ZombiU for Wii U: What you need to know about Nintendo’s zombie shooter

The Gadget Show  Monday 18 June 2012

Proving that Nintendo’s Wii U console won’t just feature colourful family games is ZombiU – a scary first-person zombie shooter set in London, that uses Nintendo’s revolutionary GamePad to deliver new augmented reality gameplay experiences. We were lucky enough to have a go for ourselves. Here’s a few things you should know.

At E3 2012 Nintendo showed off the games we can expect to play on the Nintendo Wii U later this year and beyond. One of them was ZombiU. Read on to find out more. 


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Play as a zombie


A plague has hit London, transforming its inhabitants into zombies. Players must survive for as long as possible, but dying isn’t necessarily the end of your quest. Players instantly respawn as a new character with a new inventory. Look around and you’ll even spot your former, now zombified self that you can kill once more to retrieve your old weapons.


The Wii U controller works like a charm 


One of the cool quirks of the Wii U’s Gamepad controller is being able to use it as a scanner in ZombiU. Say you need to locate a key to open a door, but the room it’s in is dark. Tapping a button on the Gamepad controller activates a scanning mode – where players must hold the controller up and literally look around, scanning the environment. Objects of interest are highlighted in white, helping you to find them.



Your inventory at a glance

The Gamepad’s touchscreen controller also allows for instant access to your entire inventory, making it easy to switch between weapons without interrupting gameplay. Your weapons appear on the top right of the Gamepad’s touchscreen. Simply tap on the picture to swap to said weapon. And when you come across chests, open them and then drag and drop to pick up new weapons and items into your weapon-filled goody bag.

Hack security systems and unlock doors using your hands

One of the sections in the demo we played had us literally picking at a lock to open a door to the way ahead. Players drag their finger across the lock to a a specific point on the controller’s screen in different combinations until a bar runs down. It’s a neat touch that adds a more physical feel to the game world.

It’s exclusive to Wii U

ZombiU has been developed by Ubisoft exclusively for the Nintendo Wii U to showcase the console’s abilities. Its predecessor, the Wii was lacking in third-party games, so a ZombiU could be a good sign of things to come. Here’s hoping for many more Wii U-exclusive third-party games.

Like the Wii U, neither Nintendo or Ubisoft has confirmed a release date for the game. On early evidence the Wii U’s Gamepad controller does what it does very well. Will the Nintendo Wii U’s augmented reality skills feel like a gimmick with more play time? Only time will tell. We’ll bring you more as soon as we get more play time with the zombie shooter. 



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