I gave up on DKC Returns really quickly because of the stupid controls, but I blame NCL for that nonsense, not Retro.
I want Retro to work on a new IP because I just want Nintendo PERIOD working on some new stuff. I'm playing Xenoblade right now and I love it. A big part of why I love it is that it is fresh and new. The characters, the setting, the gameplay - all of this is new to me. I like Skyward Sword a lot, too, but it's predictable. The series is old enough now that I can call tons of it before it happens. I have no interest in just playing the same series anymore. I don't want just new stuff but I'm not interested in just going through the motions with safe predictable Nintendo sequels.
So Star Fox? Whatever. Yeah, it would be nice if they could make that series great again but I find I don't care one way or another if such a game is released. If they made it and it was good, that would be great and all, but it's not something I'm going to get excited over.
Really what I want is variety and when Nintendo just milks out more Mario and Zelda, there is a lack of variety. The weak third party support also provides a lack of variety. What I like about Retro is that they're as talented as Nintendo but they're different. They have their own style and don't make the same games EAD makes or Intelligent Systems makes. I like EAD and don't want every game to feel like one of their's. It's good that Nintendo has multiple devs that have distinct styles. Retro can provide more variety if they create their own IP because they can truly put their stamp on it and not have to adhere to any conventions established by another team. Back when Rare was with Nintendo I was glad we got stuff like Banjo-Kazooie, Blast Corps and Perfect Dark. Those weren't games other Nintendo teams were going to make and that provided variety. I swear if Iwata was running things then, Rare would have just made Donkey Kong games.
For Nintendo to have variety, encouraging their seperate devs to have their own IP is the easiest way to do it. So if EAD just wants to make Mario and Zelda the whole time, fine. Those franchises are still being tended to while the other teams do something else. Instead every dev team is indistinguishable as Iwata and Miyamoto just assign them to work on the same old bullshit. Monolith actually does something unique and we were THIS close to having NONE of their Wii games get released in North America. Nope, we're just the Mario factory, pumping out the same old bullshit until everyone is sick of it. And then we'll have NOTHING because we pissed away all the years we could have made a new hit with new IP.
What is annoying is that there is so much Mario content that no Mario fan in a million years could ever feel neglected. They could cut out half of the Mario product being released and no one would complain because they wouldn't notice. There is new Mario product every year. You could cut it back to only one Mario title of any sort per year and that still would be tons.