The 12 Attractions of Nintendo Land, Revisited

And the curtain has been pulled back further. When this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo came to a close, if left us with quite a few questions about the Wii U and its flagship titles, and several months to spend in speculation of their answers while waiting for the next big press event. But though we had time to kill, we wasted none of it where Nintendo Land was concerned. The Big N had only officially announced half of the virtual theme park's dozen playable "attractions," and we were determined to discern the rest – springboarding our discussion of the other six off of a teasing, tantalizing array of franchise emblems posted on Nintendo's Facebook page. That image pointed to which long-running Nintendo brands would be represented by those remaining hidden games, and we went to work predicting them all in a feature called The 12 Attractions of Nintendo Land.

Well, we were right. Not that it was all that difficult, mind you, but it's still satisfying to see that Nintendo Land is shaping up in the way we hoped it would back in June. Now, with the identities of all 12 games revealed, we're presenting them all again and collecting our coverage of each here in The 12 Attractions of Nintendo Land, Revisited.

Oh, and fans of game speculation, have no fear. We still don't have all the details on some of these, so there's still time to make your guesses and place your bets to win some Internet bragging rights.

The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest
Officially Revealed at E3 2012 | Watch the Demo in Action

In the game itself and in the social media material the company has used to promote it, each of Nintendo Land's 12 different games is represented by a circular franchise emblem. We can assess each icon one at a time to get a better sense of the entire package, and the first one, just above, is unmistakably the Triforce from Nintendo's Legend of Zelda series. That means it's the emblem for The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest.

One of the five playable Nintendo Land demos on the E3 show floor last June, The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest is a three-player design that casts two people as Wii Remote-wielding swordsmen while the third uses the Wii U GamePad to fire arrows as an archer. Rich had a chance to go hands-on with this game before the show started last week, and later Audrey was able to record video footage of the game in action. Check it out.

Pikmin Adventure
Officially Revealed at September's Wii U Preview Event | Watch the Demo in Action

The next franchise emblem is a five-petaled flower, and that can only mean one thing – Pikmin. This is the first of the six games we didn't have confirmed for Nintendo Land coming out of this year's E3, and that's likely because Nintendo didn't want to demonstrate a Pikmin mini-game on Wii U at the same time the full game, Pikmin 3, was being shown off just a few yards away.

So we didn't have many clues about how the Nintendo Land Pikmin mini-game would play, but all that changed in New York on September 13. Pikmin Adventure was revealed as a "team attraction" focused on co-op play, and it lets players dress up as either Captain Olimar or large, differently-colored Pikmin. (As we predicted. Score!) The Pikmin players use Wii Remotes, and simply run around each level bashing bad guys and collecting drops of nectar to level up their abilities. The Olimar player wields the GamePad, and can attack enemies with a swarm of smaller Pikmin soldiers or blow his whistle to call the human-controlled Pikmin to himself, then toss them into battle with greater precision thanks to the Pad's touch screen. Rich was impressed by this one in New York, and says that in some ways it's a better Pikmin game that the actual Pikmin games. (We'll have to hope he elaborates on that thought a little later.)

Animal Crossing: Sweet Day
Officially Revealed at E3 2012 | Watch the Demo in Action

This little leaf with a bite taken out of it is the franchise emblem for Animal Crossing (where furniture, clothes and any other kinds of collectible items magically transform into easily carried leaves when picked up around town.) We knew what mini-game this one belonged too back in June – Animal Crossing: Sweet Day.

This is a five-player mini-game that dresses four Wii Remote-using players in animal outfits and tasks them to run around the TV screen collecting candy from trees. Meanwhile, the fifth player uses the two analog sticks on the GamePad to simultaneously control two different guard dogs to hunt down and tag the candy-grabbing critters. We've got video of the sugary-sweet madness in action, so click right here to watch it happen.

Mario Chase
Officially Revealed at September's Wii U Preview Event | Watch the Demo in Action

Here's a simple icon for any Nintendo fan to recognize in a split second – Mario's signature cap. This most prominent piece of Nintendo mascot headgear will hover over the entranceway to Nintendo Land's Mario-themed attraction, which was not shown at this year's E3. But that's OK. Because it was shown at yesterday's Wii U Preview Event –and, before that, at E3 2011.

"Chase Mii" was its name at the time, and it was one of a handful of original demos used to showcase the Wii U back at E3 2011. In the game, four players dressed as Toads attempted to chase down and capture a fifth player dressed as Mario – it was tough because Mario got a head-start and could hide in the environment while enjoying an expanded view of his surroundings on the GamePad screen, while the Toads could only see a piece of the arena each on their quadrants of the TV above.

The newly-renamed "Mario Chase," as officially revealed yesterday, is essentially the same as it was as a tech demo – and that's a good thing. Chase Mii was incredibly fun in 2011 (you can watch a video of that older version here), and we were hoping that the final Mario mini-game in Nintendo Land would be the same thing with a new name. Well, it is. So we're happy.

Source : ign[dot]com