forgot about the shortcut and then found it by accident.
This is the only game I didn’t 100%, because there’s no reward for it and it doesn’t really feel like much of an objective. The bonus areas are just places to get extra lives, which the game gives out like candy on Halloween anyway.

DK Country 2 - This is the masterpiece. They took what was great about the first one and took it to a new level. I will now say that Diddy and Dixie are my two favorite characters to play as, whereas I would have hesitated on Diddy in the past. This one also has the best group of animal friends.
The levels are so enjoyable that I think going back and finding the bonus games that you missed and need to unlock the Lost World is still fun. Even though I hadn’t played it in forever and no longer remembered where most of them were, it wasn’t has hard to find them as I thought it was the first time around. I do think that the “reward” for finding the DK coins, which is basically just seeing your characters on a1st place pedestal, isn’t really any more meaningful that finding all the bonus rooms in the first game. But I did it anyway. When I play through it again I might skip that part.
Only a few levels were really hard. I remembered K. Rool’s Keep being a tough area, but I mostly breezed through it. For whatever reason (maybe I was just tired) I had a ton of trouble on that bossfight with the bee. And the park of Animal Antics when you play as Squwaks and the wind is blowing is brutal.

DK Country 3 - This one is more divisive. I’m on board with the aesthetic criticisms: Kiddy is unappealing as a character, and him mixed in with the pastel color palette and sometimes dopey music can give it a nursery school vibe in spots. These were baffling descisions to me. The enemy designs look ugly and plasticky alot of the time too. People say this one stretch the limits of the SNES, but if so then it was a waste. The first two looked better.
In spite of all that, I still like it. Kiddy plays well enough, he and Dixie are a good pair of characters. And some people thought the levels were too gimmicky, but I think they’re mostly fun. So as someone who loves the second game, this does a good enough job giving you more with enough tweaks to keep from being repetitive. When I replayed this in the ’90s I found that alot of the levels felt more annoying the second time around, but time has healed those wounds, at least this time around.
A few more cons:
-this is a weaker lineup of animal friends
-the bonus levels are easier to find but finding them is less fun, replacing fan favorite Rambi with an elephant that’s afraid of mice.
-the attempt to add story/adventure elements to the overworld, complete with playing a bunch of simon-says games to get banana birds, is stupid and annoying.
-having to defeat that guy with the shield every level to get the DK coins is only kind of a good idea. It was supposed to add a recurring puzzle element, but they only occasionally made it interesting. And this time you need all the DK coins to get the “real ending,” which you expect to be more levels or another boss fight, but is really just three more Simon says games and a stupid cut scene. It’s a huge WFT, and ends the game on a sour note.

I have mixed feelings on whether 1 or 3 is better. I have more affection for 1 and think that it was better for it’s time than 3 was, but who knows which one I’d refer if I played them all for the first time now. I played them all in the order they were made, when they were at least new enough that the next one hadn’t come out and SNES games were still being manufactured. If I’d played them in reverse order, I’m still sure that 2 would be my favorite, but I’m not sure if I’d still prefer the first to the third.