While I'd like more advancement from the Ocarina of Time template gameplay wise, I would LOVE the Wii U's Zelda to have TP's dark style.

Yes. I pray they build upon the look of the tech demo from 2011.

That said, it's mechanics should be a little more traditional like OoT's or ALttP's; no more unnecessary borderline gimmicky features. Just me, my horse, endless fields and a host of good dungeons.

If Nintendo's smart, they'll do just that. Zelda is a franchise even non-Nintendo fans look up to, and keep an eye on, so if there's one game that should show off what the WiiU is capable of, it's Zelda. Luckily, with the Wind Waker remake, I think it's probable this is what's indeed going to happen. The WWHD only came into existence because they were trying out previous artstyles in HD. My theory would be that they thought both the cell-shading and either OoT or TP's more realistic approach looked equally good and chose the former to remake and the latter 'more-likely-to-impress' for the new game.

Oh, and by the way (descending order (OoT #1)):
Ocarina of Time - Link's Awakening - Twilight Princess - Skyward Sword - Majora's Mask - A Link to the Past - Legend of Zelda NES - Spirit Tracks - Wind Waker - Oracle of Ages - Oracle of Seasons - Phantom Hourglass - The Minish Cap - Four Swords. Haven't played enough of AoL to judge and nothing of FSA.

I don't really mind what style the next game is as long as Nintendo follows through on their promise to take out some of the more linear aspects of the series. It could be top-down for all I care, after all A Link to the Past is pretty evenly tied with Ocarina of Time as my favorite Zelda game.

I'd like a Skyward Sword palette with the style/lightning of TP.

Skyward sword was excellent in my opinion. Not the best, but definetly not the worst. It's actually my second favorite behind OOT. It definetly (in my opinion) has the best characters and story in the zelda franchise. Il have to warn you though, it does have a pretty slow start (the first 3-4hours are lame), but seeing that only 3-4hours are boring and the other 36hours are amazing, I didn't see it as much of an issue. I believe it would be  a tradegy for you to skip this zelda if you are a zelda fan.

Seriously, everyone here either loves TP or SS, or OoT as their favourite Zelda. No one here has ever played Majora's Mask? I could understand that the game has serious flaws, but I do think is the best Zelda game in story, character development and gameplay.

I really hope they stay away from the Ocarina of Time format.

I like the darker Zeldas. Make essentially a Majora's Mask atmosphere without a time-constraint.

You didn't like the timed gameplay? I thought the time-travelling was marvellous, as well as the urge to complete the heroic tasks in three days.

I didn't say I didn't like it. In fact, it's my favorite Zelda of all-time partly because of it (see: my avatar)

The lack of time restraint would, however, allow the needed freedom to explore for a more vast Zelda world (I'm expecting a world much larger than Termina for the Wii U).