Wii Party U (Wii U) Review

Happy birthday to our founder Phil! Today marks his 28th birthday. What a great opportunity to have a party! That TOTALLY makes sense for us to review Wii Party U on Nintendo's eighth generation console. It fits so perfectly! Here is our review.

Party Hardy, But Don't Be Tardy, Marty

Nintendo saw great success with its Wii line of games last generation. Even something that didn't really turn out as well, Wii Music, sold relatively well in the grand scheme of things. With the Wii U, Nintendo is returning to this line of software with much less prosperity. Truly, the large audience of casual players have moved on to mobile devices for their quick fix gaming sessions. That said, it doesn't detract from the quality of such titles like Wii Sports Club, Wii Fit U, and now Wii Party U. While many gamers would rather have another party with Mario and friends, Wii Party U definitely holds its own in the party department.

My friend who is color blind does
not like this particular mini-game at all.

First off, Wii Party U can most certainly not be criticized for lacking content. The game is packed with modes for many good times and social gatherings with friends or family, containing three separate categories of modes: TV Party, House Party, and GamePad Party. Party Phil hosts the festivities, introducing each modes' rules and offering suggestions to players who don't know what they want to dive into.

Ride 'em, cowboy!

While there is plenty for multiplayer gaming sessions, the majority of content is for 2+ players, some requiring 3 or 4 people. This means there's a sizable chunk of content that is inaccessible to a solo gamer. That said, what is available is pretty interesting.

When you're all aiming for the same basket,
there's bound to be some competition.

TV Party has a heavily reliance on 10-60 second mini-games to determine things like player order, for instance. One example of a TV Party mode is Highway Rollers, a board game that has players competing to travel the 300+ spaces to the goal. That's pretty hard to do with a single six-sided die, so in Highway Rollers, players get up to 10 dice to roll all at once, depending on their placement in each pre-round mini-game to blaze a trail along the linear path. This is all the while dealing with this massive zigzag bridge's variety of spaces, such as being shot from a cannon 20 spaces ahead or back, multiple bonus dice to roll either to move forward to backward, spaces that transport you to another player, or a space that begins a 1 vs 3 mini-game, with the winners being awarded bonus dice.

"Be free, magical dice!"

Another board game is set on an island, and has two human players competing to reach the island's treasure before the other. The mini-games used in Highway Rollers return, but there's also GamePad exclusive mini-games, although much simpler. Everything from determining your roll to tracing a door's pattern to open it relies on the GamePad.

This island isn't big enough for the two of us.

Then there's a board game involving switching between costume pieces and making laps on a linear city path to score points based on which costume parts you're wearing. Having a complete outfit nets the most points, some outfits scoring more points than others. Costume pieces are earned through landing on differently marked spaces around the board. Mini-games pop up every five turns, giving players a pick of one costume addition to their wardrobe. There's even the ability to steal pieces from other players.

Fashion is always in fashion
during this board game.

The mini-games of Wii Party U contain a lot of novel ideas and entertaining gameplay. Yes, there are some that are based solely on chance and some that are too simplistic to fully enjoy, but the majority offer a fair playing ground and enough depth for most people. Whether you're carefully trying to stay on a bucking bronco, trying to avoid being hit out of a gigantic pool table by an errant billiard balls, hitting the jump button with perfect timing to skip like a ninja across water, bopping other players with a hammer in hopes of popping their balloons, engaging in an outdoor version of musical chairs, or leaping into the air and tossing basketballs into the same net your opponents are trying to score in, there's many more fun games than there are ones that aren't. That said, you can let the Wii Party U community know your feelings on a mini-game by rating it on a scale of 1-5 stars. The overall rating of every player will show you which games you should play and which you should avoid like spoiled birthday cake.

It's okay that they're savagely beating one
another with mallets-- they're wearing helmets!

