3.The Test: Nintendoland
For consumers who purchased the deluxe version of the Wii U, they will be treated to some of the strongest gameplay offerings from Nintendoland. Unfortunately, it also brought to light one of the "flaws" of the system that I initially anticipated. Playing Nintendoland is an absolute blast: either by yourself, with another player, or several players. Luckily, I have an in-house second player, so I was to able to experience most of the mini-games with someone else when required. Donkey Kong Crash Course, Pikmin Adventure, and Legend of Zelda Battlequest were a few of the particulars that come to mind that make great usage of the touchscreen and the latter two of the three listed were particularly good for co-op multiplayer and got rave reviews from the second player. Others, such as Mario Chase, Animal Crossing, and Balloon Trip Breeze were met with a bit less enthusiasm--the first two were likely because they aren't much fun with two players. While we were both having fun, and it's still our favorite game to play together, the back and forth switching of the gamepad and the WiiMote, sort of like passing a baton was kind of meh. Not that having a second gamepad would have alleviated that, but there are times that having the gamepad gives a definite advantage over the WiiMote player to the point where it's almost unfair (Luigi's Mansion comes to mind). Will we ever see a game designed to use two gamepads? Obviously, not until the gamepads themselves go on sale individually (which we'll probably see sometime after the initial 1 year warranty periods expire for the current batch of systems). However, as I've trumpeted in the past, I see the 1 gamepad model being an absolute nightmare in the house of two or more younger kids. And finally, to the overall verdict...