The Donkey Kong Country series is my favorite platformer series. Sure, Mario's got babes and mushrooms and fully 3D games, but Donkey Kong Country at least has an incredible captivating atmosphere. RARE really did a good job on atmospheres. I mean, look at Rusty Bucket Bay. They perfected it. But we're here to talk about the Donkey Kong Country series, not Mario or Banjo-Kazooie.

Which of the Donkey Kong Country series games is your favorite (including the originals and the returns)? Post in this thread to share your opinion!

DKC - The original. Came out with revolutionary graphics for the SNES. They made fully 3D models then rendered them as 2D, which turned out way better than you would expect. Lots of levels, great atmosphere, really fun.

DKC 2 - My personal favorite. Lots of levels, secrets, great music, and of course the atmosphere. Introduced car racing levels in Kremland and more clever, well thought-out boss battles. Those mine levels always hit me in he feels.

DKC 3 - The blunder. It's still fun, but not near as good as the last two. They had different staff members. There was no atmosphere that I could feel.

DKC Returns - Really fun, but not by RARE. eh.

DKC Trapical Fronk - Never played. Looks fun, maybe the 3rd best in the whole series.

My favorite Donkey Kong Country game is the 2nd one because I feel like it has the best boss battles, best levels and the best soundtrack in the series.

TheFadedWarrior : Mah favorite Donkey Kong Country game is the third one. It has many awesome levels, and the adventure is fun! The overworld, Animal Buddies, are still here. DKC2 and DKC1 were a close one.

My most favorite Donkey Kong Country game has to be the first one, the reason I pick the 1st one is because I have grew up with that game and it is an instant classic. That's why I prefer that over any other game in the series.

My favourite DKC is the only one I have in real life, I have played most other ones, on vizzed and the WII, though.    I like the level design better, tho.

I really enjoyed the original DKC its the one I've played the most but the 2nd on was really great as well but I've never really played the 3rd game enough to judge it.I also more recently enjoyed tropical freeze 

I love the DKC franchise. It was a tough pick between DKC or DKC2, but I went with the original. I feel like it's the most atmospheric (the music for the underwater levels is nothing less than GORGEOUS, for example). Plus, you don't have to play as that annoying spider (in all these years I've never mastered how to properly make the webs in the places you want them).