All of the free-for-all mini-games solely use the Wii Remote and do nothing with the Wii U GamePad. However, the 1 vs. 3 games has the sole player using the GamePad against the other three players, who use Wii Remotes and gaze upon the TV screen. This opens up a lot of intriguing games, like one where the GamePad player puts hidden booby traps on a path, and the TV players must try to avoid them through guessing which paths to take. Another game turns the GamePad player invisible, only giving away their location through walking on special tiles that light up when passed across. The goal of the Wii Remote players is to tag the invisible player using the lighted tiles as cues to where he or she is currently at.

The GamePad player controls the punching
gloves while the others try to avoid them.

House Party features some of the most ingenious and entertaining uses of the Wii U GamePad, and offers an abundance of opportunities for raucous laughter. One mode has you and several acquaintances crossing arms and fingers as you press buttons on the GamePad and Wii Remotes in what could be called a finger-centric form of Twister. Another mode has you and several friends and/or family members each passing the GamePad along as you draw the specified object on the screen. The catch is that one of the players will receive a different object than everyone else, and it's those players' job to decide which sketch represents that fact. Finally (but not the last of the many modes available), there's Name That Face, a mode where one player takes a selfie of sorts with the GamePad's camera, displaying some kind of emotion or expression for the other players to try to guess via multiple choice. This latter mode created such hilarity in my household. It was really one of the more popular modes among family members.

How good is your finger fu?

The last of the three categories of modes, GamePad Party, uses the Wii U GamePad to completely removes the television from the equation. These tabletop games feature gameplay wholly performed on the GamePad screen, having players share the controller, albeit on different sides of the screen. Such offerings include foosball and baseball. For foosball, each person controls their players with the analog stick, flicking it up or down to kick the ball while moving the stick left and right to control the goalie. Meanwhile, baseball has players alternating between batter and pitcher for an up to five inning game. The pitcher throws the ball by making a quick flick for a fast pitch or a small movement for a slow pitch. This is all the while the batter tries to time their swing to hit the ball into one of the five areas in the outfield. Depending on where their ball stays, they can get a single, a double, a triple, or a very rare (as its in the center of the outfield) home run. The batter must contend with three moving holes that if the ball drops into is an automatic out. That's just the beginning of the immensely accessible tabletop games available in Wii Party U.

What makes Wii Party U most exciting to me is how it puts the Wii U hardware's many capabilities into excellent use. It's a game that allows players to come across a wide array of compelling gameplay types and activities that are simple to pick up, understand, and enjoy. These highlight the significance of the Wii U's differences to other competing platforms and tell the player "okay, THIS is what the Wii U is good for." . It floors me how Nintendo stealthily shoved this title out the door with little fanfare. There are countless skeptics who don't understand the Wii U and what it is capable of, and Wii Party U would show the GamePad's significance to a lot of these people, as well as many developers who seem to be dumbfounded by what to do with the Wii U's controller.

Why did Pac-Man come into my mind again?
Didn't we already do a Pac 'n Roll review this week?

Still, even with being one of the best games that utilize the features of the Wii U hardware, there are a selection of modes that please less than others. Furthermore, Wii Party U is a party that is best had with other players. As a solo party, Wii Party U isn't half the fun, as you're literally missing out on half the modes available to you. Regardless, if all of what I've described sounds good to you and you have fellow humans to enjoy the game with (and you'd love to get an extra Wii Remote Plus that comes bundled with the game), you should definitely RSVP to this particular party ASAP.

[SPC Says: 8.0/10]

Mini-Games: A Little Bit of Awesome

Happy Thanksgiving to those folks who are celebrating it. We've had two reviews in a row these past two days, so let's try something different and special for today. Mini-games have drawn a lot of fire this current generation. Most likely as more and more games are solely comprised of entirely them and nothing else. Regardless, there have been plenty of fun mini-games that have come out in recent years and even further back than that. The following list showcases some of my favorites from generations past and present.

