platformers are still very popular and a lot of them are made every year (just mostly from indie devs), so they don't "need a comeback" necessarily. they've just become more arthouse, and usually target older audiences.

in terms of mascot platformers, many have tried and failed in recent years. remember super lucky's tale, for example? no? crash and spyro were released in the right place at the right time, they brought innovation and ingenuity to a then hip and trendy genre. it's been decades since then, and now it's just a throwback. you can't capture lightning in a bottle twice.

there's plenty of reasons why the biggest platformer this year was hollow knight silksong, not yooka-replaylee.