I always thought DKC and its two sequels (though the third less so) were fantastic games. I grew up with these games and simply had a ton of fun with them before I'd ever even considered reading any kind of reviews of them or heard any feedback about them to know how highly rated they were. They train you to look for excellently designed secrets hidden in the environment (Why is that one banana a couple pixels to the left of the others? Jump to the left and boom, there's a bonus room in the wall) and had the fantastic addition of all the animals, each with individual physics (very distinct senses of speed and weight), and awesome special abilities (especially the spiderweb platforms Squitter shoots) with each that could be used to reach more out of the way bonus rooms later if you're careful enough to hang on to the animals.
Plus, I love the barrel mechanic - that you have to carry and protect one through a level without jumping on a single enemy until reaching something that looks suspicious enough to use it. Like the bombing idea in metroid except you have only one and you have to be extremely careful what you do with it.
And oh by the way, the best-looking graphics on SNES in part due to diverse, atmospheric and beautiful looking environments, and a series-wide soundtrack in my top 3 of all time. Not too bad!