Is Nintendo even able or willing to surprise anymore?

[JEMC]

The question is what does "surprise" means.

You mention that the last surprise was Super Mario Galaxy yet many would disagree as it was yet another Mario game.

Would a steampunk Zelda (for example) with magic, swords and machines count as a surprise? Does the launch of Earthbound on the Virtual console count as a surprise? Or only new IPs count as surprises?

I honestly think that Nintendo only tries to surprise when their consoles are already established. The first years they laucnh what they know will sell games and consoles and once that is done then they try something new, sometimes with success (WiiFit, Art Academy) and other times with failures (WiiMusic).

Let's wait until after E3, given that so far all their announced games have been "obvious", maybe they will try to surprise us by then (although I doubt it).