With the Wii U's UK launch now mere weeks away, Nintendo have seen fit to finally lift the lid on the list of launch titles for their new tablet-driven console, the Wii U - for America, at least. With a whopping 52 titles on offer during the launch window, and 23 available on day one, it's a rather impressive line-up - and one that may end up looking even better for the UK and Europe. Given that the Wii U hits stores about a fortnight earlier over there, on November the 18th as opposed to the 30th over here, there's every chance some of the "launch window" titles could find their way into shops for day one on these fair shores - although with the launch window stretching until the 31st of March, there likely won't be too much difference between the two. The full list of 52 titles is as follows - feel free to click on the titles of highlighted games to find out more!:
Launch Day
- Assassin's Creed III
- Batman: Arkham City Armoured Edition
- Call of Duty: Black Ops II
- Darksiders II
- Epic Mickey: Power of Two
- ESPN Sports Connection
- FIFA 13
- Game Party Champions
- Just Dance 4
- Rabbids Land
- Scribblenauts Unlimited
- SiNG Party
- Skylanders Giants
- Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed
- Tekken Tag Tournament 2: Wii U Edition
- Transformers Prime
- New Super Mario Bros. U
- Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge
- Nintendo Land
- Warriors Orochi 3 Hyper
- Wipeout 3 (based on the US version of the Hammond fronted TV show)
- Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2013
- ZombiU
Approximately how many coins a Wii U will set you back at launch in the UK.
Launch Window
- 007 Legends
- Aliens: Colonial Marines
- Ben 10 Omniverse
- Cabela's Dangerous Hunts 2013
- Chasing Aurora
- Cloudberry Kingdom
- Family Party: 30 Great Games Obstacle Arcade
- Funky Barn
- Game & Wario
- Jeopardy
- Lego City Undercover
- Little Inferno
- Madden NFL 13
- Marvel Avengers: Battle For Earth
- Mass Effect 3
- Mighty Switch Force HD
- Nano Assault Neo
- NBA 2K13
- Pikmin 3
- Rapala Pro Bass Fishing
- Rayman Legends
- Rise of the Guardians: The Video Game
- Runner 2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien
- Tank! Tank! Tank!
- The Wonderful 101
- Toki Tori 2
- Trine 2: Director's Cut
- Wheel of Fortune
- Wii Fit U
And there you have it - a veritable smorgasbord of awesomeness, with a fair few titles joining the ranks of the "day one" games as we'd been hoping. We can already hear our purse starting to groan in pain - particularly with the news that, at least in the US, Scribblenauts Unlimited is down as a launch title, as it's one of our most anticipated Wii U titles, and unfortunately only has a vague "launch window" date over here so far. Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two is another that's previously only been given a vague 'November' release date, and another game we'd love to see over here for launch, while, conversely, Rayman Legends is listed as "launch window" in America, but has been listed as being a launch day game over here.
But while most of the games are titles we already new about, there are a few new faces sneaking in there too. Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune haven't been mentioned before - going by the names alone, they sound like they could be a couple of game show themed multiplayer games - which, if they're anything like the Wii's Wheel of Fortune game, means they ought to be pretty good. Meanwhile, Chasing Aurora, a multiplayer-centric game of airbourne tag joins other already announced downloadable eShop games like the platformer Cloudberry Kingdom, fat chicken puzzle game Toki Tori 2 and co-operative adventure game Trine 2.
With some 23 games available on day one, this is one of the most impressive launch line-ups a console's ever had - and, at the risk of sounding cheesy, there really is something for everyone. Hopefully the UK release schedule will look just as good, if not better, given that we've got a whole fortnight to wait following the US launch. We're imagining that a similar list for Europe will appear shortly too, so make sure you keep checking back. In the meantime, we're keeping our fingers crossed that Lego City Undercover makes it too - although seeing as we only have a finite amount of money, perhaps it's better if it doesn't...
