I remember during the Wii era, there was a long period of time when people asked "Where is Mario? Where is Zelda?"
2017, we have an amazing Zelda, and by all evidence provided so far, an amazing Mario.
Who the hell said that?? Here are the Mario and Zelda games on the Wii by N.A. release date:
November 2006: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
November 2007: Super Mario Galaxy
November 2009: New Super Mario Bros. Wii
May 2010: Super Mario Galaxy 2
November 2011: Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Like, maybe in early 2009 people started to wonder where Mario and Zelda were, but any other point you choose during that time was less than a year away from a Zelda or Mario release. Nintendo released more Mario games for the Wii than for the N64 and GameCube combined. It wasn't hurting for these games.