They could expand.

Well just meant that making your own games back then was not going well...

Racing..

fighter:

lucky they had virtua fighter..

They made plenty of good games though.Virtua fighter is a good example, Phantasy star is another. 

Nintendo will never use that reserve cash unless they are in extreme panic mode. And by extreme I mean close to bankruptcy or something similar to that, and that won't happen in a very long time.

they got like a few billion on the bank. It ain't gonna hurt if they use a few million of it for new IP's. Done right they can even make money of it

I agree.
In my opinion, if Nintendo does want to attract the PS and Xbox fans (who want more than Mario to buy a new console) they can`t just offer the classical Nintendo franchises. If that plan worked they wouldn`t be where they are now.
They need to give them the genres they like: sports, racing, FPS, RPGs, etc.

If they could build a fanbase around those genres, not only would that attract more gamers, it would also show 3rd parties those genres sell on Nintendo platforms.

They obviously aren't keeping all that money in the bank, some of that if being use for something. But giving the current state of AAA gaming, a "few millions" will only make the cut for one or two new quality IPs (which they don't know if they will be successful or not). Plus if that money is used, games like Mario, Zelda, Metroid, etc will be the priority.

yeh but if they keep prioritizing those franchises it's not going to change the situation.

I can't see why they shouldn't put their money to use instead of keep playing it safe.

Quick question: would an HD metroid that sold 2 millions be profitable if it was an HD equalient to Metroid Prime? 

Getting Bayonetta 2 and W101 probably came from that money. They are also building a new building in order to expand their developing teams (iirc the building should be finish next year, but I'm not sure). So they are indeed investing in useful things.