Video Game / Nintendo Land

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Nintendo Land is Nintendo's second Massive Multiplayer Crossover and a launch title for the Nintendo Wii U. But instead of having players beat flagship characters to a pulp like in Super Smash Bros., this game takes elements from several of Nintendo's franchises and turns them into theme park attractions. Assuming the role of their Mii characters, players are invited to play along inside this virtual theme park by a robotic screen that looks like the GamePad, named Monita.

Nintendo Land is practically what Wii Sports was for the original Wii, a fun and lighthearted game made to show off what the system was capable of doing, while introducing new players to Nintendo's famed franchises. This game was bundled with the deluxe Wii U set. Otherwise, it had to be bought separately.

This game is divided into twelve sub-games, each having different uses of the Wii U's controller. Three of the games can be played with multiple people playing as a team^note But can be played solo as well., while three other ones can only be played with multiple people, and some are only played solo^note Though you can have friends join in with Wii Remotes to help you. Nintendo describes the multiplayer as "asymmetric gameplay", because of the GamePad's independent screen. Depending on what type of controller you use, your gameplay experience will be different.

• The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest (The Legend of Zelda) - In this game, the player with the GamePad takes the role of an archer, who fires arrows to fight enemies and solve puzzles not shown on the TV screen. Players with Wii Remotes join in armed with swords and shields, allowing everyone to fight against the enemy hordes together as a team. Also available is a time attack mode where the archer has to clear out a wave of enemies as fast as possible.
• Pikmin Adventure (Pikmin) - This game tasks players to work together as a team to escape from the wilderness. With the GamePad, the player controls a Mii dressed in Olimar's spacesuit and fight by throwing smaller Pikmin. With Wii Remotes, the players dress as Pikmin. They provide backup by fighting enemies directly. There's also a versus mode where the GamePad player and the other players duke it out.
• Metroid Blast (Metroid) - A combat-heavy third-person shooter game that has many different ways to play. The person with the GamePad mans Samus's Gunship and fights from the air, while Wii Remote and Nunchuk players control Samus on foot. Assault Mission is the main mode, where players progress through various missions together. "Surface-Air Combat" and "Ground Battle" are the other two modes; the former is a fight between the Gunship player and the grounded players, while the latter is a battle between on-foot Samus players exclusively.
• Mario Chase (Super Mario Bros.) - A game of tag with a Mario twist. The person with the GamePad, dressed as Mario, must run away from other players dressed as Toads. Mario has the advantage by having a map and a ten second headstart. This is one of the games that requires at least two players.
• Luigi's Ghost Mansion (Luigi's Mansion) - In this game, up to four players must clean out a mansion haunted by a ghost, who is the person with the GamePad. The GamePad player has to sneak up behind the ghost hunters to catch them, and the ghost is also invisible to the others until exposed by a flashlight or lightning. The ghost also causes nearby players' Wii Remotes to rumble, alerting them of the ghost's presence. The goal is for either side to eliminate the other. Another two-players-or-more-only game.
• Animal Crossing: Sweet Day (Animal Crossing) - Also requring at least two players, this game is Cops and Robbers with a sweet twist. Playing as animals, up to four players must run around a town and collect a certain amount of candy from trees. The player with the GamePad controls two guards, who must be avoided.
• Donkey Kong's Crash Course (Donkey Kong) - A single player game where a cart, operated by the GamePad, must be guided through an elaborate maze filled with contraptions inspired by the arcade classic.
• Takamaru's Ninja Castle (The Mysterious Murasame Castle^note a 1986 Famicom exclusive until it was released for the 3DS Virtual Console in 2014.) - Another single player game, this game is essentially a light-gun-style game where the GamePad is used to throw ninja stars and rescue Monita from invading ninjas.
• Balloon Trip Breeze (Balloon Fight) - A remake of the Balloon Trip mode from the original game, but this time the player must guide their Mii with gusts of wind created by drawing lines on the GamePad's touch screen. Obstacles also must be removed by the touch screen.
• Yoshi's Fruit Cart (Yoshi's Island) - A single player game where the player guides a robotic Yoshi along a path to find fruit and to the goal door. However, the fruit and obstacles are only shown on the TV screen, and only the path you draw is shown on the GamePad.
