Here, I'll review it for you.

STORY: Bananas are missing!  Donkey Kong's stockpile has been stolen by King K. Rool.  Donkey and his nephew, Diddy, search for the banana stash.

MUSIC: Smoothe McGroove does some accapela to the soundtrack.  I remember being blown away with the music of Donkey Kong Country when it first came out.  Similar to Super Mario 3, there were different 'world' with themes and the music fit the ambient environment perfectly.

GRAPHICS: The graphics are excellent.  There's a good mix of background art and live play.  The enemies are creative, from sharks to 'baddies' that wander the screen.  There are underwater levels, mine levels, and at one point the main characters end up in the arctic.  

CONTROLS: The controls are intuitive and easy to handle.  The SNES controller is one of the best in it's simplicity and Donkey Kong Country responds perfectly.

GAMEPLAY: This game is fun because it is so fanciful.  The side-scrolling game has been done hundreds of times but this one is unique in it's own magical way.  There are parts where the player can ride animals, like ostriches or dolphins.  There are mine cart rides with jumping on tracks.  The depth is impressive with the basic side-scroller set-up.  You can go back and forth between levels, reply levels you've completed, and continue working forward until the final showdown.

DIFFICULTY: This game isn't hard if you just want completion.  There's a part in the saved game area that gives you a % of secrets found and total completion.  If you're aiming at 100% game completion, the challenge suddenly becomes tougher because you start hunting for secrets and hidden areas within the game.  

SUMMARY: DKC is a great game that is a jewel of the Super Nintendo era.  If you're good enough to get to the end, the final battle is on a pirate ship.  What more does a player need?

Ghostbear1111 : How do you rate posts? Thanks
I wonder if anyone's completed this game in under an hour without losing a life, though.

I think the game was overhyped. True, the graphics were exceptional for the time (although Super Mario RPG did it better) and the music was enjoyable. But it's just a regular platform game.

janus : It's pretty good quality for a platform game, though, and had more of a personality than the Mario games to me.
although, the bosses in the first game weren't that good.

I remember the best thing about DKC at the time of it's release were the graphics. Gameplay was fun overall, but I didn't enjoy this game quite as much as Super Mario world, but I did like the fact that there was some more "realism" used in the game environments for that series.

I remember playing Donkey Kong Country, the first DKC game become my 3rd favorite game on the SNES (only behind both Super Mario World and Super Maril All-Stars), and the SNES (my Mother owned) had the 2nd most games we owned for a console (only behind my PS2), and being my 3rd favorite with all the SNES games I owned, that tells you I really have to love the game.

I have also own this game on the Wii-U's Virtual Console and I have played this on there a whole lot. Donkey Kong Country is a really fun game to play.

Oh don't get me wrong. DKC was a great series of games. It's just with a console that just has A TON of great platformers available it's hard to choose among them all.

janus : However though, Super Mario RPG was released probs about 2 years later, making the game having good graphics before Super Mario RPG, and I understand you saying that this is a regular platformers game as well. But, it does have good elements, like, unique features items or features specifying to each level or more, a (somewhat) different game physics (applies to nearly all games) in which if the physics is good, it COULD mean good things or bad, and at least fun level designs. So yes it is overhyped, but it is though in a good way. :/

I remember discussing DKC at the lunch table in elementary school in either Kindergarten or First Grade before I even played it. One of my best friends was telling me how cool it was and that I'd like it. My Mom rented it for me several times so I could play it on the SNES. I thought the graphics were the most amazing thing, and the gameplay was/is still fun, the characters are great, the landscapes, the music, totally awesome. I love all three games, and have played all of them on the SNES and some of the GBA ports (but I think these are inferior to the originals). DKC is one of my most favorite classic game series. I replay DKC every now and then and play through the entire game. I like how it's more challenging than Super Mario World. I really love these games.