When that game was new, I couldn't believe my eyes. My eyes were the size of saucers. I thought it was literally a joke/scam/fake. I thought it was screenshots from the upcoming monster console "Ultra 64".
However, later, I realized that they had "simply" pre-generated normal, static sprites with powerful computers from 3D objects, which made them appear much more impressive than they really were.
Still, there are some lighting effects and stuff in the game which does impress me, which doesn't seem possible to fake like that. Also, SNES games in that era were beginning to use custom "FX" chips and possibly other custom hardware put into the cartridges themselves, to aid the already aging SNES.
My question is: Did Donkey Kong Country (the original game -- I don't care about the sequels whatsoever) use any kind of special hardware in the cartridges? Or was it literally just a standard ROM, clever coding/design and nothing else to it?