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Nintendo Land
Wii U
A Tech Demo Fueled by Nostalgia
3/5 stars
Like the Wii before it, the WiiU includes a pack-in game that is less of a ‘game’ and more of a ‘tech-demo’ of all the novel features and gameplay ideas the new console’s proprietary controller can enable. Unlike “WiiSports,” however, “Nintendo Land” doesn’t focus on the universally-loved (except by videogame-loving nerds, like me) simplicity of games that involve throwing or hitting balls, but instead seems like an attempt to subtly introduce genuine videogame concepts to the audience of casual non-gamers who have recently discovered that they love playing timewasters on their smartphones. Thus “Nintendo Land” is a collection of mini-games based (sometimes very loosely) upon classic Nintendo intellectual properties. Whether or not non-gamers will eat this up like they did “WiiSports” is up in the air. More importantly, how much appeal does “Nintendo Land” hold for someone who has been playing Nintendo games for decades?
Presentation
“Nintendo Land” focuses on the customizable Mii characters that Nintendo introduced to represent players on the Wii. While there appear to be a few new options for Mii construction and the characters all have full arms and legs instead of disembodied hands and feet, their appearance on the WiiU is otherwise identical to their appearance on the original Wii. And while the WiiU’s increased horsepower and high definition video output have the potential to make games look much better, the Miis don’t actually benefit much… in fact I noticed significant seams on the Miis faces in 1080p that I never noticed before at 480p. The Miis bodies, however, look much better, as they change into different costumes that are not part of the standard Mii creation process for each different mini-game. Unfortunately, the standard Mii costume for “Nintendo Land” is a ridiculous ribbon bowtie.
The titular Nintendo Land is a virtual Nintendo-themed amusement park featuring attractions based on classic Nintendo franchises. But as mere amusement park representations of these game worlds, everything in “Nintendo Land” looks purposefully artificial. The polygonal environments are sculpted out of fabric, cardboard, and wood with visible nuts and bolts holding it all together. The game’s appearance is actually remarkably reminiscent of Sony’s “LittleBigPlanet.”
“Nintendo Land’s” audio features a variety of remixed tracks from classic Nintendo franchises. Most of these are pretty good, featuring a lot of 8-bit chip-tunes goodness, and can be unlocked individually for the game’s jukebox (which is, itself, an unlockable). There isn’t any voiceacting in the game to speak of, aside from the random shouts of Miis and the tutorial narration by the game’s tour guide, Monita… a female computer monitor with a single robotic arm… and a Japanese tour guide hat (*facepalm*). Monita is kind of an annoying character as she, like Fi from “The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword,” pops-up constantly to provide obvious ‘help.’ The only redeeming feature of Monita is that her voiceacting and the way she delivers some of her lines makes it easy for me to imagine her as a non-psychotic, correctly-functioning version of GLaDOS from “Portal.”
Story
“Nintendo Land” falls completely flat in the story department, providing no overarching narrative structure whatsoever. Even the individual mini-games are pretty much story-free.
Gameplay
Every mini-game in “Nintendo Land” is different, so I will tackle each one separately. However, there are a few broad gameplay themes that are shared by multiple mini-games. First of all, there are a total of 6 single-player only games. Each of the single-player games allows others to kind of participate by pointing Wiimotes at the screen to interfere with enemies, much like the ‘Co-Star Mode’ (or, as I like to call it, ‘Wife Mode’) in “Super Mario Galaxy.” The single-player games also share a too-old-school design mentality in which the player must start from the beginning each time and has no options to continue after burning through a limited number (~3) extra lives. While this old-school design mentality attempts to keep players from breezing through all of the games in an hour and getting bored, the overall thin gameplay and short length of these games allows boredom to creep in anyway. The 1-5 player games, of which there are 3, all have co-op and versus modes, in which the co-op mode is identical to single player. The 2-5 player games, of which there are also 3, don’t have single-player or co-op modes and are purely there for versus games. Of course, the versus modes are all restricted to local multi-player, as “Nintendo Land” doesn’t have an online play mode. The online functionality of the game is strictly limited to populating the amusement park’s central hub with a variety of Miis belonging to other players to spout their latest “Nintendo Land” MiiVerse comments. Finally, each mini-game has a variation of an unlockable ‘second quest,’ in the style of old NES games. Unfortunately, the single player games all require the player to play through the ‘first quest’ version EACH TIME before proceeding to the ‘second quest’ version, which is unnecessarily tedious and ensures that only obsessed fans will ever bother with the extra content.
