Ubisoft Prepping Eight Wii U Titles, Including Exclusives Like Zombi U

Ubisoft is aggressively going after Nintendo’s new Wii U by publishing eight titles to coincide with the console’s launch sometime later this year.

It’s still a mystery when exactly the Wii U is slated to hit store shelves, but when it does, the French-based publisher — which has always had a friendly relationship with Nintendo — said it will be ready with multiple titles, including some exclusives.

In an interview, Ubisoft’s Poix Xavier, who heads up the company’s game studios in France and oversaw the development of the Wii U games, said of the eight games, some will be exclusives, and most of them will be ready at launch.

The first exclusive is Zombi U, which is sort of like a cross between PopCap’s Plants Vs. Zombies game and AMC’s hit TV show “The Walking Dead.”

In the game, one player will be trying to keep away from the zombies, who will kill you with just one bite, while another player decides when and where to deploy the zombies using the Wii U’s standalone Gamepad.

Another exclusive game will be Rabbids Lands, which will present four different mini-games that are much more all-ages and friendly. Up to four players will be able to play at the same time, with one using the Wii Gamepad.

At a joint press conference between Nintendo and Ubisoft at E3 last year, Nintendo’s President Satoru Iwata kicked off the event by saying, “I have come here today to introduce you to the most important partner for Nintendo.”

Together, Ubisoft and Nintendo demonstrated how game titles would be adapted for the platform and take advantage of not only using the TV, but the handheld touchscreen, which has since been dubbed the “Gamepad.”

At the time, Ubisoft presented two of the five games it said it had under development. Titles included one of Ubisoft’s long-standing brands, Ghost Recon, and an all-new first-person alien shooter called Killer Freaks from Outer Space. It also said Assassin’s Creed was coming.

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