I'm not sure why being desperate for attraction to the Wii U is a bad thing. And with the current 3DS lineup and what we know about already for the Wii U, it's unlikely the release schedule will be barren after Mario leaves us. We still have Zelda, Smash Bros, Fire Emblem and Project X to come, with more to be announced.

Yup, that's what I'm thinking too. Both 3D Mario and Mario Kart 8 are going to be playable at E3 so it makes more sense for them to be released before SSBU, plus they've both been in development longer.

What I'm more interested in is what the Megaton(s) is/are going to be.

I just hope Retro Studio doesn't f*** up Mario Kart.

http://www.notenoughshaders.com/2012/09/21/speculation-what-do-you-think-retro-studios-is-working-on/

This isn't true at all, Nintendo has ALWAYS shown Mario before the console is released. The only exceptions are 3DS and Wii U, and this has proven to be a BIG mistake in both cases.

It is very odd that Nintendo has yet to show even one AAA franchise title yet. The closest thing they have shown is a Xenogears related game that we don't really know anything about.

New Super Mario Bros. U WAS supposed to be the killer app along with Nintendo Land, which was supposed to fill the Wii Sports role (Mii based mini-games that show off what the new controller does).

NSMB Wii outsold all of Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2 + Metroid Prime 3 + Zelda: Skyward Sword + Zelda: Twilight Princess combined on Wii.

Idk about all that, I think they will be able to spread out there major franchises for 3-4 years. Something similar to this I think is likely

2013

Aug-Pikmin3/LuigiU

Sept-W101, Wii Party

Oct-Wind Waker

Nov/Dec-Wii FitU/Mario Kart

2014

Q1-3D Mario

Q2-Smash Bros

Q3-Retro project (Metroid)

Q4-Zelda/Wii Sports U

Yarn Yoshi/Bayo2/X/Sonic lost World mixed in between

2015-16

F-Zero/Star Fox/Kirby/DK/Nintendo Land 2/NSM World/ZombiU 2/exclusive Tales

Plus a couple new ips/more exclusive partnerships and 3rd party multiplats

Wii U should get a healthy amount of releases thru 2016, every Nintendo home console is supported for about 4 years.

I think the mistake with NSMB U was that it was released too soon after the 2D Marios on the Wii and in particular the 3DS.

Sales of the Wii U will explode when 3D Mario and Mario Kart 8 are released.

People also have to remember that Nintendo have plenty of IPs that haven't been tapped for years and are perfectly capable of bringing new IPs to the proverbial table.

We're bound to see both Wave Race and F-Zero at some point as well as a Starfox game of some description, and maybe another Kid Icarus game.

You are right on the first part, Nintendo is desperate to turn around what's happening with the WiiU, and they will use their biggest weapons.

But you are wrong on your last part. They will "only" launch their 3D Mario and Mario Kart games this year, aslong with a Zelda remake.  Smash won't be ready this year, expect it in 2014 or even later and the same can be said about a new Zelda. That leaves us with:

2013- 3D Mario, Mario Kart and a Zelda remake.

2014- New Zelda, Smash Bros and either the game from Monolith or the one from Retro (I doubt they will launch both of them).

2015- Probably Zelda as it will be delayed as usual, a new 2D Mario and one of the games that weren't launched in 2014.

And that is without counting other games like Mario Party, Endless Ocean, Animal Crossing, Pokemon, etc.

This is really weak.

Nintendo has only cultivated 4 big IPs :  Mario, Zelda, Metroid and Pokemon.
They've let other IPs become somewhat secondary: Kirby, Donkey Kong, Earthbound...even Fire Emblem, Animal Crossing nd Pikimin are not that big and only speak to fans.
Then there are only these two derived IPs that are huge: Mario Kart and Super Smash Brothers.

So yes, the fact that they're already releasing Mario Kart + 3D Mario + Super Smash Bro + a Zelda now shows that not only they're desperate but they're also going to either run out of IPs OR WORSE (for the futur) they're going to milk their IP and have them lose all their value.