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! 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!

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. 

What a weird thought process to have since Nintendo already has Super Mario Odyssey, no other company should bother making a 3D Platformer. Since Call of Duty is the biggest FPS franchise, no other company should bother making another kind of FPS game. 

Like, what? lol. Variety is the spice of life. Just because Kirby and the Forgotten Land is a 3D platformer and Mario Odyssey is a 3D platformer, that makes them exactly the same? Of course not! They have their own ways of tackling combat, music, atmosphere, and general gameplay that makes them completely different from each other. Who wouldn't want that for a new 3D Dk game? It's been over a quarter of a century. 

DK Tropical Freeze is probably the best 2D platformer ever imo. I would love to see what kind of experience a modern 3D DK game could bring to the table. 

Also to your point, look many collectables DK64 has compared to Mario Odyssey. A game that released 18 years after DK64.

Yes, great. Hope the next DK game has more collectibles. I like spending time in the worlds these developers create.

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 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...?

You mean the only remaster the franchise ever had and the few small Eshop titles that diversify the library isn't good for the health of a franchise against one that barely gets anything to chew on for the last 10 years is supposed to be preferable ? 

*Sigh*

I guess you wanna come from a good place but I would look just as silly if I were to replace your Kirby with Mario in any case.

The consistence of any franchise to be present on a regular basis is a non-negligeable thing if you wanna hope for a healthy franchise.

DK games usually sell more than Kirby games, so Im not sure filler games for franchises is a big deal.

But it's still jarring that we barely get any DK games these days. The most recent one doesn't even have DK has the main character.

It is a shame. Seems like many people were pissed when Tropical Freeze was announced since they wanted Retro to make another Metroid instead. I think that hurt sales a bit. Also the DKC games are of high quality, so I dont think Nintendo can just whip one up like many other of their smaller franchises.