To add fuel to the fire: Knack is a platformer. Mark Cerny, the f***** director of the game, call it a platformer.

I don't think we necessarily need more cartoony games, but the focus on realism needs to be less strong.
And like Onion said, a lot of games are to grey. We need more colours.

Make that happen. Also, I'm curious about the scores this games will achieve when they launch.

I'm gonna quickly guess Sonic will be the lowest. xD

For some reason I have my hopes up it will be decent lol. I mean it's been since 2013 that we last saw a 3D Sonic game (not counting Sonic Boom as it was made by a different company and is more of a beat 'em up game than a platformer), so at least it's not rushed. 

Yeah, I don't get how Knack + R&C aren't 'retro' games, both have elements on platforming. 

The reason why I want a Nintendo Switch!

Knack is 99% beating up the same wave of enemies. And platforming doesn't make a game retro. I would never call Super Mario Odyssey a retro game. It's a modern 3D Mario platformer. 

Yooka-Laylee is a retro game because it emulates stuff from Banjo-Kazooie, a platformer from the '90s that has been inactive for quite a while. 

Super Mario Maker is a retro game because you can chose between different art-styles based on older 2D Mario games. It even has an optional filter that makes levels look like they are being displayed on an old television.

Sonic Mania is a retro game because it emulates stuff from the Sonic Genesis games, even re-using some of the same levels.

Shovel Knight is a retro game because it is inspired by games from the SNES era like Mega Man. 

Undertale is a retro game because it is heavily inspired by Earthbound and because it has retro visuals.

If Knack is a retro game and a platformer than so are franchises like Metroid, Splatoon and Zelda. Or practically every game with a jump button. 

I agree with the thread maker. The majority on this site are hardcore gamers so of course they want the AAA graphics, but you guys represent about a million or two sales. Enough to break even on these games. You don't represent enough sales to justify giving you ultra-realistic games. Developers know this but because they're overwhelmingly hardcore gamers themselves they continue making these games despite it destroying them.

You guys had the majority of developers making your games, the only reason everything is shifting towards casual is because casual companies are flourishing and AAA developers are dying.

My point is that we aren't at a point where it's fiscally responsible to have ultra-realistic games. Either pull back your expectations a bit or say goodbye to even more of these developers.

This is from OP: 

That's my biggest beef with AAA gaming, and why I'm happy to see the release of games like Shovel Knight, Yooka-Laylee and Freedom Planet. These games have proven that retro graphics, and/or a cartoony look can still succeed alongside life-like open world games. An added plus is that they can be ported to just about any current game platform.

R&C + Knack have this 'look.' Did you ever consider that the vastly superior PS4 hardware makes games like Gravity Rush 2, Knack, Unravel, Overwatch a more advanced approach towards retro/ cartoon graphics? 

Misphrased the last part of my post, though.