Plus, the three different Kongs you can partner up with-Diddy, Daisy, and Cranky-each have a unique ability, providing some variety in the way you approach each challenging obstacle. It's packed with subtle detail and vibrant visuals, and a great soundtrack makes the whole experience all the more enjoyable. That same spirit of sublime difficulty is alive and well in Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, the Wii U sequel to Retro Studios' excellent 2.5D reboot of DK's jungle-stomping franchise.īesides the tough-but-gratifying running and jumping, Tropical Freeze has great presentation and polish. Yet despite the fact that you will die again, and again, and again, it never seems so bad because the challenge is fair, and even the trickiest platforming section feels conquerable with enough effort.
If you've ever played the Donkey Kong Country series on Super Nintendo, you know that those games are hard. Looting enemies and sniping is all done through the GamePad too so it all genuinely feels designed for the console instead of shoe horned in. While you’re rummaging around in your rucksack for loot, you’re prime zombie munching fodder, so every gaze into your inventory is a serious risk. Survival is difficult, weapons are scarce, but a lot of the fear stems from some terrifyingly inventive uses of the GamePad. All that’s left of your previous character is a shambling corpse and one that you’ll probably have to kill if you want your precious rucksack of stuff back. Send your intrepid survivor out into London town and die and you’ll restart as another person entirely, complete with backstory. It’s not like zombies haven’t been done to death (or undeath), but ZombiU manages to crank up the tension in a number of ways. London has been hit by the zombie virus and you’re one of the few survivors out there who hasn’t turned into a brain hungry staggering fiend. Ubi’s surprise launch day hit is still as terrifying as it was back in 2012. Still, The Wonderful 101 is packed with charm and humor in equal measure, and even though its gameplay doesn't always translate into fun, it's a mostly enjoyable adventure all the same. Year Project Zero: Maiden of Black Water Wii U Nintendo / Tecmo Koei The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Wii U Nintendo / Nintendo EAD The Legend of. While this is a great use of the Wii U's unique controller, in practice it can be rather difficult to draw certain shapes on the fly while simultaneously dodging attacks onscreen.
See, your superhero can command his followers to form giant weapons - whips, swords, etc - which is achieved by drawing the corresponding shape of said weapon on the GamePad's touchscreen. With dozens of followers under your command, you're tasked with saving the world one GamePad stroke at a time.
You control a superhero in a wonderfully realized world full of sass and puns (no surprise considering The Wonderful 101 comes from Platinum Games, the team behind Bayonetta). All scores are from December 31, 2017.įor a complete list of all Wii U high (and low) scores, visit Metacritic's Wii U section.Don't mistake The Wonderful 101 for some sort of group-management sim like Pikmin - this is a full-on action game wrapped in a Viewtiful Joe disguise. The Metascore is a weighted average of critic reviews on a scale of 0 (bad) to 100 (good). Note that games are ranked by Metascore prior to rounding. ESRB Rating: E10+ (Everyone 10+) User rating, 4.5 out of 5 stars with 4 reviews. Games with fewer than 7 reviews are not eligible for inclusion. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Nintendo Wii U Digital Publisher: Nintendo. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD (2016) Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition (2014)ĭeus Ex: Human Revolution - Director's Cut (2013) The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD (2013) The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017) Games released during the last three months (if any) are marked with a symbol. There's a separate report for each platform, and they will be updated again during the first week in April. Our "Quarterly Reports" provide a handy list of the 25 best games for each platform, both for the current year so far and for all time.