I really enjoyed DKC 3 though, which apparently is not that popular among hardcore DKC fans, so there is that.
As for difficulty, we will have to agree to disagree. Only point that had me somewhat frustrated was the waterfall boss in the last game and that one had me stumped for some time (should have read the manual I guess?). Overall, I would still recommend the games as good for their time and among the better action platformers for their console, but they really are nowhere close to a masterpiece like Super Mario World that has pretty much perfected controls and you can tell exactly where platforms and objects start and end.
Regarding my comment about the difficulty, for me it is mostly a result of the bad controls, which to be honest is a problem that plagues many games of that era. You have enemies popping out from the edge of the screen and you need to react in a fraction of a second, but the controls don't let you do so, so you need to memorize the whole game and react in advance. It is not fun for me.
Sonic the Hedgehog 1 and 2, plus Sonic Mania as those are the ones I have touched somewhat recently. I can not remember if I played Sonic 3 & Knuckles as a kid or not, so maybe I am overly biased. In general, I have a fairly positive view of the Sonic platformers in every regard apart from the controls. The music for example is good, although it is not the best that the Mega Drive has to offer as that would probably be Thunder Force IV. Same for having very nice sprite work and the Sonic 2 bonus level blew my mind as a kid.
> Regarding my comment about the difficulty, for me it is mostly a result of the bad controls, which to be honest is a problem that plagues many games of that era. You have enemies popping out from the edge of the screen and you need to react in a fraction of a second, but the controls don't let you do so, so you need to memorize the whole game and react in advance. It is not fun for me.
Can relate, but I wonder if what you are describing here is the excessively zoomed in trend that we had from the late 80s and throughout the 90s.
I don't know if it is the best, but the music of S3&K absolutely slaps. I have yet to play Thunder Force 4 though.
> Can relate, but I wonder if what you are describing here is the excessively zoomed in trend that we had from the late 80s and throughout the 90s.
Ah, I had never considered that but now I realize that you are right. Many games of that era pushed huge sprites to show their graphical prowess, but that had the nasty side effect of reducing the FOV.
It is... Okay?
https://archive.org/details/sonic3_knuckles_ost
But just listen to say Metal Squad or Stand Up Against Myself from here:
https://archive.org/details/md_music_thunder_force_iv
More favourites of mine as I love the amount of character the Yamaha chip has:
https://archive.org/details/md_music_the_adventures_of_batma...
https://archive.org/details/md_music_battletoads