What is Nintendo Land? Is It Any Good?

One of the most interesting things to come out of Nintendo during this E3 was Nintendo Land. Well, perhaps most "interesting" isn't the right word. If anything, it seems like Nintendo Land was unveiled and subsequently misunderstood by gamers. Basically, it is a bunch of minigames which showcase different functions of the Wii U GamePad. In principle, this is a lot like Wii Sports which debuted with Wii systems back in 2006. However, there's a lot more to it than that, as surprising as it may seem.

The idea behind the game is that it's an amusement park of sorts where each minigame is it's own attraction. There are twelve included in the package, although only five were playable on the E3 show floor. Four of the five on display were based off famous Nintendo franchises. From what I played though, it seems like the title is shaping up to be a really entertaining party game, with only a little bit to tide over single player gamers.

Animal Crossing: Sweet Day was the first attraction I tried out and my favorite multiplayer one of them all. The game is for five players (four on Wii Remote, one on Wii U GamePad). The players on Remote are tasked with running around a small Animal Crossing-themed map to collect candy from trees in their hats. Collecting all the candy is the key to victory but of course it's not that simple. The more candy you collect, the larger your character's hat gets, which slows them down more and more. This is where the GamePad player comes in. For the one with the tablet in their hands, they control two guards who can make players lose all their candy and lose a life. The victory condition for this player is to whittle away three lives from any of the candy collectors before they can grab everything.

In theory the game is incredibly simple. Most of the fun comes from trying to work out strategies as well as work with your teammates. Some trees require multiple players to be in the area before the candy can be procured. Standing around and hoping for another player to meander past simply isn't smart to do, so communicating with others is essential. Although I didn't know everyone on my team while playing Animal Crossing: Sweet Day, I quickly became friendly enough with them to exclaim when a guard was coming or to ask for someone to collect candy with me.  The experience was incredibly easy to get into and I could have continued playing it for much longer.

Taking on the role of the guards was a very different experience. When you are the enemy you are meant to look at the GamePad's screen for the map. This view shows you the level map and zooms in and out as you walk around it. I expected this auto zoom function to mess with my play, but it actually worked very intuitively. If I had to move the camera myself I probably would have moved it in much the same way. Controlling two guards at once was less intuitive, but by the end of the round I had it figured out pretty well. Each guard is controlled by an analog stick and you run them around the map in hopes of stopping others from grabbing all the candies.

Next I took a shot at Luigi's Ghost Mansion which also is a five person game. You're given a similar kind of map and control as the Animal Crossing game, except this time you're in a haunted mansion. I initially worried that this would be an exact repeat of the other game, just with a different coat of paint. As it turned out though it was a different experience and still a pretty fun one.

Those with the Wii Remote must navigate around the mansion and eliminate the solo ghost haunting the halls. To do this, each player is equipped with a flashlight which depletes health points from the ghost. The one problem is that the ghost is invisible most of the time, so you can't hunt it out so easily. How do you know when a ghost is around? The Remote vibrates when it is in the vicinity and increases in intensity if you're really close. Because no player can just see the ghost, you're again required to call out to teammates when you feel the ghost nearby. If not, then he's apt to grab you before you can shine your light on him.

The GamePad player is the ghost and again is meant to look at their specific screen. The screen basically shows the same as the main TV except with the addition of the ghost as well as a circle around it. This circle lets you know at what point players will feel your vibrations. As the ghost, it's fun to try and dodge through rooms and sneak up on players who are looking the other way. If the ghost hunting team isn't communicating then expect your ghostly duties to be incredibly easy.

Both Sweet Day and Luigi's Ghost Mansion were fun, but didn't really showcase anything incredible to me about the GamePad. It just lets you know that you can play a game fully on that screen and it works pretty well. I did think it was neat to have a solution to keep players from screen peeking though. Technically those on a GamePad could still look at the TV if they wanted to cheat, but for the most part it served as a fun personal screen to play on.

Next was The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest. Unfortunately, despite having the Zelda name, this seems like one of the more uncreative attractions. I only played using the Wii Remote which means you're a character with a sword. Just like the previous games, there is room for four Remote users and one GamePad user. This time the GamePad wasn't for an enemy player, but as I didn't play it, I'm not sure what its functionality was like.

Anyway, you are a little character with a sword who is on a path to a castle. Enemies pop up along the way who you must slash at and defend yourself from. It's very simplistic gamewise and the only interesting thing really is slashing the Remote. That's certainly far from an inventive use of it though so the game wasn't particularly mind-blowing.

Donkey Kong's Crash Course was one of two single player experiences up for play and definitely fared as the better of the two in my opinion. The game is basically one big puzzle title which makes use of your reflexes. It also tests your patience. When starting a level you're greeted with a screen full of Donkey Kong-style grating. The whole thing is pretty overwhelming to look at, but you're not meant to look at the full TV screen anyway, but the Wii U GamePad. On the GamePad it shows you a smaller section of the course which you're currently on.

That's not the only feature of the controller you utilize with Crash Course. It also employs tilt control which isn't entirely new, but functions smoothly. For example, say you see a gap in the grating you're currently travelling on. Obviously you must jump over it! If you just slowly crawl over it though then expect to fall through it. So, to build up speed, you tilt the GamePad more heavily to the left or right (whichever way you're going) to fly over the gap and continue onward. Similarly, there are times when you must slow down and be precise with your tilting.

The game isn't purely dependant on tilting though. There are various platforms which you activate or move by using L, R, and analog sticks. I felt like this control method was both entirely inviting to newer games but also might repel them. Because it is so easy to control it wouldn't require much teaching, but then prospective players might get angry at how hard the game itself is. For me, I managed to progress smoothly through the first half of the map, only to continually lose life after life right after. Donkey Kong's Crash Course is a lot tougher than it looks and I found it completely addictive.

Finally, there was Takamaru's Ninja Castle. This is another single player experience and one that seems aimed toward casual gamers. It's basically an arcade-style game where you are transported through areas where ninjas will pop up and try to hurt you. As a ninja yourself, you must throw ninja stars at all of the enemies in your path and rack up a high score. Predicatbly, you use the GamePad to aim and fling your stars.

One thing that was new about this method of control was that it's not simply about sliding your finger on the touch screen, which I initially thought was the case. However, you must also aim the GamePad around the screen which designates where you're going to shoot. That's why I call it an arcade-like experience. It's akin to shooting games in the arcade, except that you're not using a big plastic gun. It's fine for what it is but I wouldn't play it very much on my own and bet other gamers would share this sentiment.

With what Nintendo showed in Nintendo Land was an interesting start to the world of Wii U gaming. Hopefully the system has a lot more to offer than these gameplay modes though, as certainly there must be a lot more the GamePad can do. Unfortunately, because there is a great focus on multiplayer (with human players) it remains to be seen if NintendoLand will cater much to single player fans beyond a game or two. If that's the case then many will probably skip out on this game, if it ends up not coming with the system. As it is a pretty solid demo and introduction to the Wii U GamePad though, I expect the game to be bundled with each system.