While I think it's a TINY bit overrated, DKC is still a great game. The platforming is good, but the graphics and especially the SOUND just blew me away. It still amazes me that the water music is coming from a SNES!
I got DKC for Christmas that year and the next summer I spent most of the time in Alabama visiting my mom and little brother Jeff, who lived out of state at the time. Jeff was only like, one year old, and could barely talk. He only knew a few words, like Da Da, Ma Ma, No, Cookie, etc. But when I came over and showed him DKC for the first time, he just sat there staring at it for the longest time. Then when mom came in the room, he looked at her, pointed at the TV, and started babbling 90 miles an hour! Even though he couldn't talk much, we could tell he was telling us all about the game! By the end of the summer, he learned how to say "Donkey Kong" so he could tell me that he wanted to play it. That ended up being one of his first words!