Wii U is not much like the GameCube early aside from the fact that they both have a 3D Mario game and a Pikmin game.
Where's Wave Race U? How about my two exclusive Resident Evil games? Or NBA Courtside? Eternal Darkness? Star Wars: Rogue Squadron? Smash Bros.? Luigi's Mansion? Star Fox Adventures? The GameCube was still very heavily influenced by NOA at that time.
Unfortunately Nintendo's Japanese side basically sabotaged the system by insisting on a poorly though out purple lunchbox look and opting for no apparent reason to radically change the formula of the Mario/Zelda/Mario Kart/Donkey Kong franchises.
Wii U is Nintendo's exceptionally poorly thought out attempt to replicate the Wii formula and merge in a little bit of the 360/PS3's success.
The Wii had a new controller? So the Wii U had to have a completely new controller too.
The Wii's main launch game was a mini-game collection to demo the controller's various features? The Wii U would also launch with a game to do the same with their new controller.
The Wii launched with one or token third party exclusives like Red Steel? Hello there Zombi U.
The Wii launched with a single big traditional Nintendo IP in Zelda? Wii U would have its equivalent in a NSMB game.
They tried to mimic the formula as much as they could while trying to keep it fresh by creating an entirely new controller.
Nintendo probably figured if you could throw in HD versions of Call of Duty to supplement them repeating the Wii formula (at least in their eyes) that they would have success.
