Nintendo hints that new Mario, Mario Kart are coming to Wii U this year

Nintendo hasn’t said much about the new 3D Mario action game and Mario Kart title for Wii U. Both were mentioned briefly during a Nintendo Direct a few months ago, but other than that… nada!

Despite the silence, could these two anticipated titles be coming to market this year? An inclusion in Nintendo’s financial results announcement seems to point in this direction.

“Based on the strong lineup of upcoming software titles for both the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U systems, Nintendo expects to return to Operating Income profitability by the end of the current fiscal year. During the next several months, Nintendo expects to launch new titles in the Mario Kart (Wii U), Super Mario Bros. (Wii U), Wii Fit (Wii U), Pikmin (Wii U), The Legend of Zelda (Wii U and Nintendo 3DS), Mario & Luigi (Nintendo 3DS) and Pokémon (Nintendo 3DS) franchises. These games, along with titles from Nintendo’s third-party publishing partners, will help drive hardware momentum and introduce new audiences to the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS platforms.”

The new Mario and Mario Kart games will be playable at this year’s E3, so they must be fairly far along in development. It’d be pretty crazy to see both of them in the same year, though.