So, how has Nintendo improved upon the 2011 demo Chase Mii in Mario Chase?
To be completely honest, Mario Chase, the Mario-themed Nintendo Land game, hasn't changed too much from its origins as the E3 2011 demo Chase Mii. I'd say though, after playing a bunch of rounds of it, it doesn't need to be changed. It's pretty excellent as it is.
If you didn't know, Mario Chase is a Pac-Man Vs.-style game. Four players using Wii Remotes run around an arena hunting the GamePad wielder, who has a full top-down view of the map and where everyone is. The GamePad also displays a third-person perspective for the player, which is the same viewpoint that the other four players have on the TV in split-screen.
The GamePad player, wearing a Mario hat, has a 10-second head start and then the four Toad hat-wearing players have to run around and look for him. It requires a lot of communication between the four players, and you'll be shouting "He's in green, heading into yellow!" over and over again. Of course, that might not even be what you want do, because the GamePad player can hear you say that and mess with you. It's a really devious game on occasion.
Roughly halfway through the timed round, a star appears in the middle of the arena. The GamePad player can get this star to turn invincible for a while, which means the player can knock down any other player. During my playtime at the Wii U Preview Event, I had a ton of fun with this game, with some thrilling last-second endings. Also, Nintendo World Report's Ariel Ruff quickly became a ringer for this game, at one point tackling a player in 20 seconds. That unlocked one of the game's five stamps, which appear to be like the Wii Sports Resort stamps.
One thing they did add was a "gameface" for the GamePad player. Using the controller's camera, the player's face is displayed on the TV, so the GamePad player can taunt the other players, or the other players can see the joy or fear in his eyes. It's nothing fancy, but it is a nice touch.
Mario Chase is a lot of fun, and it appears that it will have around three different stages at a minimum. There might be more to it, but we weren't shown any more of it. It's one of the many Pac-Man Vs.-style games in Nintendo Land, and because of how much fun Pac-Man Vs. is, that is not a bad thing at all.