The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest (1-4(!) players)
While normal ‘Zelda’ games are action/adventure outings, “Battle Quest” is a rail shooter. By holding the GamePad like a window, the player can look through their Mii’s eyes (while wearing a Link costume that apparently came from Goodwill). Tilting the GamePad moves a crosshairs while pulling on the right analog stick pulls Link’s bowstring. Tilting the GamePad downward refills Link’s quiver. At the start of each of the 9 stages, Link begins moving forward on a preset path, and the player must kill every enemy that appears along the path before it can run up and pound on Link to take away one of this 3 hearts (it is possible to make Link stop moving temporarily by holding the bowstring taut). Each stage ends with a boss battle of sorts, some of which involve tilting the GamePad abruptly or mashing the shoulder buttons in order to dodge out of the way. The multi-player version of this game gives extra players swords to wield via the Wiimote, and is also the only multi-player mini-game that doesn’t include a versus mode at all.
“Battle Quest” is kind of fun, and very reminiscent of “Link’s Crossbow Training” on the Wii, but ultimately is a shallow, incredibly linear experience. It also seems that Shigeru Miyamoto is still pursuing his dream of creating a FPS.
Pikmin Adventure (1-5 players)
Traditional ‘Pikmin’ games involve a tiny astronaut stranded on Earth who must explore huge environments to collect the pieces of his damaged ship with the aid of strange, carrot-like creatures called pikmin. “Pikmin Adventure” tosses all the ship collecting elements out the window, as well as any kind of long-term pikmin growth and management. Instead, each of the 20 stages is a self-contained and linear path dotted with enemies and breakable blocks. The player’s Mii wears a Captain Olimar costume, and additional players wear pikmin costumes. The Olimar player using the GamePad moves the Captain with the left analog stick, calls pikmin back to him with the left trigger (or a touchscreen button), and flings pikmin into battle by tapping the touchscreen with the stylus or a finger. In each stage, the players can find nectar, which upgrades their character’s level for that playthrough of that specific stage, as well as new pikmin upgrades that imbue the creatures with hammers on their heads or other special abilities. The typical pikmin elemental properties are gone, so the player doesn’t have to worry about non-blue pikmin drowning or needing yellow pikmin to pick up projectiles, plus any slain pikmin are automatically replaced after a few seconds. The multi-player mode pits players against each other to see who can gather the most nectar while avoiding/defeating enemies in a set amount of time.
While the stages in “Pikmin Adventure” get kind of boring and repetitive, the occasional boss battles are really well done, requiring the player to target large, purple weak points on each boss, and boss behavior patterns that change as their weak points are destroyed. Again, “Pikmin Adventure” is kind of fun, but the lack of variety in the stages and simplistic gameplay makes it far less engaging than a real ‘Pikmin’ game.
Metroid Blast (1-5 players)
While ‘Metroid’ games vary somewhat, they are usually some kind of action/adventure, either 2D platforming or FPS in style. “Metroid Blast” is neither; instead it is a third-person shooter, in which players can either run around on foot with a Wiimote+Nunchuck or fly around in Samus Aran’s gunship using the GamePad. “Metroid Blast’s” co-op mode has players team-up to destroy waves of enemies to clear each stage, with the occasional boss stage thrown in to mix things up. “Metroid Blast” has pretty solid controls, except for a couple weird problems that affect both Wiimote players and GamePad players. The GamePad controls have forward/back and side-to-side movement mapped to the left stick, while turning and elevation are mapped to the right stick… but the elevation is mapped to ‘normal’ mode instead of ‘airplane’ mode with no option to change it. Fine aiming is accomplished by moving the GamePad like a window, with a zoom option mapped to the left trigger. The right trigger is for shooting, and can be held to charge up a missile that explodes in a large radius. The Wiimote+Nunchuck controls map movement to the analog stick, aiming to the pointer, shooting to B (with a charge option to lob bombs at short range), and camera control to A (requiring the player to hold A and move the pointer to the edge of the screen to turn). These camera controls are annoying, as the cursor isn’t so difficult to control that it should be necessary to lock the camera into tunnel vision by default. If anything, the camera should be free by default and could be locked in place temporarily by holding A (There should at least be some kind of option switch for this too!). “Metroid Blast” also pays lip service to some of Samus’ powerups, like the grapple beam and morph ball, but the morph ball is almost useless and the grapple beam only seems to be useful in certain maps and for allowing a secondary player to hang from the bottom of the gunship. In versus mode, all on-foot players team up against the gunship player in a battle to the death. Out of all versus mode mini-games, “Metroid Blast’s” is probably the most balanced and skill-based, neither giving an advantage to the gunship player nor the on-foot players.
