Big disappointment for me. Was really looking forward to playing this with my 6 year old son. Too bad.
http://legocityu.nintendo.com/

I thought multiplayer was supposed to be pretty important to the Wii U.

I have minimal experience with Lego games but the few times that I have spent on them they were multiplayer. Seems like a missed opportunity especially for parents to play with there kids.

The thing with multiplayer is, you have to stay close to the other player. That can't bode well with driving and flying unless it's on-rails or if there is a split screen. You will have more freedom, at the expense of multiplayer.

Yep but split-screen worked just fine in Lego Indiana Jones for the Wii. Had many hours of enjoyment with my kids.

Oh, I didn't know a Lego game had a split screen. Maybe in this one you'll have the freedom level of GTA, can't really locate each other well in split screen if the area is that big. The kind of game you can still have fun taking turns with.

Or they could have implemented co-op with the whole "asymmetrical gameplay" element they have been touting.

Ahh yes, of course.

Not too big of a disappointment for me, I mean most Zelda games are only 1-Player.

A bit of a shame, but understandable, seeing as this is an open world game.

Maybe you could get the 3DS game for your son?
That way you could still play together.... Kinda.

What the hell, why couldn't it have some multiplayer mode like GTA on XBOX has or even be completely online-coop or assym coop on gamepad?
Saints Row did this brilliantly and is also an open world game...

too bad.

That's really weird, I thought the best part about the Lego games was the multiplayer co-op.
Wasn't Lego Batman 2 multiplayer? That was open world right?

For a start it would require 2 gamepads because of the scanner/map/other stuff and from what I have seen in the trailers it never looked like it was ever gonna have multiplayer

I play most game in single player anyways, so it doesn't matter too much to me.

The levels in LEGO Batman 2 took place in seperate instances instead of just one big world like in LEGO City(Or I would assume, anyways.), but yes two people could run around Gotham city together in LEGO Batman 2.

I reported on this a few months ago actually, in October, even submitted it as a tip for it:
http://www.coffeewithgames.com/2012/10/nintendo-says-no-then-...

Asymmetric gameplay would have been nice. Or little co-op missions or mini-games. Racing custom vehicles in a closed off part of town. Playing as the cop chasing the bad guy. Etc.

Not a surprise and frankly the split screen in many parts of the Lego Harry Potter games was actually making me nauseous. Still giving something for another player to do with a Remote pointer would have been nice.

Anyone know if its off TV play enabled?

Probably not seeing how you have to use yer scanner/map/video call ding dong thingumajig

okay after a ton of googling i found a hands on lego city from wired and the previewer said there is the feature letting u play on the gamepad alone. so hopefully thats good information.