well i think this is pretty obvious, given the fact that they can port the game over without much hassle.

Probably 2013 then. I'd bet we'll see a 3D mario (surprised you like 3D vs 2D mario), Star Fox (rumored Retro game), and some other big franchises in 2013.

To me for first party, Pikmin 3 and NSMBU are more than enough along with the 3rd party exclusive ZombiU and the other 3rd party games I'd rather buy on the WiiU over my PS3.

I've seen a lot of people say that.  I genuinely don't see what's so great about 2D Mario.  Just a colloquial example, but:

A friend and I have been playing Wii co-op platformers together lately.  We started with NSMBWii, which was fine, we had a decent time with it.  We then went on to Donkey Kong Country Returns, and it just blew Mario out of the water.  The quality of platforming, action AND environments was just miles above anything in the 2D Mario.  Should've added DK to my list really.

That, and I grew up on 3D platformers, so I'm much more partial to them.  The Ratchet and Clank games alonside SMG 1 & 2 are some of my favourite titles of this generation.

Great news! Now the Wii U has something like half a dozen major sellers at launch! NSMBU, Wii U Fit, Nintendo Land, Assassin's Creed 3, Just Dance 4, and this could each sell 5 million or more.

I wouldn't consider DKCR a 3D game.

I'm referring to the difference between NSMB and say SMG. Between these two styles, NSMB mops the floor and is just more fun. Especially given the 4-player coop.

I actually haven't played DKCR, but I should probably get it. Maybe I'll snag it when it goes Nintendo Selects.

It would've come out for the Wii (like Black Ops and MW3 did) so I hardly see how this is surprising or even news.

Quite curious why this wasn't shown at Nintendo's conference, but this is good news for WiiU.

@ Bold, that's exactly my point - I was comparing a 2D platformer with a 2D platformer, and saying that DKCR was miles better at it.  Even just little things like: I really enjoyed the soundtrack in DKCR returns, and the music in NSMB grated on me after about half an hour because it's the same damn song over and over again with a few exceptions (This one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-ShoLALwK0.  Seriously, fuck that song).

SMG I feel is legions ahead of NSMB as well.  Like you say, NSMB can be a lot of fun in co-op - no question.  But other than that, it kind of felt like a tired old formula (clearly just me judging by sales, but still).  Not a broken formula, but one I'd played many times before.

In comparison, SMG felt like a game I'd played before, but it felt really fresh and new.  The gravity mechanics were tremendous, the level design was fantastic, they added tonnes of variety to the game, only thing I could fault about it was the boss fights.  But that's a criticism I could make about NSMB as well, seeing as you just fight variations of "jump on baby bowser's head" over and over again.

Totally unexpected.

I wonder how much Activision will push this as the "ultimate" edition of the game, or if they're simply going to sweep this one under the rug of releases.