I’m honestly, with no shade intended, never going to get DKC games. I don’t know how people playing them don’t think “hmm, this is clunky”. Everything feels slow and cumbersome when I play these games. I feel heavy, like I’m weighed down and like my character is just ever so slightly hampered in every possible way. Like I’m playing in a thick mud and I move at half speed. After playing for a bit I started SMW just to see if I’m imagining things, but it’s like someone took off the training wheels, or doubled the speed. I can move, quick and light as air and everything I do is deliberate and precise. I feel like I’m flying through the gameplay compared to DKC3 (and no, not literally because yes, I know you can). I don’t even mean this as a criticism of DKC games anymore, I literally just don’t get it. It feels so fundamentally bad to play I don’t know how to enjoy myself.
I’ve also noticed this game borrows a bit from Sonic in some minor ways (switch, pulley and launch mechanisms) but boy howdy does that make it feel even slower.