Well you're assuming last gen wasn't pretty stagnated (it was) Nintendo still made some of the best games that gen, but they didn't have much to compete with either, Sony had Jak, R&C, and their staple GT, Xbox had Halo and a bunch of PC ports that weren't the most amazing things around, third parties stepped it up last gen, even then... if you ask me it was the worst gen ever lol lots of pushes for yearly titles, hell it pushed Sony into making their brand NBS the Inside and MLB the Show, and pushed Nintendo to embarrass themselves with their own yearly sports titles.  

Last gen was either a lot of the same of the PS1/N64 era, or was a decent number of niche titles that sold like niche titles, there was a reason I mainly gamed on my PC last gen I was catching up on a few years of PC gaming I had missed since nothing amazing was going on in the console front haha PS2 got a lot of third party love and the people that love those third party titles loved last gen and loved the PS2, but it's also the reason you see more spread on million sellers than you do with previous gens and current gens.

Metroid - Other M. I'll leave it at that.

I still wondering why many people ignored the game?... The game is not perfect, but it is  a very solid game, I played the old metroids (fusion, super metroid) and I love them as much as I do with other M, the VA was not the best I agree, but after playing metroid fusion metroid the other m makes a lot of sense...  

What about Paper Mario?

SPM is the best selling one, and that changed the formula for the game.

What's wrong with Other M?

And this seems to me like a "Nintendo is d00med" thread to me, but at least it's well thought out. That isn't something I can say to most...

Nintendo needs a new IP. Preferably an FPS or an RPG. The Last Story could be that game. But we need it localised before we can say any more about that...

But innovation in hardware is the source of Nintendo's success.

Ironic, isn't it?

Phantom Hourglass outsold every handheld Zelda ever made and is only behind the Big 3 of its series (LoZ, TP, OoT) in terms of total sales. Innovation did not hurt the sales of Phantom Hourglass in any way whatsoever.

Mario Kart is a series where sales of the title can usually be expected to be in the range of 25-30% the sales of the console.

Other M was just bad.

Metroid Prime was innovative in the way it handled world building and boss battles, not to mention pioneering the first-person adventure genre on console. Also, Super Metroid's sales were not "in line" with those of the original - they were something like 40% lower.

Fire Emblem's sales have been declining for years, with the DS games providing not enough of a boost.

I'm taking note that the innovation of the Ocarina of Time entry in Zelda isn't being noted here.

More, this topic only being about innovation within specific series seems overly... narrow. Innovation in software in general is the source of Nintendo's growth, not their decline.

Again the still some flaws in this view, Galaxy may play similar to 64 but the use of gravity has made it a far different experience as you manipulate the physics in the game's design to get through as oppose to battle against them like in every other platformer, this is innovation and shows it can still sell more. GC sales had more to do with just the quality of Nintendo's software, practically next to no third party support as they were almost all exclusive and Nintendo at the time were seen as a last surviving hardware company of an old generation on their way out for the new kids, the market back then was a lot different this was before Nintendo started catering to everyone back then they were mainly focused on the usual avid gamers.

Sunshine and DD were still better then most games that came out, quality of your own software is only one of many factors, TP may have built on what worked but it was one of 3 launch titles for the Wii the other two weren't even all that special either this alone is a big factor as no Zelda game has launched a console and the new direction of Nintendo attracting the new market many would of picked up TP had it just stayed a GC only game I don't think it would of even had a sniff at the 7m plus it has sold. Even among Metroid OMs woes with the series cult following it has still hit around 800k which is about half the total of what Corruption has sold, it's selling at the usual rate a Metroid game sells at regardless.

As for the Smash part just because they don't know about it doesn't rule out that it's there as the same can be said for almost all fighting franchises.

Was expecting Kirby's Epic Yarn to be brought up in this thread, but no sign of it. Totally different and an obvious "shoehorning" of Kirby into a game mechanic that no Kirby has gone before. Even Nintendo admited using Kirby as a way to sell the game, similar to what they do with Mario, and it is somewhat working.

Metroid has never really been that great of a series. As much as people claim it is, the only thing it has ever really had going for it is graphics. The main problem is that the story is always really bland, the game is always fairly isolated and boring, and the gameplay in the 3D titles is somewhat clunky. Making a first person shooter / platformer, where you can't even see where you are jumping, was really annoying.

I agree with the OP only partially. While I agree, Nintendo should put more effort cerating new IPs, instead of sustaining old ones, I think they should also try to modify and modernize their classic IPs trough the years, innovation is always good, if well tought, and not every new concept can stand on it's own feet.

I think many of the examples shown are weak, many these cases could be explained in a different way.

Mario Kart: the 2 characters kart machanism of Double Dash, is more of an add-on than a true innovation imo, if you look at Mario Kart Wii, it's the fist one to introduce muliple control schemes (including motion controls), it had a strong online multiplayer mode (since MK added an effective online mode, sales have more than doubled  http://www.vgchartz.com/worldtotals.php?name=mario (funk! add plus there) kart&publisher=&console=&genre=&minSales=0&results=50&sort=Total  ) also, they have introduced motorbikes, they have doubled the number of opponents in races. It seems to me much more innovative game than Double Dash.

Zelda: It's hard to confront Twilight Princess with Phantom Hourglass. TP was a launch game of a console, actually the only really good game you could buy on Wii's launch, and I think Wii was very hyped before launch. Another thing, the TP game itself was very hyped, it was shown many times at E3 conferences, and I remeber it was awaited as the spiritual successor of Ocarina Of Time...what I mean is simply that Nintendo had put more effort promoting that game, while Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks were kept more low-profile. Last thing, if you look at the Zelda IP historical sales you can clearly see it's less popular on handled consoles. http://www.vgchartz.com/worldtotals.php?name=zelda&publisher=&console=&genre=&minSales=0&results=50&sort=Total

Mario 3D: While I agree Nintendo could have created a brand new non-Mario IP out of sunshine, I don't think innovation is the reason why it hasn't sold so well.It didn't sell so much simply because it was the weakest 3D Mario game, smiply it wasn't as fun and well-refined as the others (I think only a minority would agrue with that). Also, following the OP argument, Mario 64 should be the least sold 3D mario game, since it is without doubt the most innovative game out of those. Not to mention that Gamecube had the smallest userbase to begin with. Last, looking at New Super Mario Bros and Mario Galaxy sales I don't see how the IP image went damaged by Sunshine.

Super Smash Bros: Increasing sales could be simply explained by the quality gap between SSB (N64) ans SSB Melee, and by the larger user-base in the case of SSB Brawl. How does innovation have to do with that? If there isn't an example of the SSB franchise using a different formula you can't prove your point.

I agree with Yoshi's Island, Wario Land and Other M examples, I can't talk about Fire Emblem since I don't know the game well enough.