I just finished DKC2 yesterday, playing it for the first time ever on Wii/SNES9X
Wow. That game was brutal. I'm sure most of you played this game for the first time years ago, and so now every subsequent play through, even years later, the game doesn't seem as hard. I played DKC2 immediately finishing DKCR, and DKC2 is loads and loads harder. There is NO way I would've had the patience to finish this game without the very liberal use of save states. I could've brute forced my way through the game as a kid with all summer to play through a game. But man, I died so many times. I can't imagine having to redo section after section, redo level after level, and then refind banana coins to save every 3-4 levels. This game is unforgiving as fuck on your first time through when you have to learn everything fresh level after level.
And it really is when you're playing for the FIRST time. One of my save states failed and I had to replay three levels, that must've taken me a full hour to get through. On the replay through those three levels it took me five minutes tops. It's one of those things, once you've seen the levels and know how to approach everything, it seems really easy. But that initial play through... man.
I think one thing that contributes to this game being so challenging is one of the game strength's: every level is unique and you learn a new mechanic or way to play. It keeps the game feeling fresh, but I think you really lose the "rhythm" that you feel in DKCR. In the end, after every level I felt either "That was fun, I'd like to do that again" or "Yeah, that wasn't fun."
Fun = jumping levels, barrel levels, rhino levels, mine cart levels
Not Fun = Bird levels, bee hive levels, spider levels, windy levels
So for me, half the game had enjoyable levels, the other half didn't. I felt like DKCR they took out all the things that weren't fun, minus the rocket barrel levels, and the game was just "the best of the best" without all the fluff.
So I may be one of the few who prefers DKCR over DKC2. If someone told me that DKC2 is the best platformer of all time, I wouldn't argue. The game just didn't seem to have the same fun level progression as DKCR did.
For the record I finished the game at 48%. There's A LOT of extra stuff I know I didn't see. But I don't really have the desire to go back and do it all, I'd rather do all the item hunting in DKCR instead. The wack-a-do rolling actually felt better in DKCR, on the Classic Controller, of course.