Pleasantly surprised DKC2 is winning. All of them are great games obviously. But I voted DKC2.
Skill issue
Donkey Kong Country 2 vs. Kirby Super Star vs. Yoshi's Island vs. Sonic 3 & Knuckles
- Thread starter Phediuk
- Start date
DKC 2 is such a masterpiece of art, tone, music, game design, level design. It's a timeless classic that's infinitely replayable and for which I cannot find a single notable flaw.
For me:
DKC2 >>>> Yoshi's Island > Sonic 3 & K >>>>>>>>> Kirby Super Star
For me:
DKC2 >>>> Yoshi's Island > Sonic 3 & K >>>>>>>>> Kirby Super Star
You guys are absolutely hopeless if you can't fathom someone NOT sharing your subjective opinions
For the record I grew up playing MSX, SMS, NES (at friend's places), ST, MD, SFC and Amiga games. I've beaten games much much much harder than anything DKC throws at you (I will easily argue that the DKC games are on the easier side of Tradewest/Rare games) but since your head canon is sooo focused on the absolute need to be right, you're trying to find some logical fallacy to explain how someone may not share your opinion and you'll do it in a deragatory way.
Some of you really need to grow up at some point and realise that entertainment and enjoyment are subjective and that not every game is for everyone.
I agree, which is why I don't write posts like this
Donkey Kong country 2 is the tightest controlling platform game I've ever laid hands on. Give me a nice mushy dpad and you've got a great time going on.
Sonic 3&K
DKC2
Yoshi's island
Kirby
Graphics and music in Yoshi's island are great but I thought the gameplay was mediocre. I grew to appreciate the game later, but when it first came out I was quite disappointed coming from Super Mario World. And honestly Kirby shouldn't even be in this poll, it's a level or two down from the others.
DKC2
Yoshi's island
Kirby
Graphics and music in Yoshi's island are great but I thought the gameplay was mediocre. I grew to appreciate the game later, but when it first came out I was quite disappointed coming from Super Mario World. And honestly Kirby shouldn't even be in this poll, it's a level or two down from the others.
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Lol truth.
Good lord. To completely hate on something else like you did then have the nerve to type this out to that user.
I loved Sonic 3 to death, the other 3 range from forgettable to annoying IMO (played all of them through completion).
It doesn't count when he punches K. Rool off a mountain at the end.
DKC2 > YI > Kirby >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Sonic (never clicked with me)
I'd put the first DKC above Yoshi's Island too - I've never actually played through DKC3, thanks for this thread, it's a nice prod to go play DKC3
I'd put the first DKC above Yoshi's Island too - I've never actually played through DKC3, thanks for this thread, it's a nice prod to go play DKC3
DKC 3 is amazing, you'll enjoy it if you love DKC 2. Tbh I prefer DKC 3 to DKC 1 because of the whole aesthetic it has going on and the levels are more interesting, but of course 2 is the undisputed best of the three games.
this is my ranking too, but I feel it's worth noting that Yoshi's Island has a commanding lead and S&K is way, waaaaaay in the rear
ngl the plot of Sonic 3&K just puts it way above the rest on this list. Just makes it feel like a more complete expirience, like they actually wanted to tell a story instead of making up a flimsy reason for why gameplay happens
Other than superstars I replayed all of these games in the past 5 years. I liked all of them at the time but now DKC2 just seems far ahead of at least YI and Sonic.
I honestly didn't enjoy playing Sonic and Yoshi as much as I did when I was in high school. Their presentation is amazing but the movement and actual gameplay is not nearly as enjoyable as DKC2. And I really dislike DKC1 now. That game feels so primitive compared to DKC2. DKC2 is still pretty close to perfect for what it is trying to do.
I honestly didn't enjoy playing Sonic and Yoshi as much as I did when I was in high school. Their presentation is amazing but the movement and actual gameplay is not nearly as enjoyable as DKC2. And I really dislike DKC1 now. That game feels so primitive compared to DKC2. DKC2 is still pretty close to perfect for what it is trying to do.
Four major games of my childhood!
DKC 2 is an all time favourite for me so I gotta go with that. I love the faster pace, incredible music and strong atmosphere- still replay it almost yearly.
I love Yoshis Island and the artstyle will always be timeless, but I think it ever so slightly outstays it's welcome.
I absolutely adore Sonic 3 & Knuckles and I can still easily replay it today, but it does have a couple of zones I don't like; (Marble Garden, Carnival Night act 2, Sandopolis act 2) which knocks a few points off for me.
Kirby Super Star was never even my favourite Kirby game, I remember not really liking it at first until I played it in co op where it really comes to life.
