E3 2012: Nintendo Land is Wii U’s answer to Wii Sports

Nintendo this morning announced Nintendo Land as a launch title for the Wii U at its E3 press conference.

Just as playing Wii Sports for the first time helped us understand the underlying appeal of the Wii, Nintendo Land will serve to demonstrate the great potential of the Wii U GamePad.

Nintendo Land is a minigame collection based in a fun and lively theme park. It features 12 different “attractions”, each delivering a spin on a classic Nintendo franchise. Up to five players will be able to participate in either solo or team play, depending on the attraction. The multiplayer experiences will change every time, depending on which controllers players use, be it the Wii U GamePad or Wii Remote, and whether they are spectating.

Five attractions were revealed at the conference:

• In Donkey Kong’s Crash Course, players players tilt the GamePad to guide a fragile rolling cart through an obstacle course that resembles the original Donkey Kong arcade game.
• In Luigi’s Ghost Mansion, the player with the GamePad is a ghost (invisible to others) who is trying to capture up to four humans armed with flashlights. The humans must shine their flashlights on the ghost long enough to reduce its hit points to zero to win.
• In Animal Crossing: Sweet Day, the player with the GamePad is in charge of safeguarding a candy orchard from a group of candy-loving animals, while up to four other players must work together to outwit and outrun the guards.
• In The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest, the player with the GamePad is an archer who can aim and shoot arrows using the screen as a view finder. That player is joined by up to three others who wield Wii Remote Plus controllers like swords to take on a variety of enemies.
• In Takamaru’s Ninja Castle, players use the GamePad to launch ninja stars at an army of ninja attackers, earning more points for consecutive hits. Moving the GamePad around at different angles enables the player to take aim in an intuitive fashion.

The other seven attractions will be announced some time in the future.

Wii U software producer Katsuya Eguchi stated that Miiverse has a key role in Nintendo Land, and we’ll learn more about that during the Wii U developer discussion later today.