History YMMV / DonkeyKongCountry2DiddysKongQuest

** Much like with Winky in the previous game, it is common to hear complaints about Rattly being difficult to control due to his constant hopping. That he is mandatory in [[RiseToTheChallenge Toxic Tower]] and Animal Antics — two of the hardest levels in the game — does not help. He's much easier to control in the GBA version, where his hopping is merely just a normal running animation.

** [[RiseToTheChallenge Toxic Tower]]. Especially the first half where you're playing as Rattly, and even the slightest mistake will flat out kill you. The segments with Squawks and Squitter aren't any easier, as fooling around for too long will cause the toxic waste below to catch up and quite possibly spell your death.

** The original SNES version is the only game in the series where you have to pay to ''save your game.'' Sure, it's only 2 Banana Coins, but if you're broke and on your last life, hope you can quickly revisit a level and get a coin without getting killed. The option to use Funky to fly to an easier early-game stage (which tend to be full of Banana Coins and extra lives) is there... but Funky also charges you for his services. At least you've safe if you've used him once before since he only charges you the first time.

* GoddamnedBats: The green and yellow Klobbers, which only bump you around (and take bananas in the case of the yellow ones). They're rarely much of a threat, but they're often very annoying — especially in Klobber Karnage.

** Diddy Kong Pointing at an Unknown Object with His Hat on Backwards [[note]]This [[https://www.mariowiki.com/Gallery:Diddy_Kong#/media/File:Diddy4.jpg image]] of Diddy Kong has been subject to memes since a Facebook meme page took off with it. People commonly associate this image of Diddy as a completely different counterpart to the regular Diddy Kong due to his hat being on backwards.[[/note]]
** Internet Checkpoints [[note]]Recently there have been random videos popping up of extended Donkey Kong Country 2 songs (alongside other songs) updated by someone named taia777. Due to how it randomly appeared in peoples feeds on Youtube, many people commented their struggles and dubbed it an "Internet Checkpoint", or "safe space". Doubles as heartwarming too.[[/note]]

* HilariousInHindsight: At the ranking screen when completing the game, you can see [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]], [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Link]], and [[VideoGame/YoshisIsland Yoshi]] as the top three heroes, while [[Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog Sonic's shoes]] and [[VideoGame/EarthwormJim Jim's gun]] are lying near a trash can labeled "No Hopers". The jab at Sega after the company's jab at Nintendo with their infamous "Sega does what Nintendon't" advertisements is funny enough, but it becomes cruelly funnier seeing this after knowing how much the ''Sonic'' franchise [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006 has suffered in its]] later years. And once Sega went third-party, Sonic would end up in official Nintendo games such as ''VideoGame/MarioAndSonicAtTheOlympicGames'' and ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros''. It's a bit sadder in Jim's case, since his series would be reduced to relative obscurity after a [[PolygonCeiling poorly received jump to 3D]].

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic:
** A lot, but the tune that really stands out to a lot of people is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J67nkzoJ_2M Stickerbush Symphony]], which even got an [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_g1_Txfqnc encore performance]] in ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountryTropicalFreeze''!

* MemeticMutation: Internet Checkpoints [[note]]Recently there have been random videos popping up of extended Donkey Kong Country 2 songs (alongside other songs) updated by someone named taia777. Due to how it randomly appeared in peoples feeds on Youtube, many people commented their struggles and dubbed it an "Internet Checkpoint", or "safe space". Doubles as heartwarming too.[[/note]]

** Clapper's Cavern is comparatively very easy to the other endgame levels in K. Rool's Keep. The hardest thing it does is mixing up two mechanics from previous levels (Lava Lagoon and Slime Climb), but otherwise, it doesn't have many enemies and the player should be familiar about what to do.

* BreatherLevel: In Rambi Rumble, right after an [[NightmareFuel extremely tense]] chase by King Zing, there's a BonusLevel right before the No Rambi sign. Said bonus level is ''painfully'' easy, consisting of flat hallways of enemies that Rambi can just effortlessly charge through.

** The infamous [[https://donkeykong.fandom.com/wiki/Castle_Crush_Glitch Castle Crush Glitch]], which is even more of a literal example than usual, as performing it can not only potentially corrupt save data, but even brick the entire cartridge (this extends to emulated ROM files as well.)

** [[AdvancingWallOfDoom Toxic Tower]]. Especially the first half where you're playing as Rattly, and even the slightest mistake will flat out kill you. The segments with Squawks and Squitter aren't any easier, as fooling around for too long will cause the toxic waste below to catch up and quite possibly spell your death.

* AntiClimaxBoss: The TrueFinalBoss with K. Rool at the end of the Lost World, while not a cakewalk by any means, is regarded as an easier fight than the fight against him in the Flying Kroc, since [[OneHitPointWonder it only takes one hit to defeat him]] — especially after the extremely difficult levels you have go through to reach him in the Lost World.

