I don't know if anyone here remembers it, but as a kid, we use to play Maze Craze on the Atari 2600 and it was a blast to race each other through the mazes. This game could recreate that.





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E3: Hands-on with Nintendo Land: DK's Crash Course
This is the last in the series to preview all five of the games within Nintendo Land for the Wii U. (You can check out the other previews here, here, here, and here! Whew!) Let's talk "Donkey Kong's Crash Course!" I am going to say it right now: Donkey Kong's Crash Course is my favorite of all five Nintendo Land minigames on display in the Nintendo booth. True, there are still a large amount of games still yet to be revealed, but they will have a tough time beating Crash Course. The game is really fun. I mean, check out the main header image above. It is out of control! How could something that looks like that not be fun?! The concept of the single-player Donkey Kong's Crash Course is simple: You just have to guide a rolling, triangle-shaped vehicle through a crazy, complicated obstacle course without crashing it or flipping it over. It sounds simple, right? It's not. Crash Course is super-challenging, and, my God, so much fun. The only "simple" thing about it is the controls. All players have to do is tilt the Wii U GamePad back and forth to roll the vehicle left and right. Occasionally, the ZL and ZR triggers are used to activate levers and cranks, but, outside of all this, the controls are very easy to learn. Mastering them is an entirely different story. As you can see in the screenshots, the course in Crash Course is HUGE! And these screens don't even give you the entire picture. The level actually scrolls way up, so it is much larger than the images indicate.
Everything starts out easy enough, with some hills to navigate over. Just tilt the GamePad and the vehicle rolls. If the hill is big, just tilt the GamePad even more more and the cart will roll much faster. But you don't want it to roll too fast. If it does, it could easily crash or flip over when you get to the next obstacle. You have to be slow and meticulous. And as the obstacles get more complicated, things get tough! BUT SO MUCH FUN! The whole thing reminded me of a combination of Uniracers and The Incredible Machine -- which is kind of the best combination ever. Some of the obstacles involve navigating giant loops with cranks, riding elevators, and navigating a crazy series of steep hills. To help you out, there are checkpoint markers every once in a while that you spawn from if you die. But with only five lives, getting through the entire course is tough. I played the game multiple times, and never made it. Is is really challenging. To add incentive and competition to the proceedings, your time and distance is recorded on a leaderboard, making getting farther and earning high scores oh-so tempting. I really, really loved Donkey Kong's Crash Course. It was such a breath of fresh air and a genuinely fun and surprisingly deep minigame. I can't wait to play more and finally make it to the end of the course! Did you know? You can now get daily or weekly email notifications when humans reply to your comments.
Legacy Comments (will be imported soon)These previews were great! I'm never excited at all for things like this (Ex. Wii Play) but Nintendo Land just looks like a blast! And if it turns out to be a pack-in or a bundle with a Wii Remote Plus then HHHNNNNNNNGGGGGGG!!!!! Whao I kind of glossed over this Nintendo Land stuff and wrote it off as a bunch of gay baby turds but this does look fun. There is something really fantastic visually about that game layout. NINTENDO: hire chad to do your E3 presentations from now on. Fire Reggie. Chad will infect the crowd will Nintenjoy and we will all be so much more excited about everything you do. this game seriously looks ridiculous and awesome. I'm with you, Chad, it's the highlight of Nintendo Land, for sure. Nintendo won't do it but they should add a level designer as well as include both online (each using a WiiPad) and local multiplayer (each using a Wiimote). The vehicles in multiplayer would not collide with each other but pass right through.
I don't know if anyone here remembers it, but as a kid, we use to play Maze Craze on the Atari 2600 and it was a blast to race each other through the mazes. This game could recreate that. 9:00 PM on 06.17.2013 Nintendo 3DS was the best-selling console in MayThe Nintendo 3DS was the best-selling piece of gaming hardware in the United States during May, according to the NPD's monthly report. Nintendo attributes the achievement to the platform's strong software sales, which have in...
11:00 AM on 06.13.2013 Reggie asks Retro why they're doing another Donkey KongRemember when I said Reggie would be watching you on social media? Well it turns out he wasn't joking, as he sat down with Retro Studios' Michael Kelbaugh to ask the question many people were thinking: "why is there going to...
4:10 PM on 06.12.2013 Tony and Holmes try out Donkey Kong Tropical FreezeI never thought I'd see competitive Donkey Kong, but watching Jonathan Holmes and Tony Ponce team up proves that wrong. With Gil Ruta from Nintendo watching on, Tony and Holmes try to find out who is the best player, control...
7:30 AM on 06.12.2013 Retro chose Donkey Kong over Metroid for the Wii UWhen Nintendo's Satoru Iwata informed us that we'll be seeing what Retro Studios was working on at E3, we all assumed the best possible outcome: Metroid. But what we actually got was an announcement for a follow-up to Donkey ...
12:09 AM on 06.12.2013 Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze isn't an ICEE flavor"What's Retro working on? A new Metroid? Zelda Wii U? Something entirely original?" Those were the questions prior to E3. Turns out the secret project was yet another Donkey Kong Country sequel. Don't get me wrong! Returns is friggin' amazing and Tropical Freeze is just as fun so far. I simply think Retro has so much more potential. Never mind that, though. Tropical Freeze... it's pretty bangin'.
4:57 PM on 06.11.2013 More about DKC: Tropical Freeze's soundtrackI was thrilled but admittedly surprised that Nintendo took stage time to announce that David Wise, beloved Donkey Kong Country composer, would be working on the newly-announced Wii U title, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freez...
3:31 PM on 06.11.2013 Ogle some Nintendo's finest E3 titles, and cat people!Nintendo sure has been sharing a lot on the great titles they have on the table for this year! From the return of Super Smash Bros. to the nostalgic feeling The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds, Nintendo is really hitti...
1:34 PM on 06.11.2013 David Wise composing Donkey Kong Country: Tropical FreezeI don't know how I always end up on a plane or asleep or otherwise unable to catch Nintendo's Direct videos, but that trend didn't stop this week. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze was announced, much to my excitement and ...
10:28 AM on 06.11.2013 Reggie announces Wii U games for Best Buy eventHot off the Nintendo E3 Direct, Reggie brings the news of what exactly fans will be able to play at the Wii U Best Buy event. Let's cut to it: Mario Kart 8, Super Mario 3D World, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD, and D...
9:31 AM on 06.11.2013 Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze coming to Wii UDonkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze is coming to Wii U, with wacky camera angles, and two-player co-op. Secondary players can choose to be either Diddy King or Dixie Kong. A sidescrolling platformer in the same vein as Donkey Kong Country Returns, Tropical Freeze features dynamic scenes, and looks gorgeous in HD. It's due out by the end of the year.
| timeline following: |
| 1:00 PM on 02.02.2013 Storm's Adventure with Wii U and Nintendo Land |

