I woke up very early and was slightly ill because of it. And then the NA stream outright failed on me, the UK stream ditto, and thus I stuck with the JPN stream that performed the least terribly.
I'm conflicted. This is must what ambivalence feels like. Super Mario 3D World looks nice with the four players and the playable Peach. However, there will probably no online multiplayer and I have yet to finish the 2nd half of Super Mario 3D Land. Mario Kart 8 looks great and wild but nothing revolutionary to the series was shown and the 2014 date is quite far away.
Monolith Soft's X is my system-seller, The Wonderful 101 looks cool, and Bayonetta 2 looks wonderful. However, two of those games are far away in to 2014. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is just too soon and a waste of Retro Studio's potential. I know Tropical Freeze will be a fine platformer, but the Wii U needs something surprising for me to buy one immediately. Super Smash Bros. for 3DS and Wii U look great and as expected. Again, that 2014 date is far away.
This Nintendo Direct showed a lot of games that I'm confident will be great. However, there was nothing that surprised me or excited me to want to run out and buy a Wii U immediately. It just reinforced the approach I had for the Wii and wait 3-4 years, a price cut, and a bundle before I make my purchase. This was the time to make a splash and where it was okay to make far-away but alluring promises. Nintendo chose to make it business as usual.
I'm disappointed, but I know I'll be happy (much) later.