Some of those job positions don't match a Diddy Kong Racing game or a "simple" platformer.

But if that is for Metroid, another known IP (besides StarFox which is in hands of Miyamoto) or a new IP, it's up to anyone guess.

Wasn't Retro supposed to be working on something epic last time around based on job listings?

That turned out to be Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. 

The fact of the matter is too that a Diddy Kong Racing game would probably sell circles around another Metroid game. 

Maybe we're looking at Diddy Kong Racing for Wii U from Retro Studios and Diddy Kong Racing for 3DS from Monster Games. 

If the DKR2 rumour is true, then between that and Tropical Freeze, Nintendo's handling of Retro this gen will stand as the one of the greatest wastes of potential in the history of gaming.

Read other posts. Those hires are not for racing or platformers. This is fitting something more along the lines of Metroid or something else. It also falls in lie developing something big not just a game but eithe renhancing or building a new game engine for Wii U. Whatever Retro is making it's a big deal.

We thought that last time though, as the result was Tropical Freeze; an excellent game, but one totally starved of ambition.

You'll get Donkey Kong Coutry: Tropical Freeze 2: Cranky Kong's Double Trouble and you'll like it

Nah you DO NOT hire AI engineers for a platformer EVER. Seriously ever.

Racers have AI though.

OK, sir! I will love that game! No need to be so mean!

@bold: Not really.

The assumption that it was something epic was because some of the newly hired employees, someone coming from NaughtyDog (I think), said on Twitter that he was working on one of the most important tittles of his career or something like that. And of course, because he worked on ND everybody, myself included, though of a game like those made by ND and assumed either a new IP or a mature game like Eternal Darkness... but not something like another Donkey Kong game.