Darksiders 2 producer is impressed with the Wii U

Ryan Stefanelli, the producer of Darksiders II, was recently interviewed by CVG about the Wii U version of the game. First off, you may consider 01net’s earlier rumour about the Wii U being in “development hell” officially debunked, as the Vigil Games team reportedly got the game running on the Wii U controller faster than I can write a post for this blog.

Our one and only goal once we got the Wii U hardware was to get Darksiders II running on it. We didn’t even have running the game on the touch screen on our ‘to do’ list. but once we got it running, we just fooled around with getting it on the touch screen as a lark. It took all of five minutes and two lines of code, and boom! – there was the entire game running on the controller. Amazing.

So that’s definitely great to hear. Even the most direct Wii U port of an Xbox 360 project could easily be enhanced with the basic ability to let you take the game to bed.

Going further, Stefanelli elaborated on what his team thinks about the controller’s touchscreen. Their way of handling the player’s inventory was apparently inspired by what Grezzo did with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, which turned the infamous iron boots into a simple touchscreen button.

It allows for quick weapon and equipment swaps. For example, you could have two different equipment sets for Death – one that’s geared towards heavy weapons and big armour, and another that’s designed for mobility and quick strikes. On the Wii U, all it would take to switch from one to the other would be a hot button on the touch screen, and multiple swaps could be made during an intense combat without ever pausing.

Just to have something on the touch screen, we put the inventory and map systems on the controller – and even that small thing makes a big difference. When you collect a new piece of loot, you just look down to see if you want it, and can equip it instantly. I can’t say for sure if that’ll be in the final cut, but it’s really cool that the gameplay experience never has to be broken up by changing out equipment.

It makes me happy to hear these positive comments about the Wii U from a prominent developer, as it means that more will probably follow. Bethesda, I’m looking at you!