Blitzball (Final Fantasy X - PS2)

Are you ready for some blitzball? Once you've been given the go ahead, you can play a round or two or three or one-hundred of blitzball from any save point in the game. The rules of blitzball are just like soccer except you use your hands and the entire game is played in an underwater sphere. Not too different, yes? Certainly Beckham could adapt. If Beckham was too chicken to play, you could assign new members to your team in hopes of dominating the rest of the field. Not only was blitzball a way to pass the time, but it was also the only way to get various rare items including one of the character's ultimate weapons. For a wet and wild mini-game, blitzball may be just for you.


Triple Triad (Final Fantasy VIII - PS1)

We go from one Final Fantasy to another with one of my favorite mini-games period. It's triple triad. What's triple triad, you ask? It's a card game played on a 3x3 board. Each player gets five cards, either randomly assigned or hand-selected by the player. Each card has four numbers or letters. 1 is the weakest, S is the strongest. Cards are then placed on the board. If two or more cards are placed next to one another, a battle happens. The card with the highest amount wins, taking over that player's card as its own. The game goes on until all nine spaces are filled. There's additional rules such as elements and things like that, but these are the bare bones basics. The game is so popular that there are internet forums dedicated to playing the game electronically.


The Adventures of Captain Qwark (Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal - PS2)

By far the coolest mini-game in Ratchet series history is this side-scrolling platformer/shooter. There are eventually five levels available for play. You control Captain Qwark as he runs, jump, shoots, and dodges in the game. Each chapter tells the story of Qwark's mission to stop the evil Dr. Nefarious. Not only can you normally play through the levels, but speed runs and collecting 100 Qwark tokens in a given level awards you with titanium bolts, the rarest of all rare collectibles in the Ratchet and Clank series. This game is so good that I would purchase a longer version on PSN. It's that good.


Bumper Balls (Mario Party, Mario Party 2 - N64)

Imagine if you will, an island with deep blue water surrounding it. Now imagine four multi-colored balls about the size of a person resting serenely atop the island. Sounds pleasant if not odd, no? Now imagine one person riding each ball in attempt to knock the other three off the island into shark-infested water which will rip their intestines and hearts out, organ by organ. Yes, it's Bumper Balls from the Mario Party franchise. The second installment of the mini-game brought with it different themed islands such as slippery ice and hot fire! While not as violent as I made it out to be, Bumper Balls to this day is one of my favorite Mario Party mini-games.


Ball Rolling (Super Mario Galaxy - Wii)

Let's continue with this ball theme, shall we? Two of the 120 stars in Super Mario Galaxy required you to control Mario atop a ball by tilting the Wii remote like a joystick ever so gracefully. This is all the while as he leaps over chasms, dodges obstacles such as goombas, and inches closer and closer to his coveted power star. The controls were great, and tilting the Wii remote to move the ball was a fun, fantastic, and fascinating experience.


Dream Ski Jump (Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games - Wii)

There's plenty of great games in Mario and Sonic's latest Olympic offering. The Dream events are by far my favorites. These are events that take realistic sports and term them into fantasies set in Mario's and Sonic's worlds. Dream Ski Jump propels you off a ramp with the idea of collecting as many point balloons as possible as you fly through the orbit of the Good Egg Galaxy with memorable music in tow. By the end of the event, you fall towards a star-shaped platform each with different point values attached to it. As you land, your points are tallied up and the player or team with the most points wins the medal.


Monkey Target (Super Monkey Ball franchise - Various)

Hang-gliding all to itself is a wonderful experience I'm told. The freedom of soaring in the air, the wind wafting against your face, and the thrill of being high in the sky. How can this experience be more fun? Well, why don't you add a whole slew of monkeys and a target in the middle of the ocean? What you get is Monkey Target. The goal of Monkey Target is to glide down to a target with different point values on it, and land and stay on one of the point values. Otherwise you'll be faced with the dank, dark depths of ocean below! Later installments brought Team Monkey Target where four monkeys flew together to hopefully land and score as many points as possible.

Have any mini-games that you feel should show up for round two? Let everyone know in our comments section!