EB Expo: Wii U lineup impressions – Tropical Freeze, Mario Kart 8, Wii Party U

Nintendo’s Wii U lineup at the EB Expo was a little little bit smaller than we would have hoped, even some of the same demos from PAX Australia were there – nevertheless it was the first time Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze and Wii Party U were playable in Australia.

Wii Party U surprised a lot of people, mostly because everyone thinks it will be boring to play – it’s not, it’s actually quite fun. Tropical Freeze is still very early in development and at the moment, doesn’t show too much different from the previous Donkey Kong Country titles.

Mario Kart 8 was at the expo in non-playable capacity only – at least we got to see how awesome it looks.

Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze

Troy: The last Nintendo game I tried out was the new Donkey Kong Country game, which was sadly delayed to next year, recently.  I played the first level with a friend, which really just felt like your standard Donkey Kong Country game.
This level was more of a tutorial stage, so I can’t say much on the new mechanics, other than the game definitely feeling more dynamic with the barrel launching sequences.

Josh: I wasn’t overly excited to play DK, I was a little bitter it was Retro’s new game, and with a much more interesting platformer being available just across the booth it just didn’t really demand my attention. After playing it, it hasn’t really done anything to sway my opinion. It’s not bad, I just don’t see it being worthwhile when there’s other platformers that will already be available by the time DK comes out.

It’s… exactly what you’d expect really – you navigate a level, jumping from platforms and avoiding or jumping on enemies. Some levels have a gimmick like riding in a minecart which either player can make jump by pressing the jump button, with a more accurate jump being performed if both players press the button at the same time.

There’s just really not anything more to say about it. If that’s what you’re after then great, it’ll deliver, there wasn’t anything functionally wrong with it. I just don’t see it being worth full price I’m afraid. It did look really nice though, the HD does wonders for the colourful art style of the game. The graphics appeared to be slightly better than current generation, and a lot smoother too. I’d daresay it looked better than the PS4 games I played.

Mario Kart 8

Troy: While I didn’t get to have a hands-on with this one, I did get to see it being played before me.  The game played like standard Mario Kart, but it looked amazing in HD, finally! Out of the three tracks I saw, two were familiar. One was a ‘Peach’s Castle’ looking one, another reminded me of San Francisco with a bay and trams and steep hills. The underwater and hang glider sections were still there, just like Mario Kart 7.

But of course, you had your anti-gravity sections. Riding up on walls while seeing your opponents on the proper road was a really cool sight. But the coolest example was on the third track, Boo’s House. The first hallway had wavy walls, making it look like a moving winding road. But then, when you drive up on the walls, you’re driving over moving bumps, kind of like Bowser’s Castle in Mario Kart Wii. No new characters were shown, or karts, but MK8 in HD looked amazing.

Josh: Unfortunately I didn’t get to go hands-on with Mario Kart as it was restricted to only a few players, and at scheduled times throughout the day. It looked absolutely fantastic, as I said with Donkey Kong, HD is doing wonders for Nintendo’s games because of their colourful art styles.

The anti-gravity mechanic looks like it’ll be making tracks a lot more interesting, with different routes around the track ending up at different orientations – in the Ghost House level taking a shortcut on the ground level took you around another way that ended with you being above the other racers, upside down! It was really trippy seeing water sideways, and racers driving upside down, it’ll make the races feel a lot crazier.

Wii Party U

Troy: While there was a huge selection of games to try out with Wii Party U, I only played 3 of them, with one stranger and a Nintendo rep. The first game we played was Foosball, which played like… foosball. Using the analogue sticks, one per player, you control all of your on-board characters at once. Score goals, win games, as you’d expect.

The second game was called Gauntlet, which reminded me a lot of the DK Minigame in Nintendo Land. You move three coloured balls at a time through a track, using different controls for different segments. The analogue stick controlled the tilt of some parts, and pushing the triggers would pop pegs up to move balls along.

The last game was the most involved, called Name That Face. The aim of this game is to pull a face based on the challenge presented. For example, mine was “You are in a parade”. You pull the face, take a photo, and the other players have to guess what your face best describes, out of four answers. This one was quite fun, and a good example of what to expect from the other party games.

 Josh: This was a game that surprised me, I wasn’t too interested in it until last week’s Nintendo Direct, where the minigames shown had some interesting uses of the GamePad and got me excited to try it out at EB Expo. While queuing up I saw a group of people playing the game that’s like Twister, but with controllers. The GamePad and Wii Remotes are arranged in a specific formation on a surface, and players get told which button to hold down. Like Twister, if your finger comes off the button you’re out!

The minigames I got to try out were 2 player ones using only the GamePad. One was Foosball, where each player controls their players from either end of the controller using the analog stick. Another was Gauntlet, in which you use buttons on your end of the controller to navigate a marble through an obstacle course, much like a competitive version of the DK minigame from Nintendo Land.

The last one was Table Baseball, which was like a mix between Baseball and Pinball. The pitching player flings the ball at varying speeds, and the catcher has to flick the analog stick to swing their bat. Depending on where the ball lands, your runners move different numbers of bases. If the ball lands in a pipe, then you’ve been caught out. Normal baseball rules apply as well, for example missing the ball three times gets your batter out. All the games on show were a lot of fun, and showed off how many different ways the GamePad can be used.

The game feels like something that should have been available near launch in order to show off the amazing potential of the GamePad, but nonetheless it should be a lot of fun when it finally releases.