Out of all the multi-player mini-games in “Nintendo Land,” “Metroid Blast” is the most interesting and most balanced with the most traditional control scheme. It’s not surprising that Monita declares the game to be the Nintendo Land attraction most geared toward ‘expert’ players.
Mario Chase (2-5 players)
In “Mario Chase,” nobody can jump. That boggles my mind – how could a mini-game based on a character who is largely defined by his crazy jumping abilities NOT allow players to jump? Instead, the player with the GamePad takes control of a Mii wearing a Mario costume (which looks extra awesome when the Mii is wearing a stocking cap UNDER the Mario hat) while the other players use Wiimotes to control Toads. Mario gets a short head start before the Toads can move to chase him down and tackle him. Mario must evade the Toads for 2 minutes in order to win. To aid him in this pursuit, the player can see both Mario’s immediate surroundings in 3D as well as a top-down 2D map of the entire stage, while the Toads are denied the map. Invincibility stars also appear occasionally at the start point in the stage, which can be used by Mario alone to avoid capture for a short time.
“Mario Chase” is an interesting concept, but ultimately feels highly skewed in favor of the Toads. The environments are mostly small and don’t feature a lot of tall objects for Mario to hid behind, so he’s usually visible from a distance. In addition, the Toads each get a gauge that tells them how far away they are from Mario at all times. With only three stages to choose from, this mini-game doesn’t have a lot of staying power.
Luigi’s Ghost Mansion (2-5 players)
In a role-reversal of “Mario Chase,” “Luigi’s Ghost Mansion” puts the GamePad player in the role of a ghost and the Wiimote players in the role of ghost hunters. The ghost’s job is to strangle each ghost hunter twice, while the ghost hunters need to shine flashlights on the ghost to whittle its health from 100 down to 0. The entire game takes place on a single screen with a top-down view. The ghost is only visible on the GamePad screen except during lightning flashes.
“Luigi’s Ghost Mansion” is also an interesting concept, but feels extremely skewed in favor of the ghost. The ghost hunters turn kind of sluggishly, which makes it really easy for the ghost to hit them from an angle or pop out from around a corner. This game also features only three maps.
Animal Crossing: Sweet Day (2-5 players)
Continuing the theme of GamePad vs. Wiimotes, “Sweet Day” gives the GamePad player control of two security guards, one of which is controlled with the left analog stick and left trigger, the other by the right analog stick and right trigger. Wiimote players each take control of an ‘animal’ from the “Animal Crossing” village. The animals’ objective is to collect a certain amount of candy, while the guards’ objective is to tackle the animals 3 times before they meet their candy quota.
The fact that the GamePad player needs to control two characters at once makes this game fairly challenging for that player, especially because it’s impossible to move the guards further apart than the opposite edgs of the GamePad screen. It’s far too easy for teams of multiple animals to go to opposite sides of the map, with one leading the guards on a merry chase while the other scarfs candy. Again, the lack of balance is a major issue, as is the lack of different stages.
Yoshi’s Fruit Cart (1 player)
In “Yoshi’s Fruit Cart,” the player must draw a line on the GamePad screen that will lead a Yoshi-shaped fruit cart to pick up all the fruit scattered on the ground in each stage before making its way to the gate that leads to the next stage. What makes the game challenging is the fact that the fruit is only visible on the TV, forcing the player to use on-screen reference points to guess where the fruit is on the GamePad. Later stages add obstacles, like pits, fruits that must be eaten in a specific order, and moving fruits.
