I'm taking note that the innovation of the Spirit Tracks entry in Zelda isn't being responded to here.

The Mario Kart to consoles sold ratio doesn't really disprove that consoles sold are tied to the quality of Nintendo's flagship games, so I guess you are agreeing with me that Double Dash!! wasn't all that.

Metroid Prime marks the starting point of a new series, that means it's the game that was setting the standards to which future entries are compared. The entire Metroid Prime series is consistent and doesn't show any signs of innovation. The thing with Metroid is the same as with Metroid Prime. The first entry is the exception, not the rule.

How many sales numbers for Fire Emblem are recorded on VGC anyway? Besides, the DS didn't have any new entries in the series, only two remakes that were mostly about graphical changes with gameplay commands remaining the same as in the original games. The GBA version of A Link to the Past didn't outsell the SNES original either, despite coming with Four Swords. The point is that remakes shouldn't be used to judge the sales performance of a series.

This topic is about Nintendo cramming ideas into established series instead of creating new IPs for them. You will notice that Nintendo's growth is based on keeping existing series intact and using new ideas in new IPs. Basically, this thread is about Nintendo using their ideas in the wrong way.

Screenshots (which were also on the back of the packaging) and videos showing a first person perspective and something that is easily identified as some sort of gun. Heck, to this very day some people still call Metroid Prime a FPS. They obviously haven't played any of the games, but it shows how easy it is to confuse the series with a FPS.

the problem with Wii atm, is that the motion controls got an huge initial success and they got old way too fast resulting in decline

Nintendo has run out of ideas with Wii lately, no huge sellers and no word for vitality sensor, except if Nintendo is planning for Wii2

also, Nintendo's 3DS focus and promotion lest the Wii a bit on the side

The Mario Kart to consoles sold ratio doesn't really disprove that consoles sold are tied to the quality of Nintendo's flagship games, so I guess you are agreeing with me that Double Dash!! wasn't all that.

I said "I could go on" in the original post, so obviously there are more examples. The common point is that innovation within series usually leads to decline while refinement usually leads to success.

Yoshi in SMW and the NSMB Wii multiplayer aren't the same as the Double Dash!! stuff. The former things you can choose to ignore, if you don't like them, just don't use them.

The Double Dash!! mechanics you are stuck with and what's actually more annoying about that game (which I forgot to mention in the OP) are character specific items which are a big source of imbalance due to individual items being limited to two characters each (ignoring Piranha Pete and King Boo who can get everything by random chance). Playing with Toad or Toadette (or even both) in four player splitscreen gives you a huge advantage and the only way to balance the game is to turn items off altogether.