Yea, I'm sure people would rank the Donkey Kong Country games higher than this one, especially the first one, but me personally, they're not as good as this one. Oh, the Donkey Kong Country games are fantastic, if not great, but this one to me even surpassed them.
Why? For starters, unlike the Donkey Kong Country games that lets you only play with two characters, this one lets you play as 5, 6 if you count Krusha in multiplayer, but my point is, this game gives you alot more characters to use, with each one handling different. Ok, sure, it's not perfect, but I love how each character feels unique enough to play during your adventure.
Secondly, this game nailed King K Rool better as a villain than any other Donkey Kong game he starred in, before or after. He truly feels menacing and threatening here, trying to not only steal your horde of bananas and kidnap your friends, but blow up your home and everything you love in it. Dang... now that's what I call a good villain. Oh yea, and I love the Darth Vader styled breathing he does too. Yea, it feels cliched and odd I suppose, but considering how well Rare pulled it off, I say it was more than worth it.
Thirdly, the music in this game is freakin gold to listen to. Sure, the Donkey Kong Country games have some great music too, but I have to say, quite a few in DK64 not only matched it in epicness, but even surpassed them. One for sure that does is the music named Hideout Helm. Seriously, how can anyone not love listening to that, especially while racing against the clock to save your home from King K Rool's death laser? That's as about as good as you can get in terms of music keeping the player's suspense as high as possible.
Fourthly, the game is massive in terms of exploring levels. There's so many secrets and such to find, you could spend a good 30-40 hours playing this game easily just to find everything, and that's not even including the decent multiplayer mode too you can play with friends and family. Yea, the multiplayer mode is not that great, but hey, for a game this big in length, I say it's a welcomed addition. As much as I like the Donkey Country games, especially the first one, it can be beat within 10 hours at most. Ok, sure, you can spend longer trying to find all the hidden stuff, but honestly, it's just not as satisfying to find secrets in compared to this game.
Lastly, the cheats you can unlock in this game are fantastic, from replaying boss fights, having infinite coconuts when using a power up as well as getting to use Krusha in the multiplayer, which to be frank, is the strongest character in the game considering his weapon.
And that's not including other cool stuff like how funny the Kremlings are in this game, Candy Kong at her peak in terms of being sexy and beautiful. Funky Kong's role in your game as your arms dealer as well as the final boss fight. Sure, it drags on a bit, but the ending was too funny not to make it all worth it.
Overall, Donkey Kong 64 is just a game I can't help but be impressed by. It has so much replayabilty and enjoyable content to do and explore. Has it aged over the years? Of course. What N64 game hasn't? And that's not even including the controversial expansion pak being added to fix a bug under the guise of needing more memory to play. Not that I mind the Expansion pak since it does have its advantages, but I really wish Rare would have fixed that bug first before releasing the game.
Oh well... it is what it is I suppose. So yea, I give the game an 8 out of 10. A great game to play, one that badly needs a remastered edition, but I doubt we'll ever see it. A shame the Donkey Kong games that came after this one haven't been able to duplicate or surpass its overall charm and appeal. Sure, the other Donkey Kong games after this one aren't bad, but they're just... not as good.
Considering Rare was bought out by Microsoft a couple of years later, I guess I can see now why. I mean, the fact it made a horrible Banjo Kazooie game makes me wonder how Donkey Kong didn't suffer the same fate.