• Octopus Dance (Game & Watch^note Specifically, it's based on Octopus, which is a G&W game) - The player must mimic a diver's dancing moves with the GamePad's control sticks and the gyroscope (somewhat similar to the gameplay of another Game & Watch game, Flagman). The TV provides a front view, and the GamePad provides a rear view. The diver may turn the player's Mii around at certain times and an octopus will sometimes ink one screen, so both must be used together.
• Captain Falcon's Twister Race (F-Zero) - In the single player game, the player pilots a wind-up Blue Falcon on a race track. They must use the GamePad as a steering wheel and get to the finish line in time. The TV screen shows the view from behind the car, while the GamePad shows an overhead view.

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Nintendo Land provides examples of the following tropes:

• Abandoned Laboratory: The Lab in Luigi's Ghost Mansion, populated only by the ghost and the ghost hunters.
• Achievement System: Each minigame has five Stamps, and you're awarded a sum of coins every time you earn one.
• Action Bomb: Explosive Beebs appear in later stages of Pikmin Adventure. Fortunately, they only explode if they aren't killed quickly enough, and the explosion takes out other enemies as well.
• Amusement Park: The titular Nintendo Land is a small amusement park with attractions themed after twelve Nintendo IPs.
• And Your Reward Is Edible: Averted. Most of the prizes for Yoshi's Fruit Cart are its pieces of prop fruit.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • If you die enough times in a single Metroid Blast stage, you'll be given a chance to collect a Golden Helmet at the start of the stage, which doubles firepower and health at the expense of not being able to earn Master rank for that stage.
  • If you fail to escape in Pikmin Adventure too many times, an assist block will appear. If you accept it, it will supercharge Olimar and any Mii Pikmin to level 50, or in time missions add a minute to the clock, but at the cost of being unable earn a Master rank.
  • Dying in The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest will spawn a skull that can be broken for a recovery heart in the location you failed at in your previous run. It doesn't nullify Master rank, but that always involves doing a No-Damage Run, so it's useless for master rank.
  • In Luigi's Ghost Mansion, the ghost has a move that it can charge that will disable the opponent's flashlights. A loading screen tip says that this is good for discouraging campers.
• Anti Poop-Socking: The game will recommend taking breaks regularly, just like many other Nintendo games.
• Ascended Meme: The Blue Falcon's description mentions it has some "serious Falcon Punch" under the hood.
• Assist Character: When playing with two players in Mario Chase, two Yoshi Carts assist the Toad. They call out Mario's location and stun the plumber with close-range tongue punches, leaving them wide open to attack.
• Asymmetric Multiplayer: One of the major points of this game is that the Wii Remote players and the Gamepad player have completely different control schemes and things to do.
  • In Mario Chase, the Gamepad player controls Mario from a top-down perspective and has a map of the level, while the Wii Remote players control Toads who are attempting to catch Mario from a third-person perspective.
  • In Luigi's Ghost Mansion, the Gamepad player is the titular ghost who is trying to sneak up on and spook the Wii Remote players, who take the roles of ghost hunters garbed in Luigi's clothes and equipped with flashlights.
  • In Animal Crossing: Sweet Day, the Wii Remote players are attempting to pilfer a certain amount of candy, while the Gamepad player controls two guards at the same time using both of the Gamepad's control sticks.
  • In The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest, Wii Remote players get up close and personal with the Master Sword and Hylian Shield, while the Gamepad player hangs back and pelts enemies with arrows from afar.
  • In Pikmin Adventure, the Gamepad player controls Captain Olimar and chucks tiny Pikmin at the monsters while not getting into combat themselves, akin to classic Pikmin gameplay. The Wii Remote players control human-sized Pikmin who fight the enemies directly.
  • In Metroid Blast, the Gamepad player controls Samus flying their Gunship, providing them with much more mobility at the expense of a more complicated control scheme. Wii Remote players control an on-foot Samus and use their Arm Cannon by pointing their Wii Remotes at the screen; they can also use the Morph Ball and Grapple Beam to get around.
