Tropical Freeze so far.

Gamers were disappointed that the first HD game from the makers of Metroid Prime wasn't something more epic and ambitious. That is still a legitimate complaint even if Tropical Freeze turned out to be a good game.

Haven't played too many platformers from this gen, but I love Yoshi's Woolly World.

The yarn aesthetic looks extremely charming, and the game itself is tons of fun.

Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze! With Shovel Knight at a close second! Both games difficulty are insane!

I'm afraid I can't agree. That mentality assumes that 2D platformers are somehow not as worthy of praise or demanding of craftsmanship as other genres. I wholly reject that assertion. A new Metroid Prime game would not be any more ambitious as Tropical Freeze was, it would simply cater to a more vocal and demanding base.

A game like Metroid Prime on Wii U level hardware does take more work to make than a 2D platformer. Nintendo has a million platformers already, people wanted something different from Retro. Also, the studio has a history of pushing the limits of its target hardware, something Tropical Freeze does not do.

I would've gone with Freedom Planet had it been on there! Shovel Knight is a close second.

Metroid Prime may (may) take more artists than a DK game, but I can't agree it takes more work. I really think you're underestimating the amount of work that goes into a great platformer. Heavens knows it seems to take just as much time to make one as the other.

And the vocal folks on the net clearly wanted something else from Retro, else they presumably wouldn't have bitched so loudly or often, but that doesn't make them right. I certainly wasn't disappointed at the announcement, at least (just confused about the backlash), so it wasn't universal at least.

As for the final point, trite as it may sound I personally don't place a ton of value in pushing hardware for its own sake. TF may have disappointed the technophiles, but since I'm not one of them I can't say I shared the disappointment.

I wasn't disappointed with Tropical Freeze's announcement either, and it's one of my favourite games of this generation so far.

But given Retro's history people had every right to expect something more conceptually and technically ambitious from them, and to be disappointed that what we got instead was a game that plays it very, very safe, and occupies a genre already well covered on Wii U.

And making a fourth Metroid Prime game wouldn't be considered playing it safe?