to do that they need to drop the gimmicks, get 3rd party on board, re-vamp their online, fuck miiverse off, stop using dated hardware and stop making nothing but mario games and spinoffs.
yeah fat chance!
The only thing they need is 3rd party support and better online functionality. If that requires better hardware, so be it. Their first party games are widely successful, and they have no reason to stop. Mario Kart 8, Smash Bros. Wii U, etc. are all good fun, at least in my opinion. And their gimmicks are fine. The Wii was successful because of its motion controls. The DS' two screens have led to some great games. No one's forcing the use of 3D on the 3DS. Tbh, the only problem the Wii U had was that the tablet detracted from the power of the hardware since they had MSRP targets to meet. Nothing wrong with the concept of a tablet controller.
Tbh, Nintendo's the only company that's differentiated their systems from being basically stripped-down, low-end PCs. I appreciate them for that. I just haven't felt any of the other consoles are worth buying if I have a good PC in tow. The Wii U? Yeah, plenty of unique stuff there. Also, the other consoles have terrible local multiplayer. I appreciate Nintendo for striving towards good local multiplayer. When friends are over, games like Mario Kart and Smash are great fun and provide many hours of local entertainment. I used to play Halo 3 and Halo: Reach with my friends all the time when we were at each others' places, but Halo 5 has no local multiplayer whatsoever. See what I mean? When friends are over, other than sports games like Fifa or Madden, maybe, we play Smash. We play Mario Kart. We play these games because they're just plain fun.