Ah, I remember playing a DK game back when my daycare had an SNES. That was where I first got into Nintendo, specifically Pokemon and Mario. I also got into Sega then. I also played "Conker's Pocket Tales" for the GBC, which was a lot less violent than all the other Conker games. /I was a kid OK
And then the only other two Rare games I played were Star Fox Adventures (it was one of our first Gamecube games originally for my teenaged stepsisters, but I played it anyways despite being 9 or something like that) and Viva Piñata (I actually watched the show and wanted to see what the game was like, OK ;;).
The older platformers are a lot more challenging than newer ones. I've noticed this with the Sonic series, especially. The old Sega console Sonic games I've never completed while I've at least gotten through all the stages on Advance 1-3. Older Mario games are just as hard, if not harder. I may be more of a JRPGer, but platformers give me a good challenge.