It’s hard to believe, but the Wii U has been on store shelves for nearly three months now. As Nintendo’s first HD home console comes into its own and seeks to find its place in the modern gaming market, the system’s future is still largely unknown - but we do, at least, have an idea of what’s to come. A recent Nintendo Direct revealed that a new 3D Mario platformer from the Galaxy team, a brand new Mario Kart, the first HD Zelda, Fire Emblem X Shin Megami Tensei, an HD remake of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker and more are all on the horizon for Nintendo’s latest console.

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The Roots of Mario’s Wii U Debut

Balancing Old and New Concepts

“ Players keep on playing Mario, after all, precisely because it's easily understandable in a very unique way.

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The Idea Behind Challenge Mode

Why Mini-Games?

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How Nintendo Land Informed Wii U Development

Choosing the Attractions & Art Style

Development Difficulties

Why Land’s Multiplayer Isn’t Online

As we wait for more news on these titles to surface (look for Mario and Mario Kart to be playable at this year’s E3), we thought we’d take a look back at the two games that still stand as proof of Wii U’s unique gameplay concept - the Big N’s own launch titles, New Super Mario Bros. U First, let’s hear some thoughts on New Super Mario Bros. U’s development from director Masataka Takemoto and producer Takashi Tezuka. Here’s what they had to say…With this title, we began development at a point before the Wii U environment was well-defined. Since we knew the core of Mario's gameplay wasn't going to change, we began development by constructing stages. I think that's something that makes us different from other games [developers]; we start production with this section ahead of anything else. Parallel to this, we were discussing and debating ideas over gameplay that the Wii U would make possible, as well as what we wanted to do with this Mario game.We incorporated some ideas inspired by the hardware – with this game, that would be Boost Mode and the other GamePad-based gameplay — but with this being a launch title developed simultaneously with the hardware (as much fun as that can be), we couldn't proceed strictly by ourselves with software development, which did make that process longer.When we finished [New Super Mario Bros. Wii] up, we thought,"It's gonna be hard to add any new features to this." Once we started fleshing out the next concept, though, we realized that we could still come up with new ideas for [New Super Mario Bro. U]. Right now, I can't really say what might come next, but I think we'll still manage to find new stuff for the series. I think that innovation is important, but it can't be something that destroys the core fun that defines Mario in 2D. We need innovation that retains 2D Mario's play sensation.Of course we devote resources on measures to take advantage of a platform's features and capabilities, but with a 2D Mario, we don’t want to lose the foundation that so many players already know and love. I think that sense of security helps the team feel like they've got some breathing room to work with as they come up with ideas.Players keep on playing Mario, after all, precisely because it's easily understandable in a very unique way. That's a strength that's hard to imitate for games with shorter heritages, and it's something I think we need to keep cherishing.For the original [New Super Mario Bros. Wii] in Japan, we put up "challenges" on the homepage for users to try out for themselves. The level designers have always been putting in things that reflect their own personal approaches, stuff that's hard to notice at first glance. For example, there might be a level where once you stomp on the first enemy, you can make it to the end without ever touching ground again. We thought it was a shame if players were missing out on all of these neat ideas, and that was our inspiration here.We had a pretty good response to the challenges we posted online, and we figured it'd be more fun if the game itself had a system that told you how well you handled it from the start. The result is Challenge Mode. As for adding these ideas to the main story, I think that the sort of person who enjoys Challenge Mode probably has experience with other 2D Mario games. We wanted to introduce other gamers to this stuff as well, so we implemented it alongside the main story — for example, pursuing Nabbit to play Time Attack mode. We deliberately tried to make Challenge Mode difficult.We set the difficulty high on purpose. Whenever we release a new Mario game, people tend to say that all we make are games meant for casual users, so we wanted to make something that would satisfy not just people who don't play games much, but also veteran action gamers. That's why we made Challenge and Boost mode, as well as Coin Rush mode and the DLC in New Super Mario Bros. 2.And now for some thoughts from Nintendo Land director Takayuki Shimamura…As we produced prototypes [for Nintendo Land], we came up with a wide variety of ideas for new kinds of gameplay that the Wii U GamePad would make possible.Instead of narrowing them down to one to make into a game, we thought it'd be the duty of a launch title to provide gamers with as many game variations which take advantage of the TV/GamePad connection as we can. That's why we went for a collection of games.We didn't need to change our ideas for Nintendo Land due to changes in the hardware specs. In fact, there was a lot that we had the hardware do in order to take advantage of it in Nintendo Land's gameplay — for example, a touch panel that could handle finger-touch control while also guaranteeing high accuracy with stylus-based control.The game began first as a set of base prototypes. We built the 12 attractions by picking Nintendo franchises that matched the gameplay of these prototypes. The lineup we have now is the result of a deliberate effort to avoid having a prototype's fun get inadvertently ruined because we picked the wrong franchise for it.Also, a lot of the core development staff is in their late thirties, so there was also the fact that they wanted some nostalgia for the games they enjoyed as kids to feature in the final product.[As for the art style], instead of just bringing out all of Nintendo's famous franchises as-is visually, we decided to stick with a design concept centered around enjoying a theme park with your Mii. The Miis were always at the core of the game's design, so you could say that's why the visual style became what it is now.Since this is Nintendo Land and not just a collection of games, we went for a consistent graphical style to make it easier for players to get this concept.Every attraction had its own difficult spots. For example, in the multiplayer competitive attractions, one of the major issues was how to keep things from seeming unfair depending on how many players there were.We solved this problem in assorted ways. With Mario Chase we introduced the Yoshi Carts; in Luigi's Ghost Mansion we put in Monitas; and in Animal Crossing: Sweet Day we instituted the Stash and Carry modes.Another difficulty was figuring out how to direct the attention of players, since at least one player has to watch both the TV and the GamePad when playing.The biggest mission of Nintendo Land development was to bring across the charms of this new game structure involving a large TV screen and a smaller GamePad in your hand.With the GamePad, it's now much more fun to have players carry out different roles in the same space. One of the themes we paid attention to during development was how fun it is for you and your friends to talk with each other while playing, so the game is balanced based on the concept that the group of people involved is all interacting with each other at once. As a result, we did not consider online-based multiplayer for Nintendo Land.

What did you think of the Big N's finished products? Would you have fully appreciated Nintendo Land's local multiplayer focus if it had gone online? Did Mario U's Challenge mode give you a decent taste of that old school difficulty? Let us know in the comments below, and for all things Wii U, keep it here on IGN.

Audrey Drake is an Editor at IGN and a proud member of the IGN Nintendo team. She is also a lifelong gamer, a frequent banisher of evil and a wielder of various legendary blades. You can keep track of her wild adventures by following Aminka on IGN or @GameOnAminka on Twitter. Game on!