Nintendo Land remains one of the only games to tap the Wii U's potential

It was far from an auspicious start. Before Nintendo Land was debuted in the Nokia Theater at 2012's E3 conference, there was a small momentum gathering behind the Wii U: this was the console that would take the company back to its core audience after its mainstream dalliance with the Wii, the homecoming that would see it take the fight to Microsoft and Sony as it moved away from mini-game compilations and returned to the more traditional, hard-edged propositions that had forged its reputation.

All that was lost, though, when Katsuya Eguchi took to the stage to give a long, flat presentation of the title Nintendo chose to place on the front-lines of the Wii U's impending launch: a disparate collection of branded mini-games that seemed like a slight return to the approach that had seen Nintendo fall out of favour with so many of its fans.

Nintendo needed a game to sell the Wii U, its potential and its promise, and the sprawl of Nintendo Land never really seemed quite up to the task. Its concept weren't clean enough to gain wider traction, and not quite focussed enough to win over the core. Think of the success of the Wii and you're really thinking of the simple, sellable pleasure of Wii Sports, of its playful, direct approach that helped usher Nintendo's console into millions of homes. When Nintendo Land came out, everyone was still curious to know what the Wii U actually was, and where it was coming from. The answer was hard to find in that tangle of diversions.

[sinncross]

For me, I feel like if the mini games wee more fleshed out the overall package would be a lot better. ts fun, but the variety in stages and options in mini games, and the lack of depth in many dot make for an overly compelling product.

a sequel would be cool to see

[1lovegaming]

I have to agree! I really enjoyed the mini games :P

[3-4-5]

The thing that sucks is the two best games, Luigi's Mansion mini game & Mario Chase you need other people to play + 3-4 wii remotes.

[pcz]

its because the wiiu is fundamentally a bad idea.

i have said time and time again that nintendo reduced all its great franchises to mini-games. which is a tragedy, to the games themselves, and the gamers who love them.

we dont want to play a little bit of metroid mashed up with a little bit of starox. okay, so nintendo are finally getting around to releasing a proper starfox (and i even worry about that since it allegedly has gimmicky controls,) but its too late, the wiiu at this point is being laid to rest. its YEARS too late. and a proper metroid is merely a fans wish.

nintendo thought they could recreate the success of wiisports with nintendo land, and ride the wave of that success all the way through the generation. but it wasnt a success, it just sucks.

when are nintendo going to stop trying to force feed us party games and mini games and get back to making substantial, AAA, core games? the sooner the better.

when xenoblade x comes out and i purchase a wiiu, if nintendoland comes with the package, i will likely throw that game straight in the bin. or trade it in for a snickers bar

[ChickeyCantor]

"i have said time and time again that nintendo reduced all its great franchises to mini-games."

Could you just stop? You are thirsty for some drama.

", i will likely throw that game straight in the bin. or trade it in for a snickers bar"

2edgy4me. God forbids you might actually enjoy some of the mini games.

[btmgov]

Talk out of your ass much?

[Maybay]

This title should have had an online mode.

[iplay1up2]

It was okay, but I was not thrilled with it. I don't even think I have played all of the mini games Nintendo Land has. I always End up playing other things.

[WizzroSupreme]

Nintendo Land was a pretty decent demo of the Wii U at launch and Mario Chase was sure a heck of a lot of fun with family – just as fun as Wii Sports was at first.

[Summons75]

It was the equivalent of WIi Sports. Should what the system was capable of. Honestly it should have been free like Wii Sports with the system, then it may have gotten more appreciation because it's a great title.

[FallenAngel1984]

The Wii got as many games as the N64 and GCN. Tthe people who feel betrayed by Nintendo in the 7th gen are merely posers. PS1 and PS2 had just as many casual games as Wii, but you don't hear people saying they feel betraye by those platforms.

[higgins78]

Ageed, but for me however the term 'casual games' should be more applied to COD, Assassins Creed and the like. Nintendo tend to release 1 or 2 games max each gen in its established franchises, considered and polished. So called AAA multi-platform games feel to arrive more and more frequent, 1 or 2 a year perhaps...total unoriginal and mostly always buggy.

[Xof]

The only game that really looks to do something good with the gamepad is Xenoblade, if only because always having a map handy in an open-world game is really cool.

But, I mean, did anyone really expect the gamepad to have that big of an affect of gameplay? It's the exact same gimmick as the NDS/3DS (IE a second screen). All it does is make menu navigation easier--which is no small thing.

I just don't understand why people expect Nintendo to have the same innovative controller that the Wii had. That's the same kind of false-expectation that led the Final Fantasy series to ruination.