Nintendo Reveals Last Three Nintendo Land Minigames

Today, Nintendo published a press release to announce the final three minigames that you’ll find in Nintendo Land, the tech-demo-like title that’s meant to show you and your friends many of the gameplay possibilities of the new Wii U console. What are these three games? This is them, taken straight from the release itself:

• Yoshi’s Fruit Cart: Using the GamePad touch screen and stylus, the player draws a path for the Yoshi Cart to follow through each course. However, only the view of the course displayed on the TV screen shows fruit that must be collected and obstacles that must be avoided along the way to the goal. This fun attraction is a great example of the kind of integrated second-screen game play made possible by Wii U and the GamePad controller.
• Captain Falcon’s Twister Race: In this single-player Attraction based on the F-Zero racing franchise, players get a top-down view of the track on the GamePad, which is held vertically and turned to steer the vehicle through a winding, twisting track, as they try to hit checkpoints before time runs out. Driving across dash plates can provide a quick burst of speed, while obstacles like speed spikes, whirlwinds, other vehicles and even bombs can make for a dangerous run.
• Octopus Dance: In this single-player Attraction, players use the GamePad to mirror dance moves performed by a deep-sea dance instructor. The goal is to always be watching one’s own movements from the back to more easily mirror dance moves, but the dynamic interaction between the GamePad and the TV adds a unique twist. Players must be ready to switch between the views offered on the TV screen and the GamePad screen, as sometimes one view is more useful than the other.

The only one of those that sounds appealing to me is “Captain Falcon’s Twister Race.” I can imagine some pretty cool F-Zero-style racing happening courtesy of the GamePad. The other two? Bleh.

I have mixed feelings about Nintendo Land. From what I saw during Nintendo’s E3 presentation this summer, I wasn’t too terribly impressed. At the same time, Nintendo Land might be the best opportunity to try and snare friends into the Wii U-buying club, and could be a great way to get people over to have a good time with the new system.

That said, I’m still betting that New Super Mario Bros. U will fill that role nicely, and will likely offer up some awesome single-player gameplay to boot. For my money, make mine Mario.