Holy cow! This game is great. (PS: Nintendo haters go play your 'next gen' games like COD 11 please)
Quite honestly, Pikmin 3 seemed like a poor replacement, especially since I'm unfamiliar with the series. Even after playing it for 3 days straight, and having a blast, i can't say this game makes a Wii U worth it, but it sure is one more reason to buy one.
It's quite an adventurous game, and it's been a long time since I've been able to say that about a game. Balancing your pikmin as you advance through the game and search for fruit is more fun than it sounds (and it does sound pretty boring doesn't it?)
But it's not, in fact the amount of strategy and combat is surprising, and the platforming is very fun too. The standout by far is the boss battles, which are a blast, require a fair bit of thinking and offer a decent challenge.
As for the graphics, they look gorgeous, though you won't notice that if your definition of good graphics is being able to see the hair on the arms of your characters.
Anyway, the problems.. The Ai is very mediocre, and the control scheme is annoying. The Wii U controller schemes are clunky, and the Wii ones are awesome, but the tablet screen is important, so you have to alternate between them.
Overall Pikmin 3 is a great game. It's also very Nintendo-y, being friendly to all ages but having quite a bit of depth in it. For that reason, if you only like Sony's mature movies or endless stream of FPS on your 360's, you won't like this, but real gamers will. Now Nintendo only needs to make a couple more games in order to make the Wii U worth owning, because you know, that's how consoles work.