The Wii U’s carnival has come to town. But is it a new wonderland or is it not worth the price of admission?

Design

Nintendo Land creates a theme-park style with its launch title for the Wii U. These 12 attractions are based on various Nintendo franchises. Players can either work in three co-op games or three competitive games. There are also six solo games to tackle with the Wii U pad. In the middle of the park, there’s a pachinko game where the player inserts coins earned from each of the 12 attractions to win prizes. These prizes are items or stage pieces from the games that are placed around the park.

Zelda Battle Quest has friends dressed up as Link, using swords and arrows to take down Ganon’s fleet of minions in this rail shooter style game. Players using the Wii remote and motion-plus device have a sword and shield for close combat, while the player with the Wii U gamepad uses a bow and arrow to aim at the moblins.

In Pikmin Adventure the player can either control Olimar and his pikmin hoard or be a pikmin and play through increasingly difficult missions with friends or alone. In this attraction players fight toy-like Bulborbs and try to get to their ship before losing all of your health.

In Metroid Blast, one play takes the reigns of Samus Aran in either her ship or on foot. In this first person shooter style attraction, the player has to shoot their way through wave after wave of enemies until they reach a boss.

Two of the competitive attractions are similar to a game of tag. In Mario Chase, one player has two minutes to avoid being caught by toads. Animal Crossing Sweet Day gives the villagers the task of collecting a certain amount of candy before getting caught by one of the two guards. The last competitive game, Luigi’s Ghost Mansion is similar to hide and seek. Luigi searches for a ghost that can’t be seen on the TV.

Most of the solo attractions are rather bland. In Takamura’s Ninja Castle the player has to slide their finger along the gamepad to throw shuriken. Yoshi’s Fruit Cart uses the gamepad to guide a Yoshi along a path to get the fruit, unfortunately the player can only see the fruit on the TV, making it difficult to judge how to guide their Yoshi. Donkey Kong’s Crash Course uses the tilt functions of the gamepad, guiding a three wheeled vehicle through a series of frustrating obstacles. Captain Falcon’s Twister Race moves the game pad in a vertical direction as the player tilts and steers past different obstacles, trying to get to the finish line. Balloon Trip Breeze has players use the gamepad to move past obstacles with gusts of wind. Lastly, the Simon Says style Octopus Dance is the worst of them all, hardly using any of the Wii U’s features.

Gameplay

Each attraction has its own theme or style that uses a different portion of the gamepad’s ability. Most of these games are best played with friends. Going at these games solo can become tedious. All in all, it feels like Nintendo could have done more with the Wii U gamepad to show more variety in games, instead the player gets some slightly repetitive sections.

Presentation

The presentation of Nintendo Land is rather interesting, with a theme park setting as the hub. The toy-like style of the different attractions looks plastic, as if the player had actually been thrown inside of a toy box. In Zelda Battle Quest there is a stitch-work design, where everything looks as if it was knitted together. The Moblins actually show damage when cut or shot, with tears ripping in the fabric to show their cotton insides.

It feels like Nintendo could have done more graphic wise with Nintendo Land. The world has a nice glimmer to it, but it doesn’t have amazing high definition graphics that the Wii U is capable of. Instead, it feels like the game was made with the Wii graphics engine.

Conclusion

Nintendo Land for the Wii U is a good tie in game for those who bought the Wii U Deluxe edition, but it won’t sell the same as its predecessor, Wii Sports. Nintendo Land isn’t as approachable for all ages as Wii Sports was, having recognizable sports that were easy to play. Nintendo Land also leans toward multiplayer rather than single player gaming.

While Nintendo Land isn’t the best game for the Wii U, it is a start.

7.7 out of 10