Warm (potentially hot?) take: Donkey Kong Country 3 is the best of the original SNES trilogy, and still my favorite so far (even after playing Returns and Tropical Freeze)
- Fantastic soundtrack: moody and darker than the other 2
- A lot of secret paths and unlockables
- An almost perfect amount of collectables -- per stage: a DK coin, two golden coins, bear currency coins, etc
- Speaking of DK coins, they're almost like little puzzles of their own
- A nice balance in weight/speed/jump height/etc between Dixie and Kiddy, which is more in line with the OG Donkey Kong Country game
- A huge variety in levels. I like how they're themed. Notice I use "themed" and not "gimmicky" which is the word a lot of people use to criticize the level variety
Not sure why I typed that, I don't even have the Nintendo Online Service on Switch, LOL. I do however own an SNES and the DKC3 cart, and I play through that game at least once a year.