E3 2012: Nintendo Land Launching Alongside Wii U

Get ready to experience your favourite Nintendo franchises like never before in Nintendo Land for Wii U!

By Katharine Byrne. Posted 06/05/2012 10:29 1 Comment     ShareThis

Nintendo Land— this generation’s launch title mini-game compilation– is coming to Wii U. Just like Wii PlayAnimal Crossing, Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort, Nintendo Land will feature all of your favourite Nintendo franchises together into one giant theme park, creating what Eguchi calls “asymmetric gameplay” by rearranging their basic gameplay concepts into new types of play.

Your Mii will visit attractions such as The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest, Animal Crossing: Sweet Day, Donkey Kong’s Crash Course, Takamaru’s Ninja Castle and Luigi’s Ghost Mansion: Haunting Hijinks. You’ll also don unique costumes related to the attraction’s main game.

In The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest, the player with the Game Pad takes on the role of an archer who can aim and shoot arrows using the screen as a view finder. That player is then joined by up to three others who wield Wii Remote Plus controllers like swords. Players work together to take on a variety of enemies in a world that looks like a cloth version of a game from The Legend of Zelda series.

In Takamaru’s Ninja Castle, for instance, you’ll use the Wii U Game Pad to hit targets with throwing stars. It features a cute, cartoonish, paper style animation.

In Animal Crossing: Sweet Day, the aim of the game is to collect 50 candies. The more candies an animal collects, the bigger its head gets and the slower they become. Dropping candies can make the animals run faster, and some trees require multiple animals to get the candy. But it’s not all about collecting candies, as there’ll also be two chasers which are controlled by the Game Pad. You’ll use each control stick to control them independently, and it’s their job to catch the candy-picking animals.

In Donkey Kong’s Crash Course, you’ll navigate a trolley around a Donkey Kong arcade-style map to reach the goal. Tilt the slips with the Game pad to navigate it across the girders. The Game Pad features a closed in viewpoint while the TV displays the whole course. The control sticks can rotate certain pieces of the course too.

Luigi’s Ghost Mansion: Haunting Hijinks, on the other hand, will spook you like a horror film with a stronger ghost on the Game Pad chasing four weaker players with Wii Remotes. They must work together to take down the ghost, but even though both players can see the whole course, the players with Wii Remotes won’t be able to see the ghost on the TV. However, the Remote will rumble when the ghost approaches, so if the team won’t be able to track it down if they don’t co-operate. The aim of the game is to damage the ghost with their flashlight, but if they leave their lights on too long, their batteries will run out. A ghost’s life starts at 100, and the ghost loses when it reaches 0.

Ghosts can also attack humans by making them faint and if all players faint, the ghost wins. Players must help their fallen partners by reviving them to make sure they don’t lose, but they’ve still got to manage their batteries in their flash lights.

Eguchi also stated that he wants Nintendo Land to be a place where players can visit together. It will interact with Miiverse, but Eguchi’s kept tight lipped about its exact role. More details to come later!

Seven other attractions will also be announced at a later date.

One Response to “E3 2012: Nintendo Land Launching Alongside Wii U”

  • 201 points
    NintendoDad says...

    Shouldn’t this be a pack in? I can’t see spending $40+ for more mini-games. I also don’t think it was smart to feature this as the “big” new must have game for the WiiU.

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