The announcement of Nintendo’s new console certainly sounds like a boon for gamers, but what do developers think of Nintendo’s new Wii U? Vigil Games, the developer behind Darksiders II, is certainly looking forward to bringing its series over to the system.
"I think it’s cool, and the nice thing for us is that it’s compatible with what we’re doing," said Vigil general manager David Adams, when I asked him about the new system during my visit to the Austin studio for our cover story on the game in the July issue of Game Informer.
"For me personally, I love Nintendo," continued Adams. "I love Zelda. I love Mario, and I’ve never actually made a game that’s gone on a Nintendo platform, so for me that’s just awesome. I think that if you look at the Darksiders franchise, it’s a little more mature, but it has that similar aesthetic to a Nintendo game. I feel like it’s a natural fit from a gameplay and platform perspective."
Vigil also told us that they have several ideas on how to utilize Nintendo’s new controller – such as allowing players to manage inventory on the controller screen – but that many of these concepts were still in flux. "We’re not interested in any gimmicky stuff like with the Wii launch games, where it was basically like, this is exactly like a normal game except every once in a while you jab your controller at the screen to jump or something," said Vigil technical director Colin Bonstead. "I think the new system is better than the Wii controller in that it has a couple features that core games like ours can leverage and make use of."
At the very least, Vigil believes that gamers can look forward to ports to Nintendo’s new console that are not inferior to every other version of the game. When we asked Bonstead if he thought it was possible that the Wii U version of Darksiders II would be the best version of the game, he said, "Yeah, just because the hardware is more powerful and it will have some extra features that I think will actually be useful to people playing the game. With it’s controller, [the Wii U version of Darksiders II] might be the best version of the game."
We hope to get more specifics on the features that Vigil will work around Nintendo’s new controller. In the meantime, Nintendo fans can take heart that Wii U will have at least one mature action title in its roster around the time of launch.
Giles qliaos
