"Donkey Kong Country proves that players will put up with mediocre gameplay as long as the art is good." Ouch. While this statement would be at home in a 1994 recess debate between a Genesis enthusiast and an SNES fan, it actually comes from Nintendo's golden boy himself, Shigeru Miyamoto. While I find it difficult to question the man who gave the world Mario and Zelda, it's perplexing to hear such inflammatory statements about such a finely crafted game. No one would argue that DKC's gameplay was revolutionary, but to dismiss it with such pomposity is the equivalent of attacking hot dogs for not containing tenderloin. Sure, it's no filet mignon, but those hot dogs are darn delicious. I've fawned over the game before, so the defense will rest.
According to the semi-reliable Wikipedia, Miyamoto was simply venting his frustrations from apparent pressure at the time by Nintendo to make Yoshi's Island graphically similar to Donky Kong Country. And if a brief emotional release is what it took for Miyamoto to keep the utterly sublime sequel to Super Mario World the way he intended, I say we give him a pass. While the statement was uncalled for, he was simply speaking his mind at that moment. And that's what some artists tend to do. After all, even Mozart was apparently a bit of a jerk.
