I ended up buying this yesterday on my way home from work. Oops. Got too excited when I saw it in HMV.
I've only played with two players so far and only in a few of the modes on offer but I thoroughly enjoyed it. It has all the charm of the original and there haven't been any minigames I haven't enjoyed. There was one purely luck based game where you have to choose a bush to hide behind and hope you don't get found and pecked by an ostrich. I can imagine some players having issue with it not being anything more than a dice roll but the charm of it all and the helplessness of the players made it hilarious for me. It'll be great in the context of a longer game.
None of the games seemed like they took advantage of the extra features of Wii Remote Plus, and the game box mentions requirements of either a Wii Remote or Wii Remote Plus which I guess means you don't need Motion Plus to play. I've not tried without it yet though.
The minigames are just as simple as before. Usually just the dpad and a button or wildly waggling. I do agree with Eurogamer in that the Gamepad can feel neglected. The Gamepad Island mode was something I felt was shoehorned in as an acknowledgement that the device still existed. That said, I did really warm to that mode anyway, as awkward as it was to pass the device to other players for such short minigames. It all mostly revolves around dice rolls; on Gamepad Island they are all decided by gamepad minigames. Some of these are still luck based but others bring elements of skill into the mix so you can view your route and aim to roll a particular number. They also add the risk of rolling a 0, or negatives (though I didn't see one). The difficulty of the minigame dice rolls is increased for the player in first place because Nintendo hates winners.
One method of rolling is adjusting the trajectory of a cannon to land in front of boards with the roll number on there. Another requests that the player turns the gamepad screen away and, guided by the other players, tilts the screen to pour water out of a beaker, the final water level deciding the roll number. This allows the other players to be deliciously mischievous if they wish. There's another where you use the gamepad's gyro to look and aim at balloons with numbers painted on them before firing a blow dart by blowing into the mic. If the thought of blowing into the mic to do fire your weapon infuriates you then don't worry; you probably aren't the type of personality who would be playing Wii Party U with others anyway.
On Gamepad island progess is occasionally halted by gates which again request the player hold the gamepad away from them. This time a pattern is displayed on the TV (I saw a zig-zag, a circle and a spiral) and the player is tested with tracing this as best they can. Go out-with the pattern or run out of time and you're kicked back a few spaces. The pattern remains complete up to the point of your failure to make it easier for the next try.
Oh; we ended up playing a little two player versus puzzle game for far longer than expected. It's the usual case of pieces being dropped (all shaped as a five-block plus sign) and disappearing when four or more of the same colour touch. Matching a lot or getting combos drops solid grey garbage blocks onto your opponent's grid, requiring two adjacent matches to break. First player to clear all the pieces above the goal line wins (or the player who stacks too high loses). Matching pieces successfully also builds up a special block bar which, iirc, causes "star" blocks to fall. Matching three of these freezes your opponents game and demands that they grab the gamepad to complete a quick minigame before they can continue. They're all "Find the Key" games where you're asked to, for example, rub away the silver, lotto ticket style, to reveal the key, turn over cards, roll a die or bash repeatedly on a wall to bust through. Really, really simple stuff but the way they break the flow for players is pretty fun.
The tabletop games were pretty interesting too. I've been interested in the novelty of the TV-less gamepad games for two players ever since seeing that wee othello demo video. The football game is hectic, gripping the gamepad from opposite ends and using an analogue stick each to shunt an entire team of players in the same direction. Many own goals were scored. The Screwball Scramble-esque mode where players simultaneously race marbles through an obstacle course was controlled in a similar manner; the player manipulating the obstacles themselves to control the marble's momentum and guide it toward the goal. The last section of the first course asked that players tap the shoulder buttons to propel the ball. I felt the button was in a rather akwward position for this. I didn't test the face buttons/dpad to see if the work as an alternative, though.
Rambling a bit. I'm in work on a saturday morning and bored. I'm going to get a few more players and get a better go of the game later.
tl;dr: I'm a bit disappointed there aren't more asymmetrical multiplayer games with a little more depth, like those from Nintendoland. That kind of this really is a great strength of the system and it's a shame not to see further examples of it done right but Wii Party U is still excellent and will be an absolute winner for family gatherings. Unless my auntie Agnes is there. I simply do not get on with that vile woman.
