I’m just going off on a tangent of personal opinion here, but:

Speak of the devil! DKC trilogy, Super Mario Bros 3, Kirby Superstar, and the first two Sonic games remain my favourites of all time. I’m not saying they’re the best, only that they’re the ones I like the best.

I haven’t had much experience with the later games in the franchises. I will occasionally buy them, but rarely play for more than 2-3 hours total, despite playing the classics still for many hours. The strength of nostalgia… but I also weigh games as more an art form than objective checklists of quality. That’s why even decades later, Super Mario Bros 3 still reigns (in my opinion) despite modern Mario games having more detail in a shoe than entire levels of SMB3.

I think it's just that back then, they were hitting the peak of what 2D platforming could be. Everything else after the 16-bit era is just trying to find ways to resell perfection, and as a consequence, it's mostly a change in style and throwing gimmicks at a player. But under the hood, it didn't get better than SMB3. From a sheer purity level, that is when 2D put it all together. Imo, there is nothing that can be done to improve gameplay. It's just dressing up the same thing... and not for the better. 

I can't believe I actually created an account only to post on this thread lol...
But anyway, both are great games, but DK: Tropical Freeze may be one of, if not, THE best 2d platformer ever made. The music, the controls, the levels and themes, the bosses and the multi-player aspect of it are all top notch. Although I HATE what they did on the Switch version (the Funky mode completely destroys some aspects of the game) the game is still untouchable by any other platformer imo.

In fact, it destroys the game even if you don't use it. They ruined the amazing David Wise solo of Stickerbrush Symphony from the Wii U credits by slapping a new generic theme to glorify Funky Kong. Shame... 

I think it's just that back then, they were hitting the peak of what 2D platforming could be. Everything else after the 16-bit era is just trying to find ways to resell perfection, and as a consequence, it's mostly a change in style and throwing gimmicks at a player. But under the hood, it didn't get better than SMB3. From a sheer purity level, that is when 2D put it all together. Imo, there is nothing that can be done to improve gameplay. It's just dressing up the same thing... and not for the better. 

the day I say Tropical Freeze is only as good as SMB3, I'll have gone clinically insane

I think it's just that back then, they were hitting the peak of what 2D platforming could be. Everything else after the 16-bit era is just trying to find ways to resell perfection, and as a consequence, it's mostly a change in style and throwing gimmicks at a player. But under the hood, it didn't get better than SMB3. From a sheer purity level, that is when 2D put it all together. Imo, there is nothing that can be done to improve gameplay. It's just dressing up the same thing... and not for the better. 

lol. Fair enough.

But if you put Tropical Freeze on the NES, it would not be nearly as good as SMB 3 with Tropical Freeze's modern polish on the Wii-U--and that's my point. That under the hood, 2D peaked in the 8-16 bit era, and it's been all polish/gimmicks from there on out. That doesn't mean there hasn't been great 2D platformers since then, though. If they're done well, I still enjoy them. But yeah...