• Attack Its Weak Point:
  • The enemies in Metroid Blast can only be damaged if you hit their weak spots, which look like power buttons.
  • The enemies in Pikmin Adventure can only be damaged by attacking the purple spheres on their bodies.
  • The enemies in The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest sometimes have armor or shields, so they only get hurt if you attack them where they are unprotected.
• Auto-Scrolling Level: The entirety of Balloon Trip Breeze scrolls to the left while you guide your character through aerial obstacle courses, just like the Balloon Trip mode of Balloon Fight.
• Big Boo's Haunt: The entirety of Luigi's Ghost Mansion is set in a mansion haunted by a ghost (the Wii U Gamepad player).
• Big Eater:
  • Sweet Day has players trying to eat the most candy. However, the more candy eaten, the slower the player moves.
  • The Yoshi Cart in Yoshi's Fruit Cart eats several stages worth of prop fruit as you play.
• Blackout Basement: The Basement of Luigi's Ghost Mansion. The entire attraction can count as this too.
• Bonus Level: "Break The Pots" in Takamaru's Ninja Castle tasks you with doing exactly that. You receive points just for breaking the pots in general, and they can also contain scrolls for your specials and coins for the Pachinko minigame.
• Boss Rush: The final bonus stage of Pikmin Adventure has you fighting all the bosses in the game, as well as the upgraded version of the final boss.
• Boss Subtitles: Used in Pikmin Adventure, and Metroid Blast. Despite them being an iconic part of the actual game series, The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest lacks them, probably because the bosses are usually regular enemies pre-demotion.
• Brutal Bonus Level: Every attraction has at least one of these. They're where the difficulty comes from... well, most of it anyway.
• Button Mashing: The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest has an anti-waggle feature for the sword players. If you waggle your Wii Remote for more than a second or so, the game will stop registering the motions as sword slashes until you stop waggling.
• The Cameo: Some minor characters are alluded to, such as villagers from Animal Crossing and the Hocotate Ship from Pikmin.
• Camera Obscurer: This can happen a lot in Captain Falcon's Twister Race, as the thumb always gets in front of the Gamepad's camera.
• Captain Obvious:
  Olimar got an item.
  Blue Pikmin is out.
  Olimar leveled up.
  The door will only open if you collect all the fruit.
• Cartoon Bomb: A big, skull-marked kind is present in Pikmin Adventure and The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest. Smaller are the clay bombs in Takamaru's Ninja Castle.
• Casual Video Game: Most of the games tend to have simple controls and easy-to-learn gameplay.
• Chainsaw Good: The Bladed Beeb in Pikmin Adventure has two chainsaw-limbs. And it's pretty good at using them.
• Charged Attack:
  • Metroid Blast allows both players to charge their shots. The Gunship can shoot a slow-moving missile that isn't affected by gravity, while on-foot players can shoot quicker rolling bombs that are affected. If any player collects the Ice Charge Shot, their explosive is replaced with an Ice Beam shot that can freeze enemies - vital for defeating Metroids, and useful against a few other foes as well.
  • Pikmin players in Pikmin Adventure can charge up an attack unique to the seed they have. No seed is a simple forward slam, Hammer Seed is a chain of forward-moving slams, Whip Seed is a spin attack, and Knuckle Seed is a Kamehame Hadoken.
  • Archers in The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest can charge arrows, giving them more damage and a piercing effect. However, they can't move while charging.
  • Ghosts in Luigi's Ghost Mansion can charge up an attack that disables everyone's flashlights. It leaves them visible and a sitting duck to the other players, though, so it's best used if the ghost hunters are huddled up together.
• Clothing Damage: The more damage you receive in The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest, the more torn your Mii's hat and tunic get.
• Collection Sidequest: Playing the Pachinko game on the central tower rewards you with things that are displayed in the main park. This includes props, creatures and elements from all 12 of the minigames, a jukebox and its songs, and a few buttons that add extra effects like becoming giant or changing the time of day.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience:
  • The ninjas in Ninja Castle; Blue ninjas do nothing, green and pink throw stars, yellow throws bombs, black are Elite Mooks, and red may do anything the others do.
