For those of you that picked up a Wii U we have some info on which launch titles are worth checking out. Read on for reviews of New Super Mario Bros. U, Scribblenauts Unlimited, Rabbids Land and Nintendo Land.
New Super Mario Bros. U
The newest Super Mario Bros. game for the Wii U is pretty much exactly what I expected it to be. It’s side scrolling fun in the Mario universe and very reminiscent of Super Mario 3, which is my personal favorite plumber platformer.
You can use a wiimote or the touchpad controller to play. I opted for the touchpad which you use as a traditional controller and it worked just fine. My one complaint was when it vibrates or makes noise for things like Thwomp falling down, it seemed to be half a second or so off from the action on the screen.
The “new” power up is a flying squirrel which seemed meh to me. It does similar things to the Tanooki suit and that was way cuter so why not bring that back?! The one new feature I did like Nintendo calls “Super Guide” but I think of as more of “you suck at this level.” After you’ve failed a bunch of times in a row the game offers to run a character through the level for you and you can either chose to accept the run and move on or try the level again yourself. Would have been nice if Psychonauts had that feature for Meat Circus...
There are some other modes of play called Challenge Mode and Boost Rush. Challenge Mode gives you goals like completing a level in a short amount of time, collecting a high number of coins, etc. Boost Rush has players complete levels as quickly as possible while the screen scrolls towards them so you can’t go backwards. That kinda stuff has never appealed to me and since Nintendo doesn’t have anything like PS3 trophies or XBox achievements I’m not sure who really cares. The game also prompts you along the way to leave hints about levels you have done well on for fellow players in the Miiverse.
Overall it’s fun. It's cute but there’s nothing really new. And mostly it just made me want to go back and play Super Mario 3 instead of it. If you’ve never played a Mario game, this is a good one. If you are introducing your kids to Mario, also awesome. But if you are a long time fan that’s played most of the old games, it seems like they gave you everything you thought you wanted, but not really whatever it is you actually needed.
Scribblenauts Unlimited
Scribblenauts was one of my favorite DS games, so I was interested to see how it would translate to the Wii U. In this 4th title of the series, we find out that main character Maxwell has 42 siblings and must journey to save one of them who was turned to stone as punishment for Maxwell tormenting a hungry old man that was apparently magical. As you beat stages, you unlock Maxwell’s various siblings and can switch to playing levels as them. I play as his brother Yarr cuz Pirates!
This game has a big open map that you can move around and select levels. For those that haven’t played the basic premise is to solve puzzles by writing the names of objects that will magically appear. Unlike the handheld or mobile versions of the game you can have as many objects on the screen as you want at any given time and you can store and edit them for later use in your backpack. Unlimited uses nouns as well as adjectives (which were introduced in Super Scribblenauts) to create objects.
Levels range from puzzles you can solve with a single object to stages where you have to give multiple NPCs various things to solve their problems. This is very similar to the others in the series but feels a lot easier than previous titles. It seems more obvious that there is a single solution that works best rather than a multitude of solutions in previous games.
Being a proprietary Nintendo game, you can solve puzzles with classic Nintendo characters like Mario, King Koopa and Link and they appear on screen. Cool, but I was annoyed that the puzzle I tried to solve with Koopa. He was too big to fit on screen even when I added the adjective mini Koopa (he also sadly didn’t then turn into a car for those of you from Boston).
Of the four titles I picked up at launch this is the one I’ve played the most. It’s cool, great for kids, but again nothing earth shattering for a new console.
Rabbids Land
Rayman Raving Rabbids was one of my favorite games for the original Wii. They’ve had many titles since that were OK, but haven’t quite topped it. Rabbids Alive and Kicking was mediocre but showcased Kinect so I was hoping this would be another good demo game of new technology for the Wii U. Yeah not so much...
I’m half surprised Nintendo let them release this, since it seems to me like blatant rip off every Mario Party game ever. Also they didn’t take any of the lessons Mario Party seems to have learned over the years, and still do things like make you sit through computer character’s turns.
I usually find the Rabbids cute and funny but with this game they are just kind of irritating. The mini games are all over the place and its annoying to have to figure out which controller combination each one requires between touchpad, controllers and nunchucks. There are traditional mini games as well as quizzes with zany questions where one player has to answer and the others vote on whether they will get it right or wrong. I like quiz games like Jeopardy! and Family Fued, but these questions were just kinda off the wall and not in the fun way.
Throughout play it keeps asking me to post things to Uplay which is Ubisoft’s rewards/Miiverse kinda thing which I have zero desire to sign up for. I’d say this is the last Rabbids game I’ll ever buy unless someone gives me a compelling reason to give them one more chance. That said I’m really looking forward to the Rayman game coming out soon for Wii U.
Nintendo Land
Nintendo Land shipped with the deluxe Wii U bundles, so I was hoping for something awesome like Mario/Duck Hunt or WiiSports. Expectations were also high knowing it featured favorites like Luigi's Mansion, Zelda, Metroid, and other Nintendo beloved characters so how did it all play out?
I think the theme of all these Wii U reviews can be summed up in one word: “Meh.” None of these mini games are terrible but none of them are remarkable either. Things I liked: Super cute graphics and great use of Miis. Things I didn’t like: Pretty much everything else.
Especially evidenced from this game, I really don’t know who Nintendo thinks their audience is for the Wii U. I had some friends over to play Nintendo Land: 2 of us “hard core” gamers, someone in the middle, and a complete novice. All of us were kind of bewildered. The “novice” had trouble figuring out having to swap controllers frequently, their only previous gaming experience being wiimotes. And in keeping with our 2old2play crowd, had trouble switching back and forth between looking at the TV versus the gamepad since they wore glasses. Maybe Nintendo should ship a pair of bifocals in the bundles! The moderate experience gamer didn’t like the switching between the touch pad and TV and didn’t feel the flow of the games worked well. “Hard-cores” would have rathered a an actual sequel to Luigi's Mansion (I was totally awesome at humping furniture) and were just generally underwhelmed with all the games.
I was looking for the Wii U to enhance the party play experience but honestly if I have a bunch of people over I’d much rather just use the original Wii or Kinect. At least one player is using the touch pad and they become totally immersed in their own little world and pay no attention to the other players. The rest of the “team” is busy trying to figure out what they are supposed to be doing and not really interacting either.
Some games take advantage of the camera in the touchpad and broadcast whoever has that controller onto the screen. I noted in my last review that the angle makes my face look like a Goomba so I was less than amused to have my friends all pointing that out while I was immersed in whatever I was supposed to be doing with the touch pad.
While not a terrible game, not really one I want to play either. It does dress your Miis in cute NIntendo themed outfits and bring back many beloved characters but much like New Super Mario Bros. U it just makes me want to go back and play the old game instead of it. And also makes me really really sad there is no real sequel to Luigi's Mansion (get on that Nintendo).
The Final Verdict!
Thus far in general I am highly underwhelmed by the Wii U. I’m hoping games like Lego City and Rayman Legends can sway me, but I’m not optimistic. I’m already pissed with Sony for two PS3‘s dying on me. Please please Nintendo make it so I don’t have to admit Microsoft makes my favorite console or switch to PC games altogether...