For me it's: DKC2> Yoshi > Sonic 3 > Kirby
DKC 2 is an all time favourite for me so I gotta go with that. I love the faster pace, incredible music and strong atmosphere- still replay it almost yearly.
I love Yoshis Island and the artstyle will always be timeless, but I think it ever so slightly outstays it's welcome.
I absolutely adore Sonic 3 & Knuckles and I can still easily replay it today, but it does have a couple of zones I don't like; (Marble Garden, Carnival Night act 2, Sandopolis act 2) which knocks a few points off for me.
Kirby Super Star was never even my favourite Kirby game, I remember not really liking it at first until I played it in co op where it really comes to life.
For me it's: DKC2> Yoshi > Sonic 3 > Kirby
One thing that has always bothered me about Sonic 3 & K and that knocks it down a few points for me is how some of the game design is so cruel towards the player. I can't think of a single other game in which a bonus room can make you come out of it with less than what you had coming in. I'm referring to the slot machine that will routinely make you lose all of your rings if you get 3 Robotnik heads. That's just cruel. A bonus room should never, ever penalize a player. Then there's the time limit which really poses a problem on some levels. In a game where you're encouraged to explore the vastness of the maze-like levels to discover secrets and whatnot, having to do it on a rather strict time limit is quite cruel. On some levels, if you enter a bonus room, you had better be remembering whether you were progressing to the left or the right, because the game sure as shit won't put an arrow there to help you out. Or how about how some checkpoints before a boss won't provide you with a single ring, forcing you to beat the boss without taking a single hit?
It's all those little really odd design decisions that prevent it from true greatness in my book.
It's all those little really odd design decisions that prevent it from true greatness in my book.
unless i'm misremembering or the difficulty is completely trivialized for me to not notice after years of play-- i thought this only happened on the Death Egg 2 boss?
which, for a final boss, seems fair? but i sort of think it gives you rings.
Funny you say that because I was just about to chime in that for all the praise DKC2 gets, it never clicked with me nearly in the same way that DKC1 did. Maybe chalk some of that up to nostalgia - I had DKC1 as a kid but not 2, which I think can influence the staying power a platformer has with you, even if it's from the same series (I have the same thing with the Crash and Spyro games - had Crash 2 and Spyro 1 as a kid, loved them both, never cared as much for the other games).
If I were to put down an objective rationale for preferring DKC1 though, it'd probably be the environment and presentation. DKC1 feels so much more natural, like you're taming an untamed world, whereas DKC2 feels more consciously designed, if that makes sense. I get that the environment in DKC2 is more designed contextually (since you're on K.Rool's turf), but it just reminds me of that Penny Arcade strip teasing Metroid Prime 3 for these ancient civilizations building pathways and puzzles that only Samus could solve in her Morph Ball form, even though there's no reason to believe they'd have that same technology.
I love all 4, but Yoshis Island is just way above the rest for me. It's just so good in so many ways. From the amazing visuals that are so far above others from the same generation, to fantastic music , to Poochy. Just an all time great game.
That is why I brought up my most recent experience.
I usually feel the same way about most games when I replay them. In some part due to nostalgia and in some part because those games are all time bangers.
I also loved DKC1. Me and my cousin and sister were really hyped to play it after getting some random VHS tape about it. Sis got DKC1 and 2 for her bday and we all played the shit out of each of them. But DKC2 for me is when the series became an all time classic. The physics of the first game are not as enjoyable as they are in the 2nd. Its still a good game and a great platformer, but when I replayed DKC1 I always wanted to go back to 2.
Its between DKC2 and Kirby for me. DKC2 is my favorite DKC game of all time, and Super Star is my favorite Kirby.
DKC2 is a straight perfect sequel to the first game. Does just about everything right imo. Amazing music and imaginative levels and stages, while expanding secrets and the lost world area.
Kirby's Super Star is basically like an All Stars version of Kirby. Amazing music again, tons of variety of gameplay and genres(from standard Kirby platforming, to horizontal space shooter, to metroidvania treasure hunting, to smaller minigames like megaton one and the samurai duel thingy).
I'll probably default to DKC2 since I've replayed it so many times, but Super Star is right there with it for me.
Yoshi's Island I only rented back in the day, and while its awesome, it doesn't have the same pull for me. I also didnt own a Genesis, so my Sonic experience is based on being at my best friends house. It was definitely a cool game, but I dont think it gets close to the others.
DKC2 is a straight perfect sequel to the first game. Does just about everything right imo. Amazing music and imaginative levels and stages, while expanding secrets and the lost world area.
Kirby's Super Star is basically like an All Stars version of Kirby. Amazing music again, tons of variety of gameplay and genres(from standard Kirby platforming, to horizontal space shooter, to metroidvania treasure hunting, to smaller minigames like megaton one and the samurai duel thingy).
