Nintendoland

Genre: Compilation / Party Game / Arcade

Players: 1-5 Co-Op / Competitive / Team Competitive (Local)

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Review:

Nintendoland was released on the Wii U in 2012 as a pack-in launch title, included with the console. Much in the same way that Wii Sports acted as a showpiece for the Wii’s motion controls, Nintendoland acts as a showpiece for the capabilities of the Wii U, with its 12 included minigames making all manner of different creative uses of the Wii U gamepad and the Wii remotes’ motion control. In fact, this is possibly the best use of the Wii U’s unique capabilities any game on the Wii U ever had.

Here is what I thought of each of the games in this collection:

Game	Genre	# of Players	Grade
Animal Crossing: Sweet Day	Arcade	2-5 Team Competitive (Local)	B
tl;dr A solid Arcade-style Multiplayer-focused game that has a team of players trying to stop the gamepad-holding player from grabbing up all the tasty treats. Good, but not quite as good as some of the similar games in this collection
Balloon Trip Breeze	Arcade	1	B-
tl;dr An obstacle course-style Arcade game where players control their movement by dragging on the touchscreen. Decent, but a little repetitive.
Captain Falcon’s Twister Race	Racing / Top-Down Racing	1	B-
tl;dr This game combines Top-Down Racing and standard Racing depending on which screen you look at. The motion controls are a bit awkward, and the game isn’t as deep as it could be, but this is still pretty fun.
Donkey Kong’s Crash Course	Arcade / Platformer	1	C
tl;dr This game has you using various types of controls on the gamepad to move a character through a 2D obstacle course. While it’s enjoyable, there’s only one level, which makes this a game you’re not likely to play through again after you complete it.
Luigi’s Ghost Mansion	Arcade	2-5 Team Competitive (Local)	B+
tl;dr A fantastic Arcade-style Multiplayer-focused game that has a team of ghost hunters fighting one ghost.
Mario Chase	Arcade	2-5 Team Competitive (Local Split-Screen)	B+
tl;dr This is an incredibly fun Arcade-style Multiplayer-focused game that evokes Pac-Man Vs., with players all trying to hunt down the one player with the gamepad.
Metroid Blast	Third-Person Shooter	/ First-Person Shooter1-5 Co-Op / Team Competitive (Local Split-Screen), 2-4 Competitive (Local Split-Screen)	A-
tl;dr This game makes great use of both the Wii remote motion controls and the gamepad for two different kinds of shooting. Really original and fun.
Octopus Dance	Arcade	1	C-
tl;dr This is a Simon Says-style Arcade game, but either the detection is quite right, or it’s far too exacting to be fun.
Pikmin Adventure	Arcade	1-5 Team Co-Op / Competitive (Local)	B
tl;dr Players try to speed their way through Pikmin-inspired top-down Action stages. Decent, but somewhat shallow.
Takamaru’s Ninja Castle	Arcade	1	B-
tl;dr This is an extremely creative use of the Wii U gamepad, having players turning it sideways to simulate throwing ninja stars at enemies using motion controls. It seems a bit difficult to keep the aiming steady, and the game can get a little monotonous, but it’s still a really fun Arcade-style Shooting Gallery game.
The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest	On-Rails First-Person Shooter / Arcade	1-4 Co-Op (Local)	B+
tl;dr This game has players swinging Wii remotes like swords at enemies and aiming the gamepad to shoot arrows. The sword stuff is more fun than the bow and arrow gameplay, but having the choice makes for some good variety. Just don’t expect this to be more than a straightforward arcadey experience.
Yoshi’s Fruit Cart	Arcade	1	B
tl;dr This game has players trying to draw a course on the touchscreen when they can only see what the points of interest and obstacles are on the main screen. Solid concept that works well here.

In short, almost all of these games are enjoyable, and there’s a fair amount of variety here too, with some excellent multiplayer and single-player experiences. Most games are a bit simple, and maybe even a bit shallow, but that doesn’t stop them from being a joy to play. The only real exception here is Octopus Dance, which has a stale premise, and makes it worse by being finicky about what it accepts as far as your control inputs go. Donkey Kong’s Crash Course fares better, but suffers from the fact that it’s only one level. However, on the other side of things, Metroid Blast is a truly great use of both the Joy-Con and Wii gamepad controls, and pretty much all of the rest of the games here are well worth playing.

I should mention that while not all of the included games here are multiplayer, those that are make for some really great Party Games, and if you find yourself with a group wanting to try out the Wii U, this will make for an excellent showpiece to demonstrate the console at its best.

As a launch title, Nintendoland did everything it needed to do to demonstrate the possibilities of the Wii U hardware. It’s a bit shallow, and there’s nothing so impressive here that this game would be seen as a “killer app”, but this is nonetheless a must-have for the Wii U (good thing it’s packed-in with the console!), and a game that truly couldn’t be done on any other platform.

tl;dr – Nintendoland is a fantastic pack-in game for the Wii U that does a magnificent job demonstrating the console’s capabilities. Nearly all 12 games in this Compilation of various minigames are well worth playing, and some make for absolutely superb Party Games with truly inventive gameplay. There may be better games on the Wii U, but I strain to think of a game that is so clearly perfect for the Wii U.

Grade: B+

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