You could say, DK is experiencing whatever was going with Metroid between the release of Other M and Samus Returns remake. 

Though there wasn't a complete absence of Donkey Kong I'd say. Just not utilized as the IP is known for.

We had DK in the Mario movie, Mario vs Donkey Kong GBA remake, Donkey Kong adventure in the DLC for Mario + Rabbids and as usual, present in most Mario spin-off. 

The guy isn't invisible, just not quite active like we hoped he would be. 

Though, I do think we are gonna a new DK game in the next few years.

Kinda crazy to think that Kirby gets more output than DK (not complaining since Kirby is one of my favorite IPs as well) but DK being treated like Golden Sun, Metroid, F-Zero, Earthbound, etc...damn lol.

A big part of that is the developers making the games. Kirby is made by HAL Laboratory and if you look at the list of games HAL has released over the past 20 years, it's primarily Kirby.

DK's most popular games, aside from the original arcade trilogy in the early 80s, have been made by Western developers in Rare and Retro Studios. Golden Sun was made by Camelot Software Planning, Earthbound was made by a combined effort of Ape Inc/HAL, which Ape merged into Creatures and only focuses on Pokémon now.

So it's like most of these franchises are never made by Nintendo themselves. They're outsourced. So idk if Nintendo just doesn't have much of an interest or the studios haven't presented any interesting ideas on how to utilize these franchises, other than Kirby because that's pretty much all HAL has these days, or what. 

What I'm really hoping turns out to be the case, is the next DK game is a 3D platformer. Seeing the huge success of Kirby and the Forgotten Land. Surely that will have opened Nintendo's eyes. Just don't have it be an absurd collect-a-thon like DK64 was lol

I just played Samus Returns remake.  Damn good game.  

Yes ! Insane, how they translated it and made the experience even better with Dread too.

In theory there is no perfect game...  but I'm tempted to call Dread perfect.  Absolutely amazing experience.  

I would rather have a new DK every 10 years than them turning it into Kirby which is mostly remasters and small E-shop games. The only one people seemed genuinely excited about this gen was Forgotten Land. 

Also I dont understand why people who dont like DK64 wanting a new 3D DK game. Why? You didnt like the last one. Why not just want a brand new 3D platformer or a 3D game in a franchise you do care about...?

Well a good chunk of Nintendo's audience were either not born yet or too young to have played DK64 when it released. But the biggest being, a lot of the game just hasn't aged well. DK64 was really the biggest guilty party in Rare's N64 collect-a-thon games. It's not a 3D platformer in the vain of modern Mario Odyssey or Crash Bandicoot 4. There's nearly 4,000 collectables in DK64! AFAIK, the game still reigns king of most collectables in a single game. There's so much backtracking and so much character switching to collect the necessary collectables to complete levels that it becomes very tiresome.

Even then, I still love DK64 and the game was a huge success. It sold more than 5 million copies! We would've gotten a sequel if Microsoft hadn't purchased Rare.

Those wishing for a new 3D DK just want a traditional 3D platformer like Mario Odyssey, Crash 4, Astro Bot, etc. Not a collect-a-thon. 

Again why? Why would you want just another 3D platformer like all the others? You already have them. Also you dont HAVE to collect everything. Its like "Give us a new 3D DK game, but less content". Its weird. 

The same should happen to DK ASAP.