I'll probably default to DKC2 since I've replayed it so many times, but Super Star is right there with it for me.
Yoshi's Island I only rented back in the day, and while its awesome, it doesn't have the same pull for me. I also didnt own a Genesis, so my Sonic experience is based on being at my best friends house. It was definitely a cool game, but I dont think it gets close to the others.
I like Sonic 2 more than 3 or Knuckles, and I prefer DKC 1 to 2. I rented Yoshi's Island so many times from Blockbuster we'd have been better off buying the game. It was always 'I don't know what to rent so I'm going with Yoshi's Island again'. The N64 is out, but nope, still renting Yoshi's Island. The game is so imaginative and sparked so much joy in child me.
Yoshi's Island > Kirby Superstar > DKC2 > S3&K
All are amazing games though.
Yoshi's Island > Kirby Superstar > DKC2 > S3&K
All are amazing games though.
Impossible vote between DKC2 and Yoshi's Island.
I think DKC2 is the better game on the whole, but I voted Yoshi. I just have a soft spot for that game.
I think DKC2 is the better game on the whole, but I voted Yoshi. I just have a soft spot for that game.
I'm amazed at the love the DKC original SNES trilogy gets here.
I lived its release and they surely were technical showcases, but even then those rendered graphics felt really ugly to me. And their overall mood was kind of...dark and depressing. Yoshi's Island coming after the first DKC was a breath of fresh air because it pursued the exact opposite aesthetics. Control wise and level design wise, the DKC games felt OK, but pretty standard fare.
And, as I said before, all of them felt like lagging a generation behind the classic Sonic formula, with its ramps and round terrain, its acceleration and its pinball physics. And all the possilities those features opened. For sure the first two Sonic games were probably too barebone compared to those meaty Nintendo ones (when it comes to levels and gimmicks and all that), but 3&K is absurdly full of content.
All of that is why, IMO:
Sonic 3&K > Yoshi's Island >> Kirby SS >>>>> DKC2.
I lived its release and they surely were technical showcases, but even then those rendered graphics felt really ugly to me. And their overall mood was kind of...dark and depressing. Yoshi's Island coming after the first DKC was a breath of fresh air because it pursued the exact opposite aesthetics. Control wise and level design wise, the DKC games felt OK, but pretty standard fare.
And, as I said before, all of them felt like lagging a generation behind the classic Sonic formula, with its ramps and round terrain, its acceleration and its pinball physics. And all the possilities those features opened. For sure the first two Sonic games were probably too barebone compared to those meaty Nintendo ones (when it comes to levels and gimmicks and all that), but 3&K is absurdly full of content.
All of that is why, IMO:
Sonic 3&K > Yoshi's Island >> Kirby SS >>>>> DKC2.
Donkey Kong Country 2 was the easy pick for me. I loved it way back in the day, and I love it whenever I revisit it. It's one of my favourite platformers.
I feel like I should finish my replay of Kirby Super Star, since I'm not quite sure whether I'd put Kirby or Yoshi's Island in second place. My issue with Super Star is that you need to play through the less interesting Kirby games to unlock the better ones in the collection. Yoshi's Island has some excellent visuals, music, and originality, but I honestly dislike trying to 100% complete every level (I think the game is better played without worrying about collecting everything), and, yeah, Baby Mario's crying is pretty annoying, not that you hear it much if you're decent at the game.
I haven't played Sonic 3, so no comment on it. Nonetheless, I'm fairly confident I wouldn't like it as much as the other games on this list. I like Sonic 2 a fair bit, but nowhere near as much as DKC2, Yoshi's Island, or Kirby Super Star, so I doubt that Sonic 3 & Knuckles is such a gigantic leap in quality to overtake DKC2 in my esteem. It doesn't help Sonic 3 that I have zero nostalgic for it, something these other games have in their favour.
I feel like I should finish my replay of Kirby Super Star, since I'm not quite sure whether I'd put Kirby or Yoshi's Island in second place. My issue with Super Star is that you need to play through the less interesting Kirby games to unlock the better ones in the collection. Yoshi's Island has some excellent visuals, music, and originality, but I honestly dislike trying to 100% complete every level (I think the game is better played without worrying about collecting everything), and, yeah, Baby Mario's crying is pretty annoying, not that you hear it much if you're decent at the game.
I haven't played Sonic 3, so no comment on it. Nonetheless, I'm fairly confident I wouldn't like it as much as the other games on this list. I like Sonic 2 a fair bit, but nowhere near as much as DKC2, Yoshi's Island, or Kirby Super Star, so I doubt that Sonic 3 & Knuckles is such a gigantic leap in quality to overtake DKC2 in my esteem. It doesn't help Sonic 3 that I have zero nostalgic for it, something these other games have in their favour.
