Does the look of the DKC series match the gameplay?

[TomGuycott]

Most of what I'm reading in this thread is entirely subjective. Here's my subjective opinions now:

-Not everyone was obsessed with Mario in their youth. Every single Mario game I owned either came with my systems or was given as a gift (in the case of Mario 3, when I was still too young to ask for games). That's all the way up to the N64 era. But the games I kept asking for and DEMANDING I get were Donkey Kong. Donkey Kong Country through Donkey Kong 64 I was BEGGING for these games, because they were amazing to me.

-The background graphics, though grittier, are far from what I would describe as "realistic". The environments have a certain amount of whimsical atmosphere to them, such as the tree houses high up in a jungle or the really beautiful underwater segments. They are meant to be a sort of 3D rendered style, similar to the method they made the sprites for the game. When you look at full renders of the characters and backgrounds BEFORE they were put in the game, they go together a lot more:

If they didn't have them as differentiated as they did in gameplay, though, you'd have trouble discerning characters and enemies from background elements, which is a bad thing in games.

-Though the Hop-and-Bop platformer was more or less a relic of its age, it fits the Donkey Kong series perfectly fine. Apes are faster than you give them credit for, and monkeys are really nimble and agile to begin with.

-Mario will ALWAYS overshadow every other Nintendo franchise. Forever. Mario is probably the most recognizable video game character in the world.

-Donkey Kong is less viable to the average gamer because of its difficulty. Every single Donkey Kong Country game had a steep difficulty curve at one point or another. I spent like 30 lives trying to beat the second boss of Donkey Kong Country 3 because I was too young and stupid to get it through my head that lifting the barrel up under his head with Dixie was a good idea. And yet even after that point, there were segments that were bone-crushingly difficult.

-In regards to Koopaul's final comment about Sonic in his original post, that's not something I agree with. First of all, Sonic BARELY matches the design in his games. They'll have him keep his original design, create regular people with ugly graphics and have Sonic stick out like a sore thumb. Second, he's only still kept going because his fanbase fiercely buys up each iteration regardless of quality, or people will buy him for brand recognition without being smart enough to look up a review for it, followed by his occasional good game to actually justify his existence.