The visuals won't change, but the controller will play a big role.
Vigil, developer of the upcoming Darksiders II, says the graphics of Wii U version of the sequel are on par with those of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game.
"The visuals will be the same," associate producer Jay Fitzloff noted in an interview with Eurogamer, posted yesterday.
In an interview with Eurogamer from July 2011, the Austin, Texas-based developer said it had spent five weeks prior to that year's E3 making a working Wii U version of the upcoming action adventure game adapted to the controls of the system.
Fitzloff also spoke to the process of crafting an additional version of the game for Nintendo's new console and where the difficulties lay.
"[Getting Darksiders 2 working on Wii U] is not as challenging as you might think. Getting it working was not any issue on the Wii U. It's just the control scheme. It's new territory. It's a new frontier. The Wii, after a while, there's a lot you could have done with the Wii controls, but everybody kind of got into a groove, and it became, here's how you handle this or here's how you handle this. Now it's the wild frontier. There's no set system. You've got to think outside the box because there's no precedent."
Fitzloff continued his comments on using the Wii U controller by noting the importance of integrating the tablet to make a fluid experience.
"It's not getting the game working on the system. It's getting a cool control system that feels correct. And that's where we're at now."
"When we first got it up and running, you can have the game download to and run on the pad, and everybody was like, that could take a while, little worried. It took a programmer two lines of code and five minutes. Working with it is not difficult."
Fitzloff offered further insight on the impact of relegating lower level game mechanics like map and inventory to the tablet, a tactic several games—most recently Assassin's Creed III—look to employ.
"Any game would have their inventory on the controller screen. But even that little simple thing is a big difference because you never have to stop the game on the main screen. That will change people's perceptions because you've never had a game where you didn't have to. "They take you out [of the experience], whereas this just goes."
"And you're talking about the low hanging fruit. You're talking about the easy stuff. The rest of it is where the challenge comes in. What do we do beyond that that makes it feel natural and integral?"
