I hate to pull a Jeff here, but yup, this game is totally Donkey Kong Country.  There are barrels that you can throw, and barrels that fire you like a rocket through a series of other barrels.  You can pound the ground.  You can play 2-player with Donkey and Diddy Kong.  There are enemies and you can stomp on their heads.  The only things that were different, as far as I could tell, were:
 
1) Diddy has some kind of gun.  I think it shoots peanuts?  Was that in the original?
2) You blow on dandelions to reveal secrets.  It's kind of odd.
3) At one point a barrel shot us into the background where we played back there for a while before being shot back to the foreground.
 
I'm one of those guys that insists the original Donkey Kong Country was one of the best SNES platformers around, so I will probably get this when it comes out, but from what I've played so far, it doesn't really innovate or distinguish itself from the 16-bit games.
 
 If you have any questions, comment and I will try to answer.

See any recognizable enemies?  
Any map between levels? 
It feel right?

" See any recognizable enemies?  Any map between levels? It feel right? "

I sorta think rushing is totally the way to play the first time. On the other hand though, speed running doesn't lend itself to 2 player. I suppose that'd have been a good reason not to have 2 player 15 years ago, but now we've realized that flow and pacing can eat a dick for multiplayer purposes. Well, I'll play alone probably, no difference. 
 
Can you recount the controls? Is shake the only way to cartwheel/barrel roll? I like my barrel rolls at the tap of a button, not a jarring shake of a controller. 
 
Let me say it this way. Shaking works in SMG because it's a jarring experience and the spin it triggers kills your momentum which matches the disruption caused by the movement nicely. However a barrel roll is the exact opposite. It needs to be precise, and leave you in complete control. A shake can't do that. 
 
Do you sort of feel that's the case? Be a shame if it was. 
 
Edit: Right, blog post, shouldn't reply I'll send you two PMs. My bad.

Diddy's Peanut Popguns were introduced in DK64. 
 
Sounds like the co-op is proper co-op now instead of tagteam. In a way this is neat but I'll have to wait to play. I have a specific friend that I played through all of the DKC games with back in the day so I'll see whether he likes it, too. :P 
 
- any animal buddies in the levels you saw? 
- how exactly are the cartwheel and ground slap triggered? DK was the only one in the original who could pound the ground and Diddy's cartwheel used to be something you'd get by hitting the B button on the SNES so this all sounds new to me.

Can you recount the controls? Is shake the only way to cartwheel/barrel roll? I like my barrel rolls at the tap of a button, not a jarring shake of a controller. 
 
Let me say it this way. Shaking works in SMG because it's a jarring experience and the spin it triggers kills your momentum which matches the disruption caused by the movement nicely. However a barrel roll is the exact opposite. It needs to be precise, and leave you in complete control. A shake can't do that.  Do you sort of feel that's the case? Be a shame if it was. 

" Diddy's Peanut Popguns were introduced in DK64.  Sounds like the co-op is proper co-op now instead of tagteam. In a way this is neat but I'll have to wait to play. I have a specific friend that I played through all of the DKC games with back in the day so I'll see whether he likes it, too. :P  - any animal buddies in the levels you saw? - how exactly are the cartwheel and ground slap triggered? DK was the only one in the original who could pound the ground and Diddy's cartwheel used to be something you'd get by hitting the B button on the SNES so this all sounds new to me. "

I'm going to be the guy that says, not every game needs to be super duper innovative in order to be fantastic. Sometimes you just need to fall back on an old formula.  Just look at SF4 that basically is just SF2 with a few new mechanics and characters, and people are fawning over it left and right.

" I'm going to be the guy that says, not every game needs to be super duper innovative in order to be fantastic. Sometimes you just need to fall back on an old formula.  Just look at SF4 that basically is just SF2 with a few new mechanics and characters, and people are fawning over it left and right. "

" @TheMasterDS said:

Can you recount the controls? Is shake the only way to cartwheel/barrel roll? I like my barrel rolls at the tap of a button, not a jarring shake of a controller. 
 
Let me say it this way. Shaking works in SMG because it's a jarring experience and the spin it triggers kills your momentum which matches the disruption caused by the movement nicely. However a barrel roll is the exact opposite. It needs to be precise, and leave you in complete control. A shake can't do that.  Do you sort of feel that's the case? Be a shame if it was. 

We played it with the Wii remote and nunchuck together.  I don't remember every button exactly, but A to jump, and I think maybe Z to get on Donkey Kong's back, etc.  We had to shake the controller for a few things.  Shaking it in general ground pounded and/or fired the peanut gun (depending on which character you are).  If you hold down on the analog stick while shaking, you blow (for the dandelions, and maybe other things in other parts of the game).  If you hold left or right while shaking, you roll (or cartwheel in my case).  This isn't the final version of the game, so it's possible they'll adjust that, or allow people to map controls, but that's how it stood for the demo.   I will say shaking the remote took away my feeling of control whenever I had to do it.  "

I hope there is classic controller support.  

@ Kowbrainz 
 
There is a lot of potential for interaction between Diddy Kong and Donkey Kong.  If you wanted, you could have Diddy ride on DK's back for the whole level.

The Iwata asks video about this game reveals that retro was making levels that required you to blitz through the level, and basically said that nintendo stepped in and told them to SLOW DOWN. 
 
I hope that means a hard mode with forcing level scroll.

I heard that you can play with the Wiimote on its side from a guy on the interweb. So yeah, probably classic controller support may be in the cards. At least we can use the buttons to roll and pound the ground.