Hey everyone! Last week we took a look at 'Playstation One Puzzle Games that you may have missed'. I'll be delving back into retro games next week, but this week I wanted to write about recent games that you should consider buying a Wii-U to play.
Recommendation #1 – Mario Kart 8
'Mario Kart 8' is an insanely fun kart racing game where you race through courses whilst trying to decimate your rivals with items such as projectile shells, bombs, boomerangs, banana peels and a slew of other quirky items in order to win races. The game contains 36 playable characters, kart customisation and 40 tracks meaning that there is so much content to keep you entertained.
I personally find that even though there is an abundance of content, the game can get stale if you play it for hours every day like I do, but that's where online multi-player comes in. You can create lobbies to play exclusively with your Wii-U owning friends, or you can participate in global matches/tournaments with players from around the globe. I love that you can take your local multi-player friends into the online matches with you for some hectic 12 player kart racing. This is the best online multiplayer I have ever experienced from any Nintendo game and that is why I feel as though you would be spending your money well if you picked this up.
Recommendation #2 – Bayonetta 1 + 2
I feel kind of like a jerk for Including 'Bayonetta' on this list as it's not exclusively for the Wii U, however the sequel is. My reasoning for including this game is because I enjoyed this game so much, and knowing that this game was not going to be published until Nintendo gave it a chance makes me want to encourage gamers to pick up this series and actually play it.
This game, and the sequel, give me a reason to play a game genre I would have never thought of turning a Wii-U on to play, and hopefully by supporting this game we will see more hardcore games published by Nintendo because honestly, 'Mario' as a character is getting stale and to be honest, Nintendo need more diverse new IP. Hopefully this will help them break into a market they seem to shy away from.
Recommendation #3 – Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
The 'Donkey Kong Country' franchise has always had a reputation for being intensely difficult and this game is no exception to the rule. I found myself frustrated as I died 28 times in the space of 5 minutes, but strangely it only made me focus more on trying to beat the game. I really appreciate the multitude of different mechanics throughout each level and the diverse skills each add on character gives Donkey Kong, which keeps each level fresh, so even though you will probably repeatedly die, you won't feel as though the game is repetitive.
This is one of the few games I have played on the Wii-U where the gameplay didn't feel like an absolute cakewalk. I know that my age of 22 is not Nintendo's primary demographic so I can forgive this, however I am happy that they released a game that challenges me. I've noticed that over the past few years, platformers have been few and far between, and what little we have got has been created to appeal to every demographic, meaning games have been lacking challenging difficulty levels.