  • Each map in Mario Chase is divided into four colored sections - red, blue, green, and yellow - to make it easier for the chasers to call out where Mario is.
  • In Pikmin Adventure, the extra missions introduce elemental enemies; red is fire, blue is water, and yellow is electric.
• Color-Coded Multiplayer: Multiplayer games have players dressed in different colors.
  • In Metroid Blast, each player gets different-colored forms of both the Other M Varia Suit and Zero Suit. Player 1 has the normal orange Varia Suit and blue Zero Suit, player 2 has a blue Varia Suit based on the Fusion Suit and a red Zero Suit, player 3 has a green Varia Suit that resembles one of Samus's recurring Palette Swaps from Super Smash Bros. and a green Zero Suit, and player 4 has a purple Varia Suit based on the Gravity Suit and a yellow Zero Suit. The Gunship player wears Samus's normal Varia Suit, but has a white Zero Suit.
  • In The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest, you can sport red, blue, green, and yellow versions of Link's tunic.
  • For the Mii team in Luigi's Ghost Mansion, order goes from Luigi green, Mario red, Waluigi purple, and Wario yellow.
  • The colors of the Toad team in Mario Chase goes in the order of blue, purple, green, and yellow.
• Colossus Climb: In Metroid Blast, on-foot players have to climb up platforms that pop out of Kraid's body with the Grapple Beam. If a Gunship player is present, either solo or with on-foot players, they can eschew this and just fly up (and possibly give any other players a lift).
• Competitive Balance:
  • In Luigi's Ghost Mansion, the ghost can launch a chargeable battery-draining special attack on the humans in order to discourage camping. They also reduce the number of lives with more players, as it's easier to revive someone that's dead with more people playing. There are also Monitas with flashlights helping out when there are less people.
  • In Metroid Blast, if an on-foot player dodges three times in succession, their Mii strikes a pose when they land that leaves them wide open. Meanwhile, the Gunship player has a boost that requires a brief moment to recharge.
  • Some of the multiplayer games have bigger maps if more players play.
  • If there's only one villager in Animal Crossing: Sweet Day, they get to drop off the candy at safe points so they don't get too slow from carrying all of them around. 3 or more players and the villagers have to carry the target capacity at once to win, with more candy required for more people.
• Composite Character: Ridley shows up as a robot duplicate designed to replicate his classic design, but he also packs a few moves from his tenure as Meta Ridley.
• Computer Equals Monitor: Monita. A flatscreen one no less.
• The Computer Shall Taunt You: Touching Monita on the plaza with the gamepad will make her play an animation. This includes her bowing, and playing Rock–Paper–Scissors with the player.
• Controllable Helplessness: In Metroid Blast, losing all of your health results in your Power Suit breaking, leaving you in just the Zero Suit. Unlike the real Zero Suit Samus, who has the (albeit "rather useless") Paralyzer, you only have a flashlight after losing your suit, rendering you incapable of attacking. By yourself the mission ends shortly after you lose your Varia Suit anyway, but in multiplayer you can control your Mii in this state in normal gameplay, and if someone helps you grab an item pickup you can regenerate your Varia Suit and get back in the fight.
• Damsel in Distress: Monita in Takamaru's Ninja Castle is imprisoned in the titular castle, which you fight your way to and subsequently through in order to rescue her.
• Deadpan Snarker: Monita, whose monotone voice only makes her sarcasm funnier.
• Degraded Boss: The game goes nuts with this in its Pikmin Adventure and The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest attractions. Had trouble against the Greater Bladed Baub? Let's see how you fare against three in a row!^note The third one doesn't even bother waiting until the second is down. You know it's bad when Ganon gets this treatment. However, it's inverted in the Metroid Blast attraction. The first time you face Ridley, he gets no fanfare and is treated as a normal enemy. Every time you face him after that, he gets an intro cutscene reserved for bosses.
• Dual Boss: Metroid Blast has two:
  • In Mission 28, you fight both Ridley and Ice Ridley, with the goal being to take out both.
  • In the final Mission, #30, you fight Kraid while Ridley assists him. Ridley is impossible to defeat, so the main focus is on taking down Kraid.
• Easy Level Trick: The night-time version of Yoshi's Fruit Cart has a warp gate in level 8 that sends you all the way to level 50, skipping the majority of the game. It's hidden by the expectation that you'll take earlier warp gates, which don't send you as far.
• Evil Twin: Parodied with Dark Monita, who is basically another Monita that wears a purple jester hat. She appears in Pikmin Adventure, as her role is the "evil overlord" in that game, and Metroid Blast, where she sets up the boss battles.
• Extended Gameplay: Each of the 12 minigames will reward you with a gold star for making a certain amount of progress in them. However, this star is rewarded long before the minigames' actual conclusions - Donkey Kong's Crash Course gives you the star for beating the second level without needing you to go through the two Remixed Levels that follow it, and the three cooperative minigames don't require you to do any of the extra missions.
• Fainting: If the ghost catches anyone in Luigi's Ghost Mansion, they pass out. They can be revived if someone else shines their flashlight on them.
• Feed It a Bomb: Kraid in Metroid Blast can be hurt by pumping the players' Charged Attack explosives down his throat, hitting the weak spot inside his stomach.
• Floating Continent: The end points of Balloon Trip Breeze are all small platforms floating above sea level.
• Forced Tutorial: The game begins with a rather lengthy playable tutorial explaining the GamePad's functions, likely due to its status as a Tech-Demo Game.
• Game-Breaking Bug: During the first few days after the game's release, the game would sometimes have Loads and Loads of Loading at the title screen and would even sometimes freeze. This was quickly fixed.
• Gotta Catch Them All: Each of the 12 minigames awards you a star for progressing in them to a certain degree. The credits roll once you obtain all of them.
• Green Hill Zone:
  • The first two areas of Pikmin Adventure are themed around a garden in spring and summer, resulting in lots of greenery.
  • Some of the early levels in The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest are set in pleasant green plains.
• Gusty Glade: Some levels of Balloon Trip Breeze have wind perpetually blowing in one direction, messing with your controls.
• Hard Mode Filler: A few of the single-player games, namely Donkey Kong's Crash Course, Captain Falcon's Twister Race, and Yoshi's Fruit Cart, have harder remixed levels unlocked after clearing the main version (with the latter two setting the harder versions at night).
• Heart Container: Giant hearts in Pikmin Adventure extend your life bar to six hearts, but the cap will be reduced to three when the player loses those extra hearts. It also only lasts for one stage.
• Hearts Are Health: Used in Takamaru's Ninja Castle, Octopus Dance, Pikmin Adventure, and The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest.
• Heavily Armored Mook: The Zelda-based attraction has enemies with varying levels of armor. Moblins with pot helmets and metal shields would probably be the best match for this trope.
• Heroic Mime: The Miis, unless you count the Miiverse posts as talking.
• The Host: A robotic screen that looks like the GamePad, named Monita. She offers advice on all the games.
• Hostage Spirit-Link: In stage 3 of Takamaru's Ninja Castle. During the second time through to rescue the real Princess Monita, she will appear along with the ninjas throughout the stage. If you hit her, you lose health.
• Hub Level: Nintendo Land Plaza leads to all the games. Miis from all over the world gather here as well.
• An Ice Person: Ice Ridley is a blue Palette Swap of Ridley who replaces some of the latter's attacks with ice-based variants.
• Iconic Character, Forgotten Title: Invoked — two of the minigames are named after their main characters (Takamaru's Ninja Castle and Captain Falcon's Twister Race) rather than the more obscure series they come from (The Mysterious Murasame Castle and F-Zero).
• Insistent Terminology: They're not mini-games, they're "attractions". This is probably to try to avoid it from seeming like a casual minigame collection, which was a main detraction from the Wii for core gamers.
• Invincibility Power-Up:
  • The traditional Super Star appears in Captain Falcon's Twister Race, Balloon Trip Breeze, and Mario Chase. Only Mario can pick it up in the latter, though.
  • One of the possible power-ups in Metroid Blast is a shield that protects you from all damage for a short while.
• Interface Screw: Many, in order to highlight the dual-screen gameplay. For example, in Octopus Dance, a squid can blot out one of the screens with ink, and in Twister Race tunnels can block out the above view of the Gamepad.
