We did not NintendoLand, NintendoLand-ed on us

I have been gaming literally almost as long as I remember . I remember a Christmas morning waking up and finding a Fivel Mousekawits stuffed animal under the tree and then blank then my dad setting up an Atari in a thunderstorm. I don't have that cool memory of unwrapping the Nintendo that my parents got a few short years later. I do have a memory of my tiny hands plugging the wires into the wall behind what was loosely called an "entertainment center" which consisted of a blocky TV and a VCR that we used to tape movies off of basic cable. I sat mesmerized waiting for my brother's Mario to die so I could have my turn (4 years old and I was able to establish a complicated structure that most non-gamers will ever understand, called "You died, my turn")

I recently purchased the Wii U and let the waves of nostalgia wash over me like I was Dionysus and Link and Mario were wine. I had purchased the Deluxe set which has black finish and comes with a copy of NintendoLand. NintendoLand is a game that at first I had written off as filler, as I was really paying the extra $50 for the quadruple storage space and didn't care too much about whatever else came with it. I soon realized that this was folly. 

NintendoLand, for those of you who haven't seen it yet, is a mini-game collection loosely connected together with an overworld built as an amusement park. There are several different things minigames that are fun and have their own unique art style to them as well. The Legend of Zelda: Battlequest attraction was my instant favorite. The person with the gamepad plays as an archer and if you have others join you they play as swordsmen and you fight varying enemies all the while on a "rail" so forward moment is done for you. The art style of the attraction is that of a patchwork quilt, with different looking materials making up the backgrounds, enemies and clothing. It also seems that you are miniatures due to zippers that run along pathways that in scale are quite large.

The game itself was a blast but it caused something I never thought would ever happen, my wife who hasn't played a video game, under her own volition since Donkey Kong Country (1994) would play the game with me and ask to play! At one point I actually found her looking up strategies and looking for help on IGN. So for me this is the game that saved my marriage (only a slight exaggeration.) 

My second favorite is Balloon Trip Breeze, a game that has you glide along with balloons keeping you afloat, which in turn are kept up by wind, which you control by swiping the stylus on the gamepad. While this sounds complicated it is actually quite easy and takes seconds to learn. The difficulty comes in with obstacles that pop one of your balloons, that when they get to zero you fall and die. There is also the threat of instant death if you go to low and a giant fish pops out of the water below and eats you whole. There are other balloon travelers that are your enemies and you have to pop their balloons before they pop yours. The whole game is a single player affair, and actually does get quite difficult quite fast.   

All in all there are more games that are fun, either alone or with friends, than not. NintendoLand for me is a buy, either separately at $60 of sorta for free with the deluxe Wii U and certainly cheaper than having divorce papers drawn up. 

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Disclosure: This is a non-sponsored review. All product was purchased by me and the purpose of this review is based solely on my own interests. No product or monetary compensation was given to me by said company.