Nintendo is at the very top right now when it comes to games. Super Smash Bros., Bayonetta 2, Mario Kart 8, DK Tropical Freeze, Hyrule Warriors, all this year, have all been praised. I actually just bought a Wii U because of the quality of games that have come out. Right now is the perfect time to buy a Wii U. In my opinion, at least at this very moment, Xbox and Playstation can't touch Nintendo when it comes to exclusive games
Funny you mention that... I went out to Toys R Us just to get an overall view of what is out there. The Nintendo Wii U was tempting.
I think people avoided the Wii U at release because it was "underpowered" and didn't feel "next gen" enough. Problem is... I think that's true for all 3 systems (WiiU, XBone, PS4.) As such, Wii U might end up having the best overall catalog. Not gonna lie- I've been tempted to get one too. But right now my PC is acting as my high-end rig and an NES is handling my retro needs.
So we'll see...
I agree with you on all 3 systems not feeling "next gen". It just feels that the last gen systems had plenty of life in it left, I didn't think we'd need new hardware, at least just yet. The biggest difference between generations was definitely last gen with the 360 and the PS3. People avoided the Wii U at release because of how terrible the marketing was. People thought the Wii U was just the tablet controller and thought the system were the exact same. They could've done a little better doing that, but I think right now, most people in the gaming community at least, believe that the Wii U is the better console because of it's library of games. However, I would never get a Nintendo system as my primary console.
I got a Wii U a couple months after launch and ended up selling it a few months ago because of the lack of games. Besides Mario, there really wasn't anything out there to play. I'd say their next biggest franchises after Mario are Zelda and Metroid and they still have not released those games.
This year is Nintendo's year. The games I listed in my initial post are all games that were praised highly and all released in the last year. You're right in the sense that Nintendo rarely gets any third party games, but they absolutely nail it in exclusive games compared to the exclusives that MS and Sony have right now.