PixlBit

Miitroid.

The next Wii U demo I tried was a quirky mix of Miis and Metroid. Up to two players could team up with Wii remotes dressed up as a Mii with Samus' suit against the person with the Wii U controller who manned her gunship. A short training mode let players get acquainted to the controls by shooting at floating targets, then each side was released into a large arena to shoot it out in third person; the player with the most hits won.

The futuristic fort-style arena had plenty of area to run and walls to take cover behind, with lower as well as upper sections with airlifts to the top. A health heart would appear randomly on occasion, so there should be several more powerup abilities if this ever turns into an actual game. The blaster effects were bright, and the on-screen font and reminder bubbles lead me to think the demo is of the next Wii Sports (...in space!).

On the Mii side, players could shoot Samus' gun which was more like a cartoony blaster than any Metroid beams, but they could also perform charged shots, launch grenades, roll into morph ball, and jump. It felt like Jet Force Gemini in some ways; if I remember right, your character could move with the nunchuck and aim with the remote in conjunction with A, which would also turn him or her slightly transparent. Character movement and jumping was very slow for the size of the arena, and some ramps couldn't even be climbed in morph ball mode but maybe that will change later.

The ship was a lot of fun to control. The left circle pad strafed and moved forward and back, while the right one moved the ship vertically, and the left trigger zoomed in on the reticule. Aiming could be done by moving the controller around which was a little challenging to coordinate. I'm sure with a little more practice though, the ship's machine gun fire and agility will make it a beast that people will fight over controlling.