I finished Donkey Kong Country 3, and it is my favorite DKC Rare game ever. I liked how its atmosphere calms me in a similar way to DKC1, not feeling as pressuring in progression as DKC2. I wish the Kiddy and Dixie duo were more utilized in the main quest, because outside of the first levels, I did not find much use of Kiddy Kong's ground pound and found him useful for just reaching higher places with Dixie. I love the swapping characters with different abilities concept and it had more potential to fill. Although there were a couple of bad decisions in game design for a few levels, and bosses bonus levels for worlds in general, it gradually got more fun to play as each level became more polished than the rest.
But, the K. Rool battle was fantastic. I think his battle here showed his insane personality the best, and the tension of avoiding K. Rool/electric shocks and hitting him with barrels was pressuring, but seriously fun. His battle made beating the game worth it. And when the credits rolled, I nearly shed a tear, knowing this would be the last DKC Rare game that I would play in a while. I plan on completing this game 100% in the next few days.
IMO, the best Donkey Kong Country games are DKC3 > DKC1 > DKC2.
You are probably a rare case here, because most of the people, including me, consider DKC3 inferior, while still being a great game, I still love it.
It just did not feel as inspired as the two other games.
The krems got some classic skins back, and I though it would have been better to make them transformed / mutated like some failed experiments, to fit new K.Rool design, they needed a new theme after the pirate one in DKC2.
Though I really loved some of them like Krumples and Krimps, they are my new favorites.
The musics were also forgettable, which is a big bummer for a DKC game.
But the gameplay is still really good, and I loved the boss battles except the one on the waterfall with the elephant.
Can't say I share your view on K.Rool boss battle either.
He's not bad but not great either, a bit boring.
DKC2 is seen as the best DKC game overall, but I understand and respect your view.
It can feel frustrating and stressfull at times, because it is more complexified and speed run compare to the other DK games.
DKC 1 and 3 are simpler, but also more relaxing.
It's nice because they are all different and complementary to each others.
for me it is DKC2 > DKC1 > DKC 3 > DKC64
Though I need to replay DKC64 to be sure, I played it only once a looong time ago.
From what I remember, it lacked of fun, it was not as good as Mario 64, the gameplay was lacking, but I could be wrong.
I also loved Returns, but it was wasted with the horrible motion controls, and of course abcence of kremlings
I need to replay it to rank it.
I'd like to before playing Tropical Freeze.
Unfortunately I don't have a way to do it.
I don't have a Wii anymore, and I refuse to replay it in 480p with motion controls anyway.
Nintendo did not re release it with Tropical freeze on Switch which is really disapointing.
Lets hope they bring it on the virtual console with a acceptable resolution and no motion controls, otherwise Emulation will be the only option.
It seems to work nicely on Dolphin emulator, unfortunately my PC is not powerful enough at the moment.
