Although I feel like Ian pretty much nailed it, I don't want to let this thread go just yet.
It boggles my mind to think that some people believe that Nintendo made any sort of real effort to bring in hardcore gamers to the Wii. Really, it didn't have a chance with the crowd that went to 360/PS3, systems that had way better hardware, supported HD, and had substantial online infrastructure. It was already decided from the start that Wii would not be the go-to system for high profile multi-system games.
And yet some people, in this very thread, think that the Wii still served hardcore gamers reasonably well. Maybe we just have different definitions of hardcore, or something? Like people who buy everything Nintendo puts out because they love Nintendo so much? I know there's a lot of those people present in this forum, and that was also me as recently as 5 years ago. Nintendo's first party games are the same games they've always released, but now, just a little easier, and a little dumber. I can't really get any enjoyment out of those if it's like a worse version of something I've already played. They're great for my kids and grandmas or whatever, though. Whatever other second and third party exclusives they secured were few and far between, and listing like 4 games nobody cares about like it magically proves that Nintendo catered to hardcore gamers is absurd. Yes, the Wii had great games for hardcore gamers, but I can count them on one hand. The Wii had a pretty robust library if you like shovelware and low-budget phoned-in spinoff games, I guess?
And let's not even talk about downloadable games. No online play, no HD upgrades, no leaderboards. Even PC emulators were better.