GAAAAAAH I broke down and opened up the Wii U and played Nintendo Land with my brothers -- so much for waiting for Christmas.
This game is great! I'm a "star player" on Balloon Trip Breeze -- I love the controls and physics in that game, and all the different scenarios they crammed in there. And the music! Trying to deliver each package intact, and land on the red flag, and combo-chain the balloons into different colors -- it all adds to the high-score potential. Fantastic stuff.
Luigi's Ghost Mansion, Mario Chase and Animal Crossing: Sweet Day were an absolute riot. Luigi's was probably my favorite -- lots of intense moments where we'd imitate the line from Batman Begins where the goon yells, "WHERE ARE YOU" and Batman goes, "Here." It makes me REALLY eager for Dark Moon to release on 3DS. And about Mario Chase -- was that a Cool, Cool Mountain remix I heard on the third map with the slides? As for Sweet Day, the greatest moments were when someone has to completely jettison their load of candies to elude the fuzz. XD
I really love Takamaru's Ninja Castle -- really punchy combat, a lot of variety to the changing shooting galleries, and subtle strategy in leading shots, deflecting projectiles, etc. Yoshi's Fruit Cart is also surprisingly awesome, definitely one of my favorites.
Captain Falcon's Twister Race, while slower than an actual F-Zero game, is really just the right speed given the tilt controls and focus on drifting around corners and past obstacles.
Octopus Dance is quite interesting and really speeds up as it goes along, punching in different directions, jumping, leaning, skipping beats, etc. It's easiest to pay attention to whichever screen has your Mii's back turned to you, but sometimes the Octopus will squirt ink on that screen, forcing you to look at whichever screen has the dancers facing you, in which case you have to reverse all your moves (I.E. if you're supposed to raise your left hand, you'd use the right stick).
I tried DK Crash Course. Definitely the highest learning curve so far, and the game requiring the most concentration, precision and patience. And damn, the first map is so complex -- I could see lots of possible ways to navigate it. I'll need to spend more time with this one to really learn it.
The only one we haven't played so far is Metroid Blast. Zelda Battle Quest was decent fun -- moreso with the sword, we all agreed. We only played the first two and a half levels, though (died in Lost Woods, distracted by Saria's Song). As for Pikmin Adventure, I tried that in single-player as Olimar. Probably the one I found least fun, though I'm sure my opinion of it will improve. Is it tap to punch, and swipe to throw Pikmin? I think I was also a bit stressed since that particular attraction is so beautiful that I was tempted to watch the TV, but the TV was following my AI Pikmin companion.
I'm really impressed by Nintendo Land. Not GOTY or anything (that would be Kid Icarus Uprising and Sleeping Dogs), but really awesome stuff here.