I'm back from E3 2012--the show that brought us the Wii U launch (window) lineup, Non-Specific Action Figure, and hordes of loose Pikmin that Iwata undoubtedly had to clean up. Personally, I'm a bit surprised to see the fairly negative vibe towards the Wii U in certain corners of the internet, as I had a great time fooling around with the funky new GamePad and its myriad of unusual uses.


But I digress--onto the impressions!

Nintendo Land

Nintendo Land works, and works well. I can understand it being sort of an anticlimax as a finishing reveal for Nintendo's conference (compared to something like Twilight Princess's first trailer), but while the game still seemed like a bit of a mystery by the end of the conference, Nintendo Land itself ended up being a lot of fun on the show floor, and an extremely good idea for a Wii Sports pseudo-sequel. Not only does it showcase what the system can do in a myriad of mini-games, but it gives them the context of a Nintendo-centric theme park, making it more interesting than the scattered selection of the original Sports and even the resort theme of its sequel. Plus, it can introduce more casual gamers to other Nintendo series, potentially making them more interested if/when a new Animal Crossing, Zelda, Donkey Kong, etc come along. Let's take a look at each game...


Luigi's Ghost Mansion: The conference lost some momentum in getting too caught up in the gameplay details of the Luigi's Mansion mini-game and made it seem more confusing than it actually was. Basically, four players are trying to catch an invisible ghost with their flashlights, and the fifth player is trying to "kill" the other four players without losing all his life first. The players can revive each other by shining light on their buddies' cold, dead corpses for long enough, but it does leave them vulnerable to a ghost attack! This game ended up being a lot of fun, and one of my favorites of Nintendo Land, sort of like the next logical step for Pac-Man Vs. or something. Being one of the humans (a Mii dressed as one of the Mario/Wario bros) is actually pretty tense since you know there's a player out there who's gunning for you and is almost entirely invisible. Playing as the ghost is similarly good fun due to the feeling of being powerful and deadly like a cuddly assassin. Try it out.

Donkey Kong's Crash Course: I didn't really get to play much of this one. You're basically steering a wheeled something-or-other around a large, 2D environment based on the original Donkey Kong (steel girders, platforms and all). The sole means of control was in tilting the Wii U GamePad, and it worked well enough to be fun. The main issue I had with this game was the difficulty; you got a handful of tries, and going either too fast or too slow would kill you very quickly. And due to the player not really knowing what speed is required for the next section they'll play through, the gameplay felt a little too trial-and-error.

The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest: Leave it up to Zelda to steal the show again. This three-player game involves your Miis dressed as Link, storming into a Moblin hideout to take out their leader before their shared life bar (six hits total) depletes entirely. The environments and enemies in this game have a great "fake" look to them, like you're literally beating the stuffing out of Disneyland-style mascots--albeit in Moblin form. Two of the "Links" use the Wii Remote like in Wii Sports resort, with the combat being very similar (foot movement is automatic). The third player is the support, wielding a bow and taking out Moblin snipers and the occasional heart-dropping bird. The demo ended with a fight against a massive, shielded Moblin, and was great fun in either of the two roles.

Takumaru's Ninja Castle: The extremely obscure Takumaru gets a starring role in this fun ninja-style mini-game, where the player hurls shurikens at sentient, cardboard ninjas. It's worth it to go for accuracy, since your combo will continue to build until you miss. The GamePad is used as the player's hand, where you basically slide your finger across the screen to throw shurikens, and the speed depends on the speed of your swipe. On a side note, I'm wondering if his sudden reappearance means he's got a shot in the next Smash Bros...?


Animal Crossing: Sweet Day: Remember last year's Find Mii? I'm starting to think that Nintendo Land is a way for Nintendo to bundle together all their mini-games from last year into one showcase piece. Don't be surprised to see the Samus game showing up again! In the Sweet Day game, four players run around town trying to collect a total of 50 candies, while the fifth player on the GamePad uses the two sticks to control two guards to try to catch the players. Three catches and the guards win. It's a fairly straightforward game but it makes for a good time and it's different enough from Luigi's Ghost Mansion to be worth checking out in Nintendo Land.

All in all, Nintendo Land is shaping up nicely. While I'm not sure if it'll see the success that Wii Sports did, it's definitely using the GamePad in clever and interesting ways, and I can't wait to see what else is in store when it launches with the system (hopefully included). According to the logos, we should also see Mario, Pikmin, Star Fox, Metroid, Game & Watch, Balloon Fight, and Yoshi.


TO BE CONTINUED IN NEXT POST

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Great impressions. Looking forward to the inevitable SiNG BitF comics.

@ploot@Anand
I was around in teh Atari 80s. ET sucks, guys. Quit leading people astray.

@sirmastersephiroth
@Anand

The GamePad feels very nice. They've added some form-fitting curves on the back to give it a slightly more controller-ish feel, and the screen seems wider than last year if I'm remembering correctly. The touch screen is very responsive, feels a lot like the DS in that regard. Generally, for typing things, you'll have to hold the unit with one hand and use your other for typing since it's too large to type with your thumb while holding it (like you might be able to do with the 3DS). It's slightly heavy when held up with one hand, but it's still not bad, and I think the E3 units were heavier anyway since they had this blocky thing on them that connected them to the systems.

Takumaru was slightly forgiving with the aiming, but otherwise felt nice to control. I don't think it's any more accurate than pointing and shooting with the A button, but the swipe does let you affect how fast your shurikens travel so you can try to time hits better. You hold the GamePad sideways with your non-dominate hand, so it's slightly heavy but still works pretty well.

As a fan of Pac Man Vs. I am most excited for the Luigi game in Nintendo Land. The presentation of it was boring galore, but I'm glad the fun shines through. Zelda is next. Or maybe Zelda is first, then Luigi... Either way, NL is looking like fun! It won't have the casual appeal of Wii Bowling, but for me I'm sure it'll do the trick.

I want to hold a gamepaaaaadd!


(I spent too much of my last post gushing over ET, the game of the century )

@TriforceBun so it was designed for Reggie's hands.

Pretty cool, Matthew!

Excellent write-up of your E3 experience, Matthew! Love the photos. (Nice stealth shot of the Wii U system itself!)

Even though I wasn't there in body, my spirit was all up in E3 with the Wii U and all that good stuff.

Wow, you and Reggie. Awesome.

Between you and @Guillaume's thorough NWR coverage from the show, Negative World members have the whole thing covered. Lucky us!

Hey pretty cool TriforceBun, I watched the conference but you add a lot of depth to the experience!

ploot said:

(I spent too much of my last post gushing over ET, the game of the century )

You really are misrepresenting E.T.

It is the Game of the Forever.

@TriforceBun
Last question about Takamaru: So the direction that you flick on the Gamepad doesn't really matter? Only the position of the Gamepad relative to the sensor bar and the length of the flick?

General question: Where is the IR camera on the Gamepad? There is one, right? It would be awesome if both the horizontal and vertical edges had one.

TriforceBun said:

The theme park section of Nintendo Land wasn't playable, but I'd guess the minigames were probably 30 fps.

Just found this:

'Eguchi on Nintendo Land’s framerate…

“To be precise, almost all of the attractions will run at 60 fps. There’s just one particular case of an attraction that, playing at the absolute maximum number of players, would take a framerate drop… but by and large, all will run at 60 fps. But for example, in the attraction that does have a framerate drop, we wouldn’t make that concession unless we were sure the experience to the player was still up to our standards.”'