Personally I am looking forward to Fantasy Life and Pokemon after smash. I never played the Ruby and Sapphire games so that's an all new experience for me. I'm very pump for Fantasy Life with all the different jobs that you can chose from. Watching you grown throughout the game and being able to play with others. Codename Steam is another game I'm looking forward to, but that's next year so I'm not as excited as of now.
I would personally recommend New leaf especially with the holidays coming up. The holidays are perhaps the best parts of the game. The community is still alive and well, and let's be real the animals are just so cute. Also if you don't mind a digital copy,it should be going on sale this Thursday due to the super smash eshop sale. The game is really well suited for having it on you at all times and there is a bunch to do . With connecting with others it will only get better, I still drop by in my town every day or so.Now Mario Kart 7 isn't a wrong choice to go , however if you have Mario Kart 8 I would just stick with that.