The Nintendo Wii changed the way game developers think about gaming. It introduced a new type of gaming interaction and the Wii U takes that concept a step further with the Wii U Gamepad. But in some instances, it’s the game developers utilizing the platform in ways previously not imagined that takes gaming in fun new directions. Spin The Bottle is that kind of game.
Turn off your TV. Think of the Wii U Gamepad as merely a way to choose players and keep track of the score. Grab a group of friends, turn on Spin The Bottle for the Wii U, and get ready for pure hilarity.
With all due respect, even the developer suggested two core groups would likely find Spin The Bottle most entertaining:
- Kids
- Adults who are drinking and/or playing a drinking game
One quick look at the above video and you’ll understand why: the mish-mash of mini-games ranges from fun head-to-head competition to seriously awkward co-op. Just as the traditional teenage game is played, you use the Gamepad to “spin the bottle” and the players on which the bottle lands must play the game. They’re automatically assigned a mini-game and that’s when the fun begins.
In one of the games (as seen in the video), players must simultaneously press a button on the Wii U remote, creating an awkwardly close nose-to-nose experience that could evoke any number of emotions depending on the 2 particular players. Two dudes doing it? Hilarious. Or how about in the cliche spin the bottle scenario where a guy and a girl, perhaps one of them with a little crush, get paired up for a nose-to-nose game?
In another mini-game, players embrace in a hug, and on specific audio queues must jump in the air. Depending on how good their timing is and how high they jump, they increase a meter varying amounts in a race against time. Once again, the 1-on-1 and group dynamics here are entertaining and fun, unless you get paired up with someone dreadful. Of course that makes the entertainment factor skyrocket for everyone else!
Just imagine what you might be doing with some of the other included minigames:
- Grab the Rooster
- Hide the Monkey
- Rabbit Hunt
- Blind Dog
- Waltz
- Balancing Challenge
- Picking Flowers
- Circus Act
- Slow Dance
- Squeeze the Orange
- Drill
- Pump Trolley
- Saw
- Pass the Badger
- Invisible Beach Tennis
- Shooting Star
- Jumper
- And more…
Spin The Bottle was developed by Knapnok Games and incorporates a couple dozen mini-games. It incorporates a new element of social gaming that I have yet to see leveraged on any traditional console. It’s not about graphics. You don’t need a TV. Heck, you hardly need the gamepad. The entire game is about person-to-person social interaction in a group setting, something the gaming industry is sorely missing.
This isn’t the type of button mashing game that provokes your mom to rip open the basement door and scream, “Go out side and do something! It’s a beautiful day!” thereby locking you out of the house until it gets dark. Just make sure mom doesn’t want to play WITH you… because things could get weird.
Spin The Bottle is anticipating a release in the next couple months and we’ll be eagerly awaiting its arrival. As will all of our children readers, alcoholic readers, and sexually frustrated readers, I’m sure.
