Actually Wii U is completely and totally new console in every way, while Wii was basically GameCube with Motion Controls.

Of Course Wii didn't sold better because better games (Wii U also have great games and at end probably will sold around 7x worse than Wii). Wii is completly difrent story than Wii U, Wii had affordable price, very strong launch titles, and most imported very strong "gimmick" that bring ten of milions casuals to gaming. Wii U basically done all that opposite and lotsa a more things wrong, like marketing and name..

That's my "problem" with Nintendo, they are totally focused on their Mario licenses, on the Mario fan. I agree that's probably their most famous and profitable licenses, but Nintendo is really leaving people not hardcore fan of Mario out. My fav license is F-Zero, I like metroid, I liked wave racer, Goldeneye, they had great exclusive deal like Rogue Squadron, etc. Zelda and Starfox are late. They used to have a lot of different atmospheres and different styles. And when the finally show a game outside the mario's license, it's the very unimpressive Starfox.

I understand your problem. I really like Mario and platformers in general so I don't really care but I see your point although I wouldn't say Smash fits under the mario license. (Or even Donkey Kong really, but at least that caters to the same audience being a 2d platformer. And of course it shares the same origin and crosses over a lot).

Bayonetta 2, Pikmin and Smash (in my opinion) are currently the only amazing exclusives that are completely different (not including remakes and VC). But that's why I think you can only really make up the balance at the end of the generation. Zelda, Xenoblade, SMT x FE, Pokken, Star Fox (maybe, we'll see), perhaps an unnanounced game, might all turn out great. Also, not Nintendo but hopefully fast racing neo can somewhat make up for a lack of F-Zero. And yeah, they should totally make a new Rogue Squadron game.

Wii blows the Wii U out of the water by sheer quantity of great content. Sure, there's also a lot more bad stuff, but surely a "core gamer" is smart enough to see through all of that and see the gems. There are a lot of them on the Wii.

And besides which, I've played quite a number of great Wii U games, but I don't feel I've played a game of comparable quality to the near-perfection delivered by Super Mario Galaxy on it yet. In my opinion the Wii U is lacking a game/games that stand up amongst the best in history. Hopefully Zelda Wii U will be that game, but who knows.

Agreed about the long term, time will tell. We could argue about Super Smash, the game is a license on its own, in a different style, so it's my opinion but I have this "mario" feeling, in term of art direction, sound, part of  the cast, and the importance of platform. It doesn't change the overall discussion anyway.

I think they've done an excellent job at catering more to my tastes. And the hardware sales reflect that XD

But... what a top tier! Haha

That said, Mario Galaxy 1+2 are still the best thing Nintendo have churned out in the past decade.

Pikmin 3 was a Wii game and TWWHD is only a remaster. New Super Mario Bros U and DKCTF are 2D sequels of Wii games. So no, Wii is still way above Wii U with SMG and MP3 Corruption.

Not really. SM3DW and Pikmin 3 are basically equivalent releases in the first year to those two. And if you're going to argue Pikmin was a Wii game, then we need to argue how MP3 was basically a GCN game with Wii's wiggle controls added in. 

Wii was the best core gaming machine of its generation in terms of original fresh ideas.

It blows the Wii U out of the water in terms of everything but graphics.