Basically it boils down to my original question. I understand Nintendo treated the majority of the industry unfairly during the 8-16 bit days, and that they payed for it by losing a ton of support with N64, and that this extended into the Gamecube generation as well, perhaps also due to some design issues with the later two consoles...

In 2004 Sony was (in theory) threatening to make Nintendo obsolete with their entry into the handheld market which was sustaining Ninty, so they had to make some drastic changes to their strategy in order to come out of the situation favorably, which they did with DS and Wii. In the process they also managed to regain much of the ground they had lost in terms acceptance and popularity in the public's eyes, though the same can't be said about developers I'm afraid.

Nintendo showed this generation that good third party games can sell well on Nintendo platforms, that's true. Did they prove that sales are so good that it warrants an investment by 3rd parties in alternate technologies and different training for the staff? I'm not sure... But the phenomenal level of success did at least bring a higher level of acceptance among developers that Nintendo's philosophy has a right to co-exist in the market, to the point where today even companies like Id, Crytek and Epic have favorable things to say about them.

Since Wii U will support developer's existing tools and production pipelines, it is no longer necessary to go though the trouble of rebuilding your entire game from scratch for another meager 1-2 mil. sales at most. Thus the fact that good 3rd party games can sell decently on Nintendo systems is once again relevant.

What remains to be seen IMO is if 3rd parties will ever enjoy the same level of success on Nintendo platforms as they do elsewhere. Better yet, I'd like to know if there are certain games that make sense to develop with Nintendo in mind to begin with, and not just as an after-thought, which is why I initially asked about games that have done better on Nintendo hardware in the past.

When I ask myself whether or not a certain 3rd party game that finds success on Nintendo hardware can succeed elsewhere, the answer is almost always yes, and probably to a greater degree. When I think about many 3rd party games on competing platforms selling well on Nintendo systems, the answer is usually much less clear...

I think that in order to remain relevant, Nintendo have to show that they can provide new areas of expansion for developers which are as significant as online was for Xbox and 360. Take that feature away and MS would have been sitting on an expensive Playstation derivative with no reason to exist.

I find it pretty funny they are complaining about Nintendo Life reviews. They are pretty much the top site for reviewing VC/WW titles. There aren't a ton of high scoring games on there but the ones that got 8,9 or 10/10 pretty much deserved it. They are the only remaining site that I actually take their scores as a good measure of how I will like the game. Nintendo Life is an example of what review sites should strive to be. If Nintendo Life game their games bad reviews then the games probably deserved it.

ok you ask the question. I know what it is your thinking of and im certain it links directly back to graphics.

"It's a bit unfair that Nintendo is obligated to show proof time and time again while Sony and Microsoft can expect third party loyalty even if third parties post heavy losses by supporting their platforms. There's certainly a double standard applied by third parties here and the goal posts seem to be moving each time Nintendo meets certain requirements. Third parties are hesitant to build a Wii game to garner a "meager 1-2 million" in sales, but they have had no problem to spend twice or more times of these development costs on new IPs for the HD consoles (and many didn't even move a million copies)."

This is a major sign that the mindset of the gaming industry is wrong, and is threatening to destroy it. They see black as white, and ignore money and sales unless they happen to games they like.