• Invincible Minor Mook: Common obstacles in Pikmin Adventure are Beebs with near-infinite health that never stop rolling once they get started. Either they must be dodged and ignored, or they die when other enemies are taken care of.
• Invisible Monsters: The Luigi's Ghost Mansion multiplayer game, which is an interesting inversion where one player actually gets to play as the invisible monster. The person playing as the ghost uses the game pad and is invisible to the other players, who are trying to shine their flashlights on him.
• Invisible to Normals: The ghost in Luigi's Ghost Mansion. Although lightning can reveal where it is temporarily.
• King Mook:
  • Pig Moblins appear alongside Pig Ganon, making them this to him like in A Link to the Past.
  • The Pikmin attraction has even more. The Bulblord (bulborbs, yet another example following the source material's Emperor and Empress Bulblaxes), the Large-Mouthed Wollywog (wollywogs), and the Bladed Beeb (beebs, introduced in this game).
• Level in the Clouds: The entirety of Balloon Trip Breeze revolves around the protagonist of Balloon Fighter traveling across the skies to the west.
• Levels Take Flight: Balloon Trip Breeze has no typical ground, as like the game it's based on the goal is to fly through the air.
• Life Meter: Games with combat in them have heart meters. Metroid Blast is the only game where players don't share health.
• Lightning Reveal: A gameplay mechanic in the Luigi's Mansion segment, where the ghost is invisible to the other players, they can only sense the ghost through vibrations and can only see him if they shine a light on him, dealing damage. Every once in a while lightning will strike and illuminate some of the map, if the ghost is in that area they're perfectly visible. Skilled ghost players can make it seem like they're going another way then they are when the lightning strikes, or with a little luck, hide from the illuminated areas so when lightning strikes, the ghost hunters don't see anything. Impossible on the rooftop level which has no walls so the entire thing is illuminated when lightning strikes. Needless to say, winning as a ghost in this level takes a lot of skill.
• The Lost Woods: The Trope Namer makes an appearance in The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest.
• Machine Monotone: Monita speaks like this.
• Macro Zone: Just like in Pikmin proper, the player characters in Pikmin Adventure are really small. This can be easily seen in the prop choices, which often are things like plant pots and fences that tower over the characters.
• Massive Multiplayer Crossover: Although the franchises don't really interact outside the hub.
• Meaningful Name: Monita's name comes from モニター (monitā), the Japanese pronounciation of the English word "monitor", as well as being a pun on the name Monica.
• Mecha-Mooks: The enemies in Pikmin Adventure and Metroid Blast are clearly robotic.
• Minigame Zone: The Central Tower provides you with a minigame where you attempt to drop the coins you've collected through a series of blue lights, with the goal being to successfully turn all of them orange by doing so.
• Mook Chivalry: Zig-Zagged in The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest. Most enemies that attack you directly will simply wait if they're not the current target, but archers will always take potshots at you, and some enemies will attack you anyway.
• Mook Maker: Wizzrobes in The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest spawn Keese as their main form of attack.
• Mundane Utility: The description of the Ice Charge Shot from Metroid Blast, a weapon that allows players to shoot Ice Beam shots, notes that "[I]t also doubles as an excellent ice-cube maker in the summer."
• Mythology Gag:
  • If the human teams loses to the ghost in Luigi's Ghost Mansion, they're greeted with "Good night..." on the TV. This was the same message if Luigi got a Game Over in the original game.
  • In Pikmin Adventure, if a Pikmin player doesn't board the ship at the end of a level after Olimar does, they'll eventually get left behind as the ship takes off without them, just like in the actual series. However, they will reappear with Olimar in the next level.
  • A very subtle one; One loading screen has an image of Monita drinking a cup of coffee. This is a reference to the Wii U's codename. "Project Café".
• Ninja: Takamaru's Ninja Castle is a minigame where the player has to shoot some cardboard Technicolor Ninjas.
• No "Arc" in "Archery": Averted in The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest. Arrows are affected by both gravity and air currents.
• No-Damage Run: All of the Master Challenges in The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest and Pikmin Adventure require this. Some of the missions in Metroid Blast require them too, but this game has several other goals.
