The Wii U will be fully backwards compatible with Wii motion controllers, such as the Wii motion controller and the Wii motion plus, the Wii fit and the Wii fit plus.

As for Zelda, you're out of luck. Aonuma and Miyamoto have already said they are sticking with motion controls for that series. Then again, they are working on new Zelda concepts on the 3DS which might interest you, and some may even possibly emerge on the Wii U. They just won't be the next big installment of Zelda you're alluding to. Sorry bud.

Having said that, there is still a possibility Nintendo changes their minds by then and offers  two modes of control, as the Zelda HD tech demo showed it being played on the Wii U controller, it's possible traditional controls will be supported. Keep your fingers crossed I guess.

Oh pants. So basically if you are to play the next Zelda on the Wii U you also have to buy the Wii motion plus if you didn't own a Wii?
Isnt that a bit awkward of Nintendo to force people to buy old peripherals like that?

http://gamingbolt.com/all-wii-u-games-do-not-need-to-be-in-glorious-full-blown-hd-iwata

While the Wii U is completely capable of delivering glorious HD graphics, Nintendo doesn’t think it’s necessary for all Wii U games to be in full HD. They do not want to get stuck in a tech-based competition against their rivals.

“As we will showcase the Wii U at E3 in June this year, the detailed announcements must wait until then, but we are aiming to make a system which shall not be forced into competing with the others where the contenders can fight only with massive developer resources and long development times as their weapons,” said Nintendo boss Satoru Iwata during an investor Q&A last week.

“Looking at the software for home console systems, there are certainly the software titles for which very rich graphics must be reproduced on HD displays and which demand a large number of developers to spend a very long time to develop.

“It is one of the truths that a certain number of such software titles must be prepared, or the consumers will not be satisfied. But we do not think that any and all the software must be created in that fashion.

“When you look at Nintendo’s software, extraordinary rich graphics, massive gameplay volume and astonishing rendition effects are not necessarily the appealing point. It is, in fact, important for us that our games are appealing in other ways as well.”

Using Nintendo’s quirky game, Rhythm Thief as an example, he said, “If we had adopted rich photo-realistic graphics, it would have lost much of its appeal.”

“It is not necessary for us to deploy a huge number of people in order to develop such games,” he continued, stating that, more than ever, Nintendo is bringing in third parties when it does need to develop more graphically complex titles.

It's not a Nintendo decision, don't see it as a company policy. It's an Aonuma (dev team) decision. The team that's in charge of the mainline Zelda, they mostly made that decision. It has nothing to do with Iwata or Nintendo's policies, it's a SW design decision by the Zelda team.

And again, it will likely change to support the "deeper and wider" direction the company as a whole is driving into this gen. Hope, and maybe even expect the trad controls to be supported by the Zelda team, as a company directive. Sounds good?