“Yoshi’s Fruit Cart” is an interesting concept, but having to start from the beginning each time gets really tedious, especially when the game has so many stages (I don’t remember the exact number, but it’s more than 15.). There are warp gates scattered randomly through already-completed stages, allowing players to skip ahead, but it’s ultimately not an engaging enough experience to bother.
Octopus Dance (1 player)
“Octopus Dance” is based VERY loosely on the old Game & Watch “Octopus” game. It’s also a cheesy “Parappa the Rapper” clone, in which the player’s Mii (wearing a diving suit) must match the ‘dance’ moves of a diving instructor based on a 1-2-3 beat. While each round starts out excruciatingly slow, they speed up to a ridiculous pace before the end. The ‘dance’ moves include right arm movement with the right analog stick, left arm movement with the left analog stick, jumping by shaking the GamePad, and leaning side to side by tilting the GamePad. “Octopus Dance” also features a variety of distracting annoyances, like a small octopus that shoots ink on the GamePad screen forcing the player to use the TV as a sole reference. Usually the TV shows the player’s Mii from the front with the GamePad showing them from the back. Due to the left/right alignment of the game, it’s much easier to copy the movements when viewing the Mii from behind. Occasionally the diving instructor will spin the player’s Mii around as well, but then it’s just a matter of looking at a different screen to keep the standard alignment.
I absolutely hate “Octopus Dance.” The only redeeming feature of this game is the awesome retro music.
Donkey Kong’s Crash Course (1 player)
While normal ‘Donkey Kong’ games are usually platformers of some kind, “Donkey Kong’s Crash Course” is more of a marble rally game, except with a two-wheeled cart instead of a marble. Actually, the only thing ‘Donkey Kong’ about this game is the fact that it takes place in an environment filled with red construction girders and collectable bananas. The entirety of the crash course takes place on a single map (excluding the ridiculously-hard-to-access bonus maps) with 10 checkpoints. The player has a limited number of lives to get to the end and loses a life whenever the cart flips over or, to quote Monita, ‘tragically explodes.’ Moving the cart involves tilting the GamePad side-to-side, with the other buttons on the GamePad activating special obstacles and gadgets within the stage.
I enjoyed “Donkey Kong’s Crash Course” quite a bit. I would have liked it more, however, if it was possible to select the bonus maps straight from the game menu and if some of the drops didn’t require a surgical degree of precision (e.g., luck).
Takamaru’s Ninja Castle (1 player)
Based on an obscure Famicom Disk System game called “Mysterious Murasame Castle,” “Takamaru’s Ninja Castle” is a strange take on the light gun sub-genre of shooters that uses the GamePad’s touchscreen as a launching point for shuriken. The player holds the GamePad sideways and makes sweeping motions on the touchscreen to send shuriken towards an on-TV crosshairs, which itself is moved by gyroscopic motion controls similar to those used in “The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.” It’s really easy for the crosshairs to get out of alignment, and even when they are aligned properly, the movement feels really floaty and imprecise. “Takamaru’s Ninja Castle” doesn’t have very many stages at 4, and all but the last is a variation shooting gallery where colorful cardboard ninjas pop-out and occasionally throw shuriken or clay bombs at the player. These projectiles can be deflected with the player’s own shuriken, and if the player fails to block three projectiles, the game ends. The final stage is an interesting boss battle against a huge mecha that is somewhat obtuse, as the mecha doesn’t really give obvious indications that the player is damaging it (pieces may break off that don’t actually do anything).
“Takamaru’s Ninja Castle” would have been better if the Motion+ style gyroscopic aiming was anywhere near as precise as standard Wiimote pointer aiming. As it is, it’s not a very good light gun game, is based on a stupidly obscure IP, and just feels more like something that would be 99 cents on a smartphone than something Nintendo should be showing off.
