I don't see why F-Zero should be farmed out. Yeah GX turned out good but that was the same deal that had Namco working on Star Fox. We're LUCKY the F-Zero handoff didn't **** up the series. I don't think Nintendo should risk doing that again. I want to see EAD do it, like they did with F-Zero and F-Zero X. And I sure as hell don't want Western devs touching it. As good as F-Zero GX is, it is incredibly generic. They literally just took the same 30 characters and vehicles from F-Zero X. The only new ones were incredibly hard to unlock. F-Zero GX stands out from F-Zero X entirely because it doesn't look like balls. It's a glorified track pack with better graphics. I blame that on AV playing it too safe. Often when you hand a series off they either play it too safe or completely miss the point and ruin the game outright. I only trust Nintendo themselves to make sure it plays right while also introducing new ideas.
I realy don't like the idea of Retro Studios being Nintendo's IP resurrection guys. I've wanted to play something ORIGINAL from them since Metroid Prime 2. There is some real creativity in the games they've made but that creativity is restricted by the existing IP. I want to see what they can come up with from scratch. Plus with Star Fox, I think it is EAD's responsibility to set the franchise back on track. It's been handed off and that's why it SUCKS. There are TWO good Star Fox games and they're the ones that EAD were heavily involved with. Why would you want anyone but the Star Fox 64 team involved? Treasure might do a good job however based on their shmup experience.
Nintendo probably can't get a Mario title ready for the Wii U launch and aside from that and Zelda they don't really have anything non-casual that truly will sell a new system. But why do they have to use an existing franchise? Somehow MS attracted more interest in the Xbox with the brand new Halo franchise than Nintendo ever did with the Gamecube and its numerous Nintendo franchise titles. And if we want to go way back Sega made the Genesis matter with Sonic, which was brand new at the time. If you have a great game and you market it well, you can sell systems with it. In fact Nintendo did just that with Wii Sports. Despite the industry's infactuation with sequels each gen numerous new IPs become hits. Aside from Wii Sports did you ever hear of Gears of War, Uncharted or fuckin' Rock Band before this gen? Notice how Call of Duty is the biggest game in the land when last gen it was barely notable? Kind of like how last gen GTA went from a minor franchise to being bigger than Mario?
Every gen new IPs become big hits. Nintendo had very little new IP on the Gamecube and then they struck gold on the DS and Wii with games like Nintendogs and Wii Sports. They may be casual titles but they also were unique to their system. If I want to play Mario I don't need a Wii U. No one needed a Gamecube to play Mario. But they needed a Wii to play Wii Sports. There was no other way to get it. New IPs can bomb but when one becomes a hit your system is a must-own. If Retro is working on something brand new and it's a great game and it's as cool as Metroid Prime, Nintendo will sell a million Wii U's with just an E3 trailer.
Mario doesn't have to be there, just something as good as Mario. The issue is that Nintendo needs to have something really good at the Wii U launch that they then market well.