• No Fair Cheating: The hardest stamps to get in the single-player games will not be given out if you use Assisted Play (letting someone use a Wii Remote to to help out). With Yoshi's Fruit Cart, you're also not allowed to use checkmarks or warp gates for the Gatemaster stamp.
• Non-Lethal Bottomless Pits: You're allowed to fall off the edge of Nintendo Land Plaza, and you just reappear back inside it. Of course, it wouldn't make sense for you to be able to die while you're not even actually playing a game.
• Nostalgia Level: Donkey Kong Crash Course is based on the classic Donkey Kong arcade game, and though it doesn't have old-school graphics, it does have very simple ones due to it primarily echoing the girders of old.
• One-Hit Polykill: In The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest, it's possible to do this with a charged arrow. If it kills the enemy it hits, it will continue on its trajectory without losing any momentum or damage. As there are more enemies if you play with a friend/s, co-op play gives plenty of opportunities to do this. Mastering this technique is absolutely necessary^note No seriously, you have no control over your movement (and therefore cannot kite) and no way to block attacks, as well as a limit on how fast you can fire arrows. Without it you will get hit many times. if you want to, well, master each level.
• Parody Magic Spell: Monita says some of the most done-to-death ones at the beginning of the game.
• Press X to Not Die: In The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest, when an archer or Giant Mook launches an attack at you while playing as the archer, you will receive one of a few prompts^note "Press ZL + ZR!" "Tilt Left!" or "Tilt Right!" that enable you to dodge the attack.
• Production Throwback: The game setup screens use music from the original games; to be precise:
  • The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest uses the title screen music from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.
  • Pikmin Adventure uses the title screen music from Pikmin.
  • Metroid Blast uses the title screen music from the NES (Or Famicom, in this case) Metroid.
  • Mario Chase uses the famous Super Mario Bros. theme.
  • Luigi's Ghost Mansion uses the title screen music from Luigi's Mansion.
  • Animal Crossing: Sweet Day uses the title music from Animal Crossing (2001).
  • Donkey Kong's Crash Course uses the title music from the original arcade/NES Donkey Kong.
  • Takamaru's Ninja Castle uses the overworld music from The Mysterious Murasame Castle.
  • Balloon Trip Breeze uses the Balloon Trip music from Balloon Fight.
  • Yoshi's Fruit Cart uses the music from the "Touch Fuzzy, Get Dizzy" level from Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island.
  • Octopus Dance is the exception, using original music since the Game & Watch didn't have music apart from beeps.
  • Captain Falcon's Twister Race uses the title screen theme from the first F-Zero game.
• Rail Shooter:
  • The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest is one for the Gamepad player only, who wields a bow and automatically moves forward when they aren't aiming it. Because they have no shield and thus can't block or avoid most attacks, picking off enemies from a distance before moving up is much safer.
  • Takamaru's Ninja Castle is a more standard one, prompting the player to defeat every enemy ninja before proceeding to the next screen.
• Remixed Level: Some of the games have bonus levels that are revamps of the originals.
  • Stages 3 and 4 of Donkey Kong's Crash Course have the same basis as stages 1 and 2 respectively, but with multiple things removed to make the courses much more hazardous and difficult.
  • Mission 29 of Metroid Blast is set in the Gunship's tutorial level, now populated with dozens of enemies. Notably, this is also the only time that on-foot players get to access this area.
• Retraux: The Pachinko minigame uses low-res graphics and an NES-style remix of the main theme.
• Robot Me: Pikmin Adventure has players fight against robotic Bulborbs. There are also robotic version of familiar enemies from the Metroid series, including Kraid and Ridley, in Metroid Blast.
• Same Language Dub: Monita has a different voice in the American English and British English versions of the game, even though the scripts are largely the same, to accompany for pronunciation differences. Notably, she even pronounces her name differently; American Monita says "MOH-ni-ta", British Monita says "moh-NI-ta" (and neither of them pronounce it as "maw" like "monitor").
• Scare Chord: A dramatic sting plays when the ghost player takes out a human player in Luigi's Ghost Mansion.