Captain Falcon’s Twister Race (1 player)
“Captain Falcon’s Twister Race” is an “F-Zero” inspired racing time trial game that uses super-simplified controls to uninspiring effect. While the game wants the player to look down at the GamePad to see a top-down view of the racetrack, I found it much easier to ignore the touchscreen altogether and look at the traditional third-person view of the race that appears on the TV. Wearing a Captain Falcon costume and driving a wind-up “F-Zero” car, the player is thrust into a race against a countdown timer in a vehicle that automatically accelerates. The player’s only controls are steering by tilting the GamePad side to side (it’s possible to drift or powerslide a bit by really cranking the controller when turning) and braking by touching anywhere on the touchscreen. While the earlier portions of the racetrack are well designed and reasonably fun, the last four feature a large number of explosive mines scattered all over the track that instantly end the game instead of slowing the player down (like every other obstacle).
I found it tiresome getting to the final few portions of the track over and over, only to get bombed if I was too reckless or run out of time if I was too cautious. I’ve never been fond of checkpoint based racers, and “Captain Falcon’s Twister Race” does nothing to change my opinion.
Balloon Trip: Breeze (1 player)
“Balloon Trip: Breeze” is a long-time-coming sequel to the NES game, “Balloon Fight.” The player has 2 balloons tied to their Mii, which allows them to fly through the air, collecting balloons and bubbles while avoiding enemies and obstacles. The game is an auto-scroller in a non-traditional right-to-left setup. The player controls their Mii with gusts of wind created by dragging the stylus (or a finger) anywhere on the GamePad touchscreen in any direction. Tapping the touchscreen unleashes a mini-shockwave that can destroy certain enemies and obstacles.
While “Balloon Trip: Breeze” comes across as the most polished and overall ‘best’ game in “Nintendo Land,” I found it annoying having to switch my attention from the TV to the GamePad screen in order to jab enemies and obstacles, especially when the GamePad’s view is so tight-in on the player’s Mii.
Coin Drop (1 player)
“Coin Drop” is the universal bonus game in “Nintendo Land.” Playing any other mini-game earns the player coins which they can then spend in “Coin Drop” to unlock a variety of statues, as well as the jukebox and its songs, to populate the amusement park. In “Coin Drop,” an 8-bit Monita slides back and forth at the top of the screen and can be made to drop coins with a press of the A button. The coins themselves fall into a variety of pegs and bouncers, in a manner very reminiscent of Plinko from “The Price is Right.” Each layout has a number of coin slots that, when filled, clear the map and give the player a prize. Once the player runs out of coins, it is possible to exit “Coin Drop” and return later and still keep all the filled coin slots from previous attempts.
As a kind of simple physics puzzle, I actually enjoyed “Coin Drop” more than most of the other mini-games.
Overall
“Nintendo Land” seems to be an attempt to re-use the old Nintendo magic that attracted people to the NES after the gaming market crashed in the 1980s. The flaw in Nintendo’s plan is that the gaming world no longer resembles the one they dominated with their 8-bit console. As a result, all of the mini-games in “Nintendo Land” are too short, shallow, repetitive, and pointless to capture the attention of a long-time gamer. At the same time, they are far too demanding for casual non-gamers who just want to kill a few minutes – starting from the beginning every time ensures that these player will never make any progress in the single-player portions of “Nintendo Land.” Anyone who got this game as part of the WiiU Deluxe Set should go ahead and play it, as there is a reasonable amount of fun to be had. However, I don’t recommend anyone buy this as a full-priced retail game. There just isn’t enough meaty, in-depth gameplay to make this more than a timewaster, party experience, or demo to show off what the WiiU GamePad can do.
Presentation: 4/5
Story: N/A
Gameplay:
The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest: 3/5
Pikmin Adventure: 3.5/5
Metroid Blast: 4/5
Mario Chase: 2.5/5
Luigi’s Ghost Mansion: 2.5/5
Animal Crossing: Sweet Day: 2.5/5
Yoshi’s Fruit Cart: 3/5
Octopus Dance: 0.5/5
Donkey Kong’s Crash Course: 4/5
Takamaru’s Ninja Castle: 2.5/5
Captain Falcon’s Twister Race: 3/5
Balloon Trip: Breeze: 4/5
Coin Drop: 4/5
Overall (not an average): 3/5
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