"Looking at the Wii U's current release slate, which is paltry in size and includes quite a few older games (Batman Arkham City, Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge, Mass Effect 3), one wonders whether or not Nintendo will spend much of the first few years of the Wii U's lifespan playing catch-up in order to attract a more "hardcore" audience."
I only wonder why anyone would draw that conclusion. It's reasonable for a console to get a few current releases ported in their first year if the last version didn't have the hardware to run them like other consoles did. These ports have usually been the best versions and utilized the gamepad as well, so the only issue is that most would have already gotten the games for other platforms.
The problem is what the situation will be next year. If publishers don't port the current titles planned for the new generation consoles,to Wii U, there may be something for Nintendo fans to worry about. Then again Nintendo is still one of the best devs in the business, and their lineup is starting to look a little brighter this month with Monster Hunter Ultimate and Lego City Undercover, a kid friendly version of GTA style sandbox games. I know the 15 year old l33ters here cringe at the phrase "kid friendly", but solid gameplay is solid gameplay.