I think about this very thing a lot. I've always been of the opinion that a 2D platformer should be a whole lot cheaper than other games. You're right, indie devs are doing this stuff and in a lot of cases doing it better and selling it to us for fifteen bucks. It all has to do with the depth of the game. A platformer can be really awesome and really fun, but it's just so much simpler to put together. It's a more shallow experience, both in designing and playing. When I can get these amazing RPG's and adventure games with ridiculous scope and freedom and just loads and loads of content and strategy, it's hard to spend anything even close to full price for running and jumping on platforms.
That's why I had (and still have) such a problem with the existence of DK:TF. I loved the first one, but Nintendo moved into the HD era and used one of its best developers to give us a game that, visuals aside, could have been done on the SNES. I want depth in my console games, content, something new. TF could have easily been on the 3DS.
But now I'm just kind of ranting. Basically, I think games like Donkey Kong and NSMBU should be capped at $30. If you can't can't make money with that price when other devs are creating entire worlds and complex battle systems and still making money, you're doing something wrong.
Currently playing:
Bloodbath Paddy Wagon Ultra 9
