Although some of Nintendo Land's mini-games are competitive, all of them are shallow, short, and stripped.
Presentation - Nintendo Land attracts its audience with a total of 12 mini-games in a carnival style theme park. Each of the games are based on Nintendo's own popular franchises over the years. These games are The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest, Metroid Blast, Pikmin Adventure, Mario Chase, Luigi's Ghost Mansion, Animal Crossing: Sweet Day, Takamaru's Ninja Castle, Donkey Kong's Crash Course, Captain Falcon's Twister Race, Balloon Trip Breeze, Yoshi's Fruit Cart, and Octopus Dance.
The only games that have team attractions are The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest, Metroid Blast, and Pikmin Adventure. The only competitive attractions are Mario Chase, Luigi's Ghost Mansion, and Animal Crossing: Sweet Day. The rest of the mini-games are for single player mode only.
While it's nice for Nintendo to combine some of its biggest franchises into one game, all of these games are pretty shallow and stripped from the actual games. For example, some of these games have a time limit and it strips the fun away from new players experiencing different Nintendo franchises for the first time. I like the idea of playing as your Mii avatars to dress up as Nintendo characters when you actually play these different games.
Instead of making these games shallow and stripped, Nintendo should have taken actual levels from Super Mario 64, Sunshine, Galaxy 1 and 2 to make a multiplayer versus battle with the Miis and keep the same objectives such as defeating Bowser and music tracks. Also, whoever collects the most coins and stars/shine sprites wins. I'm not expecting Nintendo to pull out every single level from these games, but only pull some of them at least without stripping the game play. For example, in the Super Mario Sunshine versus battle, all of the Miis will dress up as a different colored Mario with all of them carrying FLUDD around. If I were working for Nintendo, I would replace Mario Chase with a title called Super Mario 3D Mix with several levels from Super Mario 64, Sunshine, Galaxy 1 and 2. The same idea goes with the rest of versus multiplayer games. Also, I would include franchises from Fire Emblem, Kid Icarus, Pokemon, Kirby, and even the Pilotwings series.
Graphics - The visuals are very colorful and vibrant in HD. However, the visuals still appear to be too cutesy and will most likely appeal to the younger generation.
Sound - The music is pretty appealing and will sound familiar to Nintendo fans. The theme music in each game was pulled straight from the actual games.
Game play - This time you use the Wii U gamepad to play all of these 12 min-games. For example, you throw ninja stars at the cardboard ninjas by swiping them from the Wii U pad in Takamaru's Ninja Castle. The controls in this game are unintuitive and unique. However, there are a few games that have slight control issues that I played so far.
For example, in The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest, I couldn't even figure out how to move my character freely. When I shoot arrows at enemies, they come toward me. Not being able to move my character freely disables dodging and avoiding enemies. There is still a way to move your character freely, but I haven't quite figured that out yet because the controls still confuse me. Remember that I didn't play all of the games yet, so I can't really explain the controls to each of them.
Also, in Captain Falcon's Twister Race I had issues with the Wii U pad needing constant recalibration. As a result, I had a game over, because the constant pauses messed up with my speed a little. The actual controls work fine with tilting and twisting the Wii U gamepad around.
Lasting appeal - With 12 mini-games and only a half of them have versus multiplayer, most players will get tired and bored very quickly. There is no online mode, only local multiplayer. The shallowness and shortness of these games have very little depth to the actual mainstreamed games.
Another problem Nintendo Land has for consumers is that this game is way too overpriced at over $59.99 with only 12 mini-games. I would highly recommend Nintendo fans skip this game and only buy it when the price drops at least.
The Good - A combination of games from some of Nintendo's biggest franchises, creative use of the Mii avatars, some of these versus games can be very competitive
The Bad - games are mostly shallow, short, and stripped, not enough Nintendo franchises, a few games have slight control issues, no online mode, and overpriced with paying $59.99 with only 12 mini-games
Presentation- 5
Graphics- 8
Sound- 10
Game play- 5
Lasting appeal - 5
Overall 6.6 out of 10 GameSpot Score 6.5 out of 10