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Nintendo Land comes complete with the Wii U console, taking place within a carnival-style atmosphere which is a bit like being back in the Wii U main menu’s MiiVerse, as other users appear before you and can be invited to take part in the mini-games within. As you walk around, you’ll see that as you move your Gamepad around, the gyroscope inside points you in the direction in which it is facing.
There are 12 games in this package, but I couldn’t play three of them as they require more than one player (boo, sniff, yes, I’m playing on my own). Those titles are Mario Chase, Luigi’s Ghost Mansion and Animal Crossing: Sweet Day.
I’ve recorded game footage for each of these mini-games that I can play, which will be more in-depth than attempting to explain them, so…
First up, I tried The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest, which is a game of archery, and I was quite hopeless at it as I really didn’t get how it was supposed to function.
Note that, when you see the name ‘pbarter’, it’s just the name that was set up in the Miiverse originally when I received the console I was reviewing, so, due to the limited time I was having use of the console, it seemed a bit of a faff to change it to my name, as I understand I’d have to delete the user profile, or something like that… so it was best just to leave it alone.
Nintendo Land – Yoshi’s Fruit Cart (720p HD)
Yoshi’s Fruit Cart was a bit better, and Pikmin Adventure really showed how interactivity can be achieved between the gamepad and what’s on the TV, sometimes showing a different viewpoint on the gameplay area. However, it’s definitely a game for young children.
Octopus Dance features the the octopus and diver from the 1981 Game & Watch title Octopus, but rather than having to sneak past said 8-legged creature, here, it’s a standard ‘Just Dance’-style rhythm game where you copy the diver’s actions.
Donkey Kong’s Crash Course doesn’t have a great deal to do with the arcade original. Instead, you’re on wheels and sort-of skate around a hotch-potch of structures, some of which come from the arcade game, but you tend to crash and die quite a lot, as you’ll see. The gamepad’s screen has a close-up of the action with the TV showing the map as a whole.
Nintendo Land – Donkey Kong’s Crash Course (720p HD)
Takamaru’s Ninja Castle is a game based on the 1986 Family Computer Disk System game Nazo no Murasame Jo, where you tilt the Gamepad length-ways and use the touchscreen to launch paper shuriken at waves of enemy ninjas. It’s one of the better games here, but starts to make your hand feel tired after a while due to the weight of the gamepad.
Captain Falcon’s Twister Race is based on the Nintendo classic F-Zero, racing along a track where you hold the gamepad upright, length-ways again, and twist and turn it to get round the track, the gamepad featuring a top-down view while a third-person view is shown on the TV. it tells you to look at the gamepad for the most part, but I actually found it slightly easier to look at the TV.
Balloon Trip Breeze is the last game I can review here. I was looking to see what Balloon Fight was like and I’ve found it with this title, as you use the stylus or your finger to create gusts of wind that move you about the screen, from one goal to the next whilst avoiding deadly objects and enemies onscreen. The gamepad shows a zoomed-in view, while the TV shows the full gameplay area. It’s a bit of fun for a while.
Visit my DVDfeverGames Youtube channel for many more gaming videos.
Nintendo Land: All 9 videos uploaded (720p HD)
| OVERALL | 6 |
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.