** The GBA port has the new boss [[https://www.mariowiki.com/Kerozene Kerozene]]. While the idea of having a new boss for the port sounds like a good idea, Kerozene ends up looking very out-of-place. Not only do his sprites manage to be poorly modeled (in a game that ''already'' [[TwoDVisualsThreeDEffects has CG sprites]]), his animations are incredibly choppy and lifeless. He ends up looking very hastily thrown together just to add more content to the GBA version.

* PortingDisaster: The GBA port. While the GBA ports of the other ''Donkey Kong Country'' games are divisive, ''2''[='=]s port is considered to be the worst (though far from unplayable), as the brighter palettes and downgraded soundtrack clashes with the darker atmosphere of some of the stages in the original, and it does not have the pragmatic alterations done to it much like ''Donkey Kong Country 3''[='=]s port.

* BreatherLevel: In Rambi Rumble, right after an extremely tense chase by King Zing, there's a BonusLevel right before the No Rambi sign. Said bonus level is ''painfully'' easy, consisting of flat hallways of enemies that Rambi can just effortlessly charge through.

** The GBA port has the new boss [[https://www.mariowiki.com/Kerozene Kerozene]]. While the idea of having a new boss for the port sounds like a good idea, Kerozene ends up looking very out-of-place. Not only do his sprites manage to be ConspicuousCGI thanks to being poorly modeled (in a game that ''already'' has CG sprites), his animations are incredibly choppy and lifeless. He ends up looking very hastily thrown together just to add more content to the GBA version.

* HilariousInHindsight: At the ranking screen when completing the game, you can see [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]], [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Link]], and [[VideoGame/YoshisIsland Yoshi]] as the top three heroes, while [[Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog Sonic's shoes]] and [[VideoGame/EarthwormJim Jim's gun]] are lying near a trash can labeled "No Hopers". The jab at Sega after the company's jab at Nintendo with their infamous "Sega does what Nintendon't" advertisements is funny enough, but it becomes cruelly funnier seeing this after knowing how much the ''Sonic'' franchise [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006 has suffered in its]] later years. And once Sega went third-party, Sonic would end up in official Nintendo games such as ''VideoGame/MarioAndSonicAtTheOlympicGames'' and ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros''

** The code to start with 50 lives can only be applied when starting a new file, and lives are reset back to 5 every time you load a file that's already been started. Unless you plan to beat the game or at least make a lot of progress in one sitting, the code seems pointless.

* GameBreakingBug: Sort of. The third level of the [[BrutalBonusLevel Lost World]], Klobber Karnage, has a series of rotating barrels that the player must manually position and time correctly. Simple enough. However, as many younger players found out the hard way, playing this level in an older emulator (such as zsnes) makes these barrels spin infinitely no matter what the player does, making the timing much more difficult (although it's still possible to complete the level this way). This makes an already NintendoHard level veer straight into FakeDifficulty. Thankfully, the Virtual Console versions (and most modern emulators) don't have this problem.

* HilariousInHindsight: At the ranking screen when completing the game, you can see [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]], [[Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda Link]], and [[VideoGame/YoshisIsland Yoshi]] as the top three heroes, while [[Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog Sonic's shoes]] and [[VideoGame/EarthwormJim Jim's gun]] are lying near a trash can labeled "No Hopers". The jab at Sega after the company's jab at Nintendo with their infamous "Sega does what Nintendont" advertisements is funny enough, but it becomes cruelly funnier seeing this after knowing how much the ''Sonic'' franchise [[VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog2006 has suffered in its]] later years. And once Sega went third-party, Sonic would end up in official Nintendo games such as ''VideoGame/MarioAndSonicAtTheOlympicGames'' and ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros''.

** As mentioned above, Bramble Scramble can be incredibly infuriating if you don't take extra care with your jumps, since all the walls are covered in deadly spikes. Not to mention, it is a ''very'' long level and you'll be begging for a checkpoint before long.

* SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome: It's easy to miss because you're busy dealing with the level's hazards, but the background in Lockjaw's Locker is actually a fully 3D ship deck that changes your angle of view depending on your vertical position in the level. This was pulled off on the Super Nintendo, but it wouldn't look out of place in a PlayStation 1 game.

** The original SNES version is the only game in the series where you have to pay to ''save your game.'' Sure, it's only 2 Banana Coins, but if you're broke and on your last life, hope you can quickly revisit a level and get a coin without getting killed...

* EarWorm: The entire soundtrack will stick with you, especially "Stickerbush Symphony" (especially ''especially'' given [[ThatOneLevel how much time you'll spend on those levels]]).