Next in line for "Playing Catch Up to the Catch Up" is my Wii U premiere video. True be told, it isn't the really the premiere video, that honor belongs to this live stream (I brand them as "Live Boredom"). Click that to wat...more
| 4:00 PM on 01.24.2013 An aural tour with the composer of Nintendo Land, part 3 |

This is our third and final entry in our series featuring composer Ryo Nagamatsu as he walks us through the attractions in Nintendo Land one-by-one, giving us an inside look at what he was thinking about when he wrote the gam...more
| 4:00 PM on 01.23.2013 An aural tour with the composer of Nintendo Land, part 2 |

We're back with part two of our audio walkthrough of Nintendo Land with composer Ryo Nagamatsu. This time we visit Luigi's Ghost Mansion, Mario Chase, Metroid Blast, and Octopus Dance. And be sure to read part one of our feature which covered four other Nintendo Land attractions.more
| 4:00 PM on 01.22.2013 An aural tour with the composer of Nintendo Land, part 1 |

I have to admit that I was secretly looking forward to Nintendo Land a great deal. While I wasn't sold after Nintendo's E3 press conference last year, seeing the title in action really got the nostalgia flowing for me in all ...more
| 8:00 PM on 11.20.2012 Nintendo Land pack-ins will be eligible for Club Nintendo |

If you are like me and furiously register your new Nintendo games for the Club Nintendo coins as soon as you open the package, you were probably surprised to discover that the copy of Nintendo Land bundled with the Wii U Delu...more
| 10:00 PM on 11.17.2012 Review: Nintendo Land |

The Wii U GamePad is a lot more versatile than it looks. Some potential consumers have not been quite as inspired by the system as they were by the immediate uniqueness of the Wii and its remote controller. After all, tablets...more
| 6:00 PM on 10.29.2012 Nintendo Land: Last three attractions detailed |

Nintendo has decided to fully detail the last three Nintendo Land attractions that we told you about earlier this month. These last three round out the list of 12 attractions coming to the Wii U launch title, both of which dr...more
| 11:00 AM on 10.18.2012 Nintendo Land: details on Octopus Dance and 2 other games |

GoNintendo has an image of a list of details for some of the Nintendo Land minigames, giving us details on Yoshi's Fruit Cart, Captain Falcon's Twister Race, and Octopus Dance. Octopus Dance is the greatest name ever g...more
| 12:00 PM on 10.17.2012 Quick hands-on with Nintendo Land's Metroid Blast |

With only a few more months to go for the Wii U launch, we recently got a chance to check out the latest addition to the Nintendo Land lineup. A basic arena shooter, Metroid Blast doesn't really capture the fun in simplicity ...more
| 10:00 AM on 10.17.2012 Quick hands-on with Nintendo Land's Mario Chase |

Since its announcement, we seen a small trickling of the new game types in Nintendo Land. The latest is Mario Chase, a Mario themed game of tag where players have to chase after Mario. Player one is Mario, and with a ten seco...more
| 1:00 AM on 06.19.2013 Charming Teslagrad also targeting Wii U this fall |
Teslagrad is shaping up to be another score for Wii U. The puzzle-platformer's newly-announced eShop release will join the Windows, Mac, Linux, and PlayStation 3 versions this fall. Using electricity and magnetism, players wi...more
| 7:15 PM on 06.18.2013 I met Keiji Inafune! We discussed Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z! |
Guys. I met Keiji Inafune at E3. I interviewed Keiji Inafune at E3. I've achieved everything I've wanted to accomplish in my relatively short career as a games journalist. There is literally nothing else for me to do except p...more
| 1:30 PM on 06.18.2013 Eggman and Wily feel the heat in Worlds Collide Part 8 |
With the Archie Sonic / Mega Man crossover, "Worlds Collide," I've been doing impressions posts every set of three issues. What I have to say about these works simply cannot be condensed into short three-paragraph news posts ...more


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