• Segmented Serpent: In Pikmin Adventure, one of the later bosses is a large centipede monster on wheels. It attempts to bite the players. Its body segments are its main weak spots, and some of them break off and becomes whirling tops o' doom. The best part? When you kill all its body segments, it Turns Red and starts doing a charge-up version of its usual bite move. Its weakspot is only viewable during the charge, but it doesn't move either. After this is beaten it simply charges around with a single weak point, making it arguably tougher. The damaging tops are there in all three parts of the fight.
• Shout-Out:
  • Monita counts down the seconds in Captain Falcon's Twister Race complete with beeping sounds, a la Mario Kart.
  • Stage 14 of Pikmin Adventure starts with a structure that looks like a castle at the end of a Super Mario Bros. level, then leads straight underground, a la World 1-2.
• Socialization Bonus: All of the Solo Attractions are actually NOT single-player only, as Wii Remote players can assist you in various ways. Note that the game doesn't allow you to get some stamps if they help.
• Spot the Imposter: When you beat Takamaru's Ninja Castle the first time, it's revealed that Princess Monita was actually Murasame. You have to throw stars at him to reveal the disguise.
• Songs in the Key of Panic: The music speeds up near the end of each round in Animal Crossing: Sweet Day and Mario Chase, with the latter using the traditional Mario "hurry up" fanfare.
• Sound Test: The music box item, one of many rewards from the Central Tower's Pachinko game - songs sold seperately. It also comes with a shuffle button once you start picking up more music.
• Survival Horror: Luigi's Ghost Mansion is a competitive form of this genre. The human players are disadvantaged against the invisible ghost.
• Timed Mission:
  • Some levels in Pikmin Adventure run on a very short time limit that is extended by collecting timers. Also, getting the Master Challenges for the game requires speedrunning the levels.
  • A few levels in Metroid Blast have time limits. Generally, these involve collecting tokens or finding and killing enemies.
  • Captain Falcon's Twister Race has a continuous time limit. Hit too many obstacles, and you won't be able to reach the area split and gain a time boost before you run out.
• Tech-Demo Game: Quite literally. A number of the included minigames were used as tech demos when the Wii U was originally revealed - Mario Chase and Metroid Blast were shown in that form as Chase Mii and Battle Mii, respectively.
• Ten-Second Flashlight: The flashlights used in Luigi's Ghost Mansion have a limited charge. You'll have to find another battery if it runs dry.
• Tennis Boss: If you fight a Wizzrobe in The Legend of Zelda: Battle Quest without an archer, you'll have to hit its projectiles back at it to deal damage.
• Theme Music Power-Up: As close as it can get for a Minigame Game — in Captain Falcon's Twister Race, after a few rounds of original, ambient techno music, the final round has a triumphant remix of "Mute City" kick in. The night-time version is a bit different, in that it has laidback remixes of "White Land" and "Fire Field" before an intense remix of "Big Blue" is used to similar effect.
• The Theme Park Version: The team-based attractions are mission-based, and each is vaguely based on the adventures of their respective protagonists. Pikmin Adventure is even said to be based on Olimar's first visit to the mysterious planet.
• Toilet Humor: Enough to warrant an E10+ rating: If a player gets eaten by a Bulborb in Pikmin Adventure, they'll get ejected out with a giant clay turd that encompasses their whole body.
• Tongue Twister: Monita makes one up in the description for the pear item. Her search function then tells her that it's a recipe for a good fruit salad.
• This Is Gonna Suck: Monita makes this reaction when hearing herself say "Dark Monita".
  Monita: Oh... This should be fun...
• Under the Sea: The entirety of Octopus Dance is set underwater, owing to the original "Octopus" Game & Watch being about avoiding the octopus's tentacles while underwater. This is reflected in the scenery, the diver that serves as your dance guide, and the tiny squid that occasionally sprays ink on the screen.
• Weakened by the Light: Flashlights are the only source of illumination that is strong enough to hurt the ghost while the ambient flash of a lightning strike can only betray its location.
• Wind-Up Key: The Blue Falcon in Captain Falcon's Twister Race has a large wind-up key on the back of it.
• Wutai: The entirety of Takamaru's Ninja Castle is played in typical Japanese settings like a forest, a small village, and the titular castle.

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