Grounds for Celebration! Award - LEGO City: Undercover

Coffee Beans
Did you see Nintendo of America's Wii U preview event? If not, you can watch the full conference as it happened, HERE. During the press event a few Wii U games had live gameplay demos (Nintendo Land and Call of Duty: Black Ops II), while many more were shown via trailers.

If you missed the, "New Feature - Grounds for Celebration! Award", post last week, in it I described this new feature briefly and said, "If I'm playing a game and I notice a coffee reference, or if perhaps I see a game with a coffee reference that I haven't even played or isn't even out yet, I'll try and give the game some attention with a 'Grounds for Celebration! Award'".

Well, it's time for the first Grounds for Celebration! Award, and if you missed the coffee reference during Nintendo's Wii U preview event, you can see it in the video below...in a slightly updated form:

LEGO City: Undercover was the only game during the conference that I can remember having a coffee reference. While the full trailer as seen in the video above was not shown during the conference, the coffee scene was. What was my reaction when the coffee reference was mentioned during the conference? "COFFEES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GAME OF THE YEAR!!!!!"

Other than the trailer and screenshots in the video above, what else do we know about the game? What is one feature for the game that I don't think Nintendo has talked about yet? Brew yourself some coffee, and let's take a look!

The Brew
LEGO City: Undercover is being developed by TT Games and published by Nintendo. It is a Wii U exclusive set to release in the system's "launch window", which is through the end of March next year. A few retailers have the game listed with a MSRP of $59.99 right now, but it doesn't have an ESRB rating yet.

LEGO City: Undercover features:

• The Wii U GamePad is woven seamlessly into the game-play experience. Players use it to scan for hidden clues and criminals, receive mission updates and place waypoints on an overhead city map that displays their position in real time.
• Experience LEGO City like never before. Players will encounter familiar play sets come to life as they explore the vast city, looking for clues to bring Rex Fury to justice.
• Players can go undercover with a variety of disguises, including a firefighter, a construction worker and even a robber, and use their unique abilities to solve puzzles and access new areas of the city.
• There are more than 100 vehicles for players to collect and use to explore the city, including sports cars, motorcycles and even aircraft.
• LEGO video games are known for their humor and parody, and LEGO City: Undercover delivers this and more with fully voiced characters and ambient crowds, bringing LEGO City to life.

If you like pre-ordering games, there will be a special pre-order bonus of a LEGO figure for the game's main protagonist, Chase McCain, for a limited time while supplies last.

Official logo.

The one feature in LEGO City: Undercover that I do not believe Nintendo has spoken about, or even really announced yet, is either a local multiplayer option (maybe co-op?), or even an online multiplayer mode in the game. After looking at different information on the game, as well as a few emails back and forth with Nintendo representatives, it has pretty much been confirmed that a 2 player option will be in the game. Skip to the "Odd Beans" section below for more.

Caffeinated Thoughts
I was a big LEGO fan when I was younger, and had many of the sets. Our first trip out of the house with Bean 1 was to a "grand opening" of a LEGO store in our area, and they had a LEGO Master Builder making Star Wars LEGO figures.

Can you spot Bean 1?

With Nintendo usually having more "family friendly" games, I'm really excited to see LEGO City: Undercover being published by Nintendo for the Wii U. I have enjoyed "open world" games in the past, and from what I have seen of LEGO City: Undercover it seems to be an "open world city" game, but probably one that I won't have to worry about if Bean 1 starts playing it one day when I'm not watching.

Hopefully Nintendo will clarify the multiplayer option in the game, because it is one of the Wii U launch titles I am interested in, and having a local and/or online multiplayer option I think would be great.

Odd Beans
The reason this post was delayed several days since last week is that when I was looking over the information before publishing it, the LEGO City: Undercover "fact sheet" had something that grabbed my attention. The sheet showed "Players: 1-2", while the official page for the game on Nintendo.com showed "No. of Players: 1".

Sources of confusion.

I contacted Nintendo's press contact for the game, and waited on a direct response for whether the game has a multiplayer option, before publishing it. Was the fact sheet correct, or the official page for the game? I was wanting to get this post up by last Friday night, and Jeremy from NintendoFuse.com was able to contact somebody with Nintendo and get the question answered quickly for me.

The response he received was:
"The game is 1 player. No co-op/multiplayer of any kind.", and it was mentioned that the confusing information would be brought to Nintendo's attention.

I contacted the press contact for the game one more time yesterday though, seeing if perhaps I could get a direct response before posting this story. I did get a response yesterday, but it was, "We are looking into this and will get back to you soon." Odd.

Well, "soon" was only a few minutes later, when I received this response:
"Thanks for your patience with this inquiry. Please refer to the fact sheet that states that there are 1-2 players."

So, after a couple of emails, a few days of waiting, and several pots of coffee, I can confirm that LEGO City: Undercover for the Wii U will have a multiplayer feature for 2 players? Again, no specifics on whether it will be a local or online 2 player option have been provided. Perhaps it's just a local 2 player co-op and online co-op like many of the past LEGO games?

A big thanks again to Jeremy from NintendoFuse.com for attempting to get an answer last week for me, though, it appears we both may have caused some scrambling behind the scenes at Nintendo trying to get a clear answer, without them spoiling too much about the game just yet!

No more pretending your LEGO copters can fly.

Questions
Did any of you catch the coffee reference in LEGO City: Undercover as you were watching the Nintendo Wii U preview event, and immediately think "GAME OF THE YEAR!" as I did?

Even if you didn't, are any of you interested in LEGO City: Undercover as a Wii U title and would you purchase it day one if it releases with the system, especially if/when Nintendo confirms the multiplayer aspects of the game in more detail?

Also, any feedback on the first Grounds for Celebration! Award in general?

If any of you are interested in LEGO City: Undercover, you can pre-order it on Amaaon.com and GameStop.com below: