History YMMV / DonkeyKongCountry1

** Master Necky Sr. is just a slightly tweaked rematch against Master Necky, and is a relieving and easy boss fight that serves as a much needed change of pace after the entirety of Chimp Caverns, especially the level that climaxes it, [[ThatOneLevel Platform Perils.]]

** ''Boss Dumb Drum'' is a very simplistic and easy boss fight, and a relieving fight after how hard most of Kremkroc Industries, Inc. was.
** ''Necky's Revenge'' is just a slightly tweaked rematch against Necky, and is a relieving and easy boss fight that serves as a much needed change of pace after the entirety of Chimp Caverns, especially the level that climaxes it, [[ThatOneLevel Platform Perils.]]

* CommonKnowledge: The game was and sometimes still is lauded for demonstrating the [=SNES=]' 3D capabilities, when in truth it's just as 2D as ''VideoGame/SuperMarioWorld''. The graphics are not real-time rendered in 3D, but are sprites taken from 3D models that were rendered separately on a computer, with the smooth, mostly fluid movement simply being a matter of characters having plentiful animation frames.

** Platform Perils, the last non-boss level in the game and arguably the hardest level of the entire game, and one of the hardest in the SNES ''Donkey Kong Country'' trilogy from a pure platforming standard. [[MeaningfulName Like the name says]], this level is filled with platforms which fall seconds after landing on them, and there are a lot of [[EliteMook Gray Krushas]] which can only be defeated with a barrel, and without access to one, they could push you into a BottomlessPit. Like other levels, this one requires precise jumping and a lot of skills to avoid the Krushas and Zingers. The official Strategy Guide from ''Nintendo Power'' even summed it up perfectly with, "Might as well save the hardest stage for last!".

** Platform Perils, the last non-boss level in the game and arguably the hardest level of the entire game, and one of the hardest in the SNES ''Donkey Kong Country'' trilogy from a pure platforming standard. [[MeaningfulName Like the name says]], this level is filled with platforms which fall seconds after landing on them, and there are a lot of [[EliteMook Gray Krushas]] which can only be defeated with a barrel, and without access to one, they could push you into a BottomlessPit. Like other levels, this one requires precise jumping and a lot of skills to avoid the Krushas and Zingers.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny:
** At the time of ''[=DKC=]'''s release, the CG visuals were incredibly mindblowing considering most of its contemporary platformers were largely made in 2D[[note]]If we want to get technical, the game is not rendered in three dimensions and still very much relies on 2D raster graphics, with the art being only prerendered in 3D and then saved as sprites.[[/note]]. While the visuals still largely hold up today thanks to the game's artstyle, what was originally "mindblowing" at the time now looks a lot less impressive and more simplistic and dated, especially when compared to its post-SNES sequels, ''[[VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountryReturns Returns]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountryTropicalFreeze Tropical Freeze]]''.
** While the game was well-reviewed when it was first released, some modern professional reviewers haven't been as kind - Peer Schneider of IGN cited the collectibles that didn't make a difference in progression (other than extra lives) as "bad game design", and the game was listed in "overrated games" lists by both EGM and [[http://web.archive.org/web/20061026214115/http://archive.gamespy.com/articles/september03/25overrated/index18.shtml Gamespy]].

* PortingDisaster: The Game Boy Color port was very ambitious and a very technically impressive feat, but sadly an example of "just because you could, doesn't mean you should." The controls are very stiff and finnicky, and the physics are rather touchy, making things that were very simple to do in the original much, much harder to pull off. It also suffers a horrible case of ScreenCrunch, with too little room to see what's coming up, and some bonus areas are impossible to find naturally because of it. Unlike the ''Donkey Kong Land'' games which were designed with the small screen size in mind, this does not make too many alterations to compensate. Even seasoned veterans of the original or even the GBA port have found this to be an extremely difficult and frustrating port to play, for [[FakeDifficulty all the wrong reasons.]]

* HypeBacklash: Contemporary reviewers (''Magazine/ElectronicGamingMonthly'' in particular, making their later example listed under CriticalDissonance somewhat ironic) went absolutely ''[[{{Pun}} apeshit bananas]]'' over ''DKC'' when it was released, mostly because of its then-impressive prerendered graphics. Now that prerendered, faux-3D visuals are a relic of the mid-90's, it's much easier to see the game as a very solid and fun platformer from the era, but not the kind of awe-inspiring masterpiece that so many critics declared it to be in 1994.

* CriticalDissonance: While the game was well-reviewed when it was first released, some modern professional reviewers haven't been as kind - Peer Schneider of IGN cited the collectibles that didn't make a difference in progression (other than extra lives) as "bad game design", and the game was listed in "overrated games" lists by both EGM and [[http://web.archive.org/web/20061026214115/http://archive.gamespy.com/articles/september03/25overrated/index18.shtml Gamespy]].

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: At the time of ''[=DKC=]'''s release, the CG visuals were incredibly mindblowing considering most of its contemporary platformers were largely made in 2D[[note]]If we want to get technical, the game is not rendered in three dimensions and still very much relies on 2D raster graphics, with the art being only prerendered in 3D and then saved as sprites.[[/note]]. While the visuals still largely hold up today thanks to the game's artstyle, what was originally "mindblowing" at the time now looks a lot less impressive and more simplistic and dated, especially when compared to its post-SNES sequels, ''[[VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountryReturns Returns]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountryTropicalFreeze Tropical Freeze]]''.

* BestBossEver: [[FinalBoss King K. Rool]]. Unlike the other bosses, who are just [[KingMook giant versions of normal enemies]] with static patterns, he's a unique enemy who changes his attacks as the fight goes. This makes him much more of a fun fight in spite of his difficulty. Plus his battle music, the aforementioned Gangplank Galleon, is easily among the game's best tracks.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: The Game Boy Advance port tweaked some of the bosses to be more challenging. In particular, you now have to actually throw barrels at Dumb Drum rather than waiting for him to kill himself like in the original.