How did Wii U's Potential Launch Games Fare at the 'Nintendo Experience'?

By Jonathan Charles | Aug 03, 2012 10:21 AM EDT

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Nintendo held an event in Washington recently called the "Nintendo Experience," offering attendees a chance to play upcoming titles on the platform and generally get a feel for the GamePad. Mygamer attended the event and posted impressions of the Experience.

The hardware of the GamePad feels "wonderful". Mygamer cited the lightweight and ergonomic form factor, despite the amalgamation of buttons and triggers and analog sticks. The report also confirmed dual GamePad support is coming, after launch. With hardware out of the way, how does the tablet work in games?

Project P-100

Strangely not shown at Nintendo's E3 2012 conference, Project P-100 is similar to Pikmin - players control superhero-esque characters using the physical buttons or touchscreen- with an objective to fill.

The characters fight individually and collectively, forming objects including swords (to fight) or a rope (to climb). Drawing a circle around fallen foes recruits defeated enemies. It seems a primarily offensive and action-centric version of Pikmin, perhaps careening outside the particular audience Pikmin will appeal to.

ZombiU

A first-person shooter zombie game? Ubisoft is giving fans reasons to love ZombiU from the set-up, but the GamePad implementation is managing the inventory in real-time (so beware of zombies). The trailer at E3 showed zombies walking towards the player while entering a passcode. Since a bite turns the player into a zombie, causing a respawn with no items gained when human, it's sure to be tense.

In multiplayer, GamePad support is displaying a map in top-down view. Zombies can be placed across the map, with players having access to four types of zombies (Mygamer didn't describe the types). The multiplayer mode is CTF, at least.

The game sounds like a simple version of DayZ, the popular Arma 2 mod. The consequence for being bitten is a welcome move, versus the run-and-gun approach of a game like Left 4 Dead. It'll be interesting to see the depth of the multiplayer modes. An open world approach would be exciting.

Nintendo Land

The mini-game collection meant to rival Wii Sports in accessibility got a lukewarm reception at the end of Nintendo's E3 conference, as well as post-show when demos were played. The minigames are based around Nintendo properties: In Luigi's Ghost Mansion, players use Wiimotes to hunt for the GamePad-controlled ghost. Zelda: Battle Quest has players controlled exclusively via the GamePad, while the Wiimote swings the players' swords. Battle Quest didn't use Wii MotionPlus despite having a control scheme similar to The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.

Wii Sports became a phenomenon because of its simplicity: picking up a baseball bat is natural. The Nintendo Land minigames seem slightly convoluted.

Batman: Arkham City: Armored Edition

Batman: Arkham City: Armored Edition also featured and basically sounds like a GamePad-enabled version of the 2011 title. The GamePad can be used to view the environment in Detective Mode, even when turned away from the TV, while the inventory is accessed through a button press. The assumption seemed to be the inventory items permanently featured on the GamePad's screen.

Arkham City aside, at least Wii U's titles seem to be interesting! New Super Mario Bros. 2 could release at launch, along with Pikmin 3 and, therefore, a solid choice of titles could be available.