The 2nd half of Mario 3D World honestly isn't that different from what a Galaxy 3 would be (I mean it even has Galaxy levels and a playable you-know-who). Mario 3D Land sold great and caused a large rise in 3DS sales.
People don't want something it's called the WII U. It's time to stop blaming individual games for a system no one but a few Nintendo loyalists want. Mario 3D World is one the best games Nintendo has made in the last ten years. It's a far better game than Mario Sunshine ever was. DKC: Tropical Freeze is also a great game.
No one asked for a $350 XBox 360-ish system with minimal third party games that they all can already play on the PS3/360 they already (yes ... even most Wii owners who were interested in gaming bought a 360/PS3 at some point ... the ones who didn't were never serious about gaming and are now getting their game fix for free/99 cents a pop on their phones/tablets). No one asked for a comically oversized controller with a low-res touch panel in the middle of it that can only stream games when its in the same room as the controller.
Nintendo simply cannot sell consoles unless
A) They have full third party support (like the NES and SNES did)
or
B) They have a hardware gimmick that everyone instantly falls head over feet for (like the Wiimote) which is new and trendy to casuals (extremely tricky to pull off).
When they have a system that is:
C) Neither of the above
You are talking about a niche system. Mario ain't doing sh*t to save a system like that. That's all this is, nothing mind boggling is happening here.
At some point I think you just have to acknowledge that Nintendo really isn't that great at selling home consoles. They do well with portables, but they haven't really had a strong console generation from year 1 through year 5 since the SNES which was like 20 years ago now. When ever they fix certain mistakes, they'll find a way to make 3-4 new critical ones each generation, barring a Wiimote miracle.
