The misfortune isn't from coming out after DKC2 but right near the end of the SNES's life. You can even see the N64 in several places during the game.

More fun than DKC, but it suffers from poor environment and enemy designs. The buzzsaw bees are really odd looking and appear like they belong in Bug! or some other offshoot, and most of the level graphics don't touch the memorability of most of DKC2 or some of levels from DKC1.

Outside of that, I actually do prefer the gameplay in this game from the others. You have a heavy character, many of the positive elements from the first DKC return, and the level design is much tighter now. What it lost in trying to establish atmosphere, it gained in a more skillfully and solid gameplay design.