Fully Illustrated's Michael Heald has revealed that 2D fighting title Wulverblade has a chance of coming to the Wii U.
The game - which is like a mixture between Golden Axe and Final Fight set in Roman Britain - was previously unveiled as one of the Xbox One's most exciting indie titles, but Heald has now exclusively revealed to us that it will be coming to other platforms as well.
Heald - who is working with North American studio Darkwind Media on the game - got in touch to say that he's keen to bring the title to Nintendo's console in the future. The overriding reason is that the high cost of the game - which has been in development for a few years now - means that it needs to be on as many formats as possible:
We're learning the hard way that we really are on our own with this game and we're really, really going to need to hit every system we can do. Our loose plan is Xbox One and PC first - as that's what's realistic - and then hopefully PS4 and Wii U after that.
Heald also reveals that conversations with Nintendo have already happened:
The guys [at Darkwind] already spoke to Nintendo at a Unity conference earlier in the year. The Wii U is on the radar.
Apparently, the biggest stumbling block at present is memory. As you can see from the game's latest trailer below, it features gigantic 2D sprites with loads of lovely animation - and fitting these into the Wii U's RAM will be quite a task, as Heald explains:
Wulverblade has massive sprites which suck up huge amounts of the stuff, but as the Xbox One has 8GB, it's got more than we need. The Wii U has notably less and is going to require some serious reworking of the visuals and overall optimising. The reason we have them so large is so that we can zoom in close during cut scenes and not lose any of the ultra-sharp quality. It saves us creating fresh assets for every character in every cut scene.
So the Wii U version will be time intensive for us hence the financial impact is larger. The PS4 translation is easy due to its power, but the huge upfront cash outlay is the issue. We want to bring Wulverblade to the Wii U, but to match the 60fps 1080p richness we enjoy on the Xbox One, we have some technical hurdles to leap - and the incurred costs to a small team - to do so.
What are your thoughts on this promising-looking title? Do you think Heald and the guys at Darkwind have a realistic chance of getting it onto the Wii U, given the technical hurdles that lie in the way? Would you invest in this game if it did come to the Wii U eShop? Let us know by leaving a comment below.
Comments 41
Looks like a miniclip-game...
I can't even begin to imagine where they got the name fro...oh wait I think I got it...
I'm always on the lookout for new 2D brawlers but I'm extremely picky as i mostly just love the old school Capcom ones. This one doesn't quite appeal
E315 exclusive the release date for this q3 2016
Nintendo needs to get these indie games ported:
Broforce, Super Time Force, Not a Hero, etc.
Thanks for the post Damien! If anyone has any questions please feel free to ask, I'm more than happy to answer them
I like how big and bold the graphics are, would they get drastically scaled down for Wii U
Looks like a fun game to me!
Wow. I hadn't heard anything about this title but from the looks of it it should be fun. I like the arcade-style brawler with a fantasy theme. I am a little underwhelmed with the visuals, though. It seems like the animations are a bit stiff and I could do without the excessive blood. That said, I'm going to pick it up if it comes to Wii U.
More Wii U games is more better! Bring it on!
@GrailUK worry not, we're pretty sure we can retain the exact same look, there's other areas we can focus that 'should' make this work just fine. It just requires a lot more work and more effort. Not something we're afraid of
@Toadthefox the player feedback we've had from the shows we've taken it to have been overwhelmingly positive, fun it very much is We've been working closely with players to refine the game and it's really making the game something special. We were lucky enough to win The People's Choice Award - Best Indie Game 2014 at Play Expo last year which was a MASSIVE confidence booster!
This would be a day one purchase if it comes over.
The blood doesn't bother me, maybe there could be an option to turn it off for those who don't want it.
@artofmana thanks for the comments! The snappy animations are something we've actually focused on in particular. Why? Well one of the main things that made the classics great were the fast twitch, snappy moves that the characters had and that creates for a really visceral impactful feeling.
A lot of modern brawlers endulge in the fact that we can now afford for longer, richer animations (memory restrictions didn't allow this back in the day), but this has a negative effect on the snappiness of the moves. Some of our enemy units enjoy longer animations though as their timing isnt as critical due to it not being player controlled.
We've studied the frame timing of most of the original classics and based our timing very closely to those. What may look snappy actually 'feels' really impactful. I promise you'll be able to feel the difference when you play. We've held some long play testing sessions at a mixture of retro and arcade focused events which has been incredibly beneficial in retaining that classic feel.
Long reply, sorry about that I get carried away ha haaa.
@dizzy_boy great! The blood was included as there is a VERY strong historical element to this and the vast majority of the game is based on actual history, so it seemed wrong to have hundreds of warriors in sword based combat and for their not to be any blood That's my excuse anyway
Looks pretty fun to me! I definitely get a bit of a Golden Axe feel from it. Count me as interested in seeing this come to the Wii U.
I like the art style, I hope they can overcome the technical challenges because the EShop could use some more games like this.
@fullyilly Well I will be keeping my eyes on this (but please ignore my wisecracks) There is definitely room in the Wii U's library for 2d hack n slashes.
@Barncak the game is going to be great value for money as we're cramming a lot of content into the final game. The main campaign is roughly 2-3hrs in length (it depends on skill level, it's a tough game) and you also get 8 arenas too which are ridiculously good fun for a quick bash with a friend. The arena modes are what we've been taking to the shows and most players have stated that they believed those alone would make a worthy game But for us the arenas are a bonus. There are also lots of unlockables too which really increase replayability Lots of content.
@undomiel awesome, thanks!
@millarrp we really want this to happen too. I'm personally a massive fan of the WiiU game pad and would love nothing more than to sit playing Wulverblade on that screen! I wish every console had a similar feature.
I hate the graphics. They are really into flash 2D games aren't they? Well it looks ugly! Long live the old pixel 2D graphics! So much better and more charming. This is just boring and plain. Sorry bout it
Looks very interesting indeed and I love the immediacy of the combat and setting for the game (particularly for me, a Brit). The only real negative I observed in the trailer is a somewhat jittery camera (distracting).
I'm a big fan of classic fighting games like Dungeons & Dragons: Towers of Doom, so this is definitely on my radar.
@Alucard83 sorry to hear that you don't like the look of the visuals. I'm a big fan of pixel art too but wanted to give this a different feel. A lot of the artwork starts out in a vector style (which is what I think you're referring to with the flash comment) but is then painted over with traditional painting techniques to give it a more detailed look. But I understand that no one style can appeal to everyone. Thanks for your feedback all the same.
Doesn't look bad.
I don't like the art style. I am sure its fun, but.....eh.
@fullyilly
Right off the bat, I'd like to thank you guys for the honesty regarding the technical hurdles you're experiencing with the Wii U port. That kind of integrity is refreshing to see.
The game looks like good bloody fun. I hope everything works out and you can reach as broad of a audience as possible. Good luck.
I'd pick this up.id even be inclined to back a kickstarter for a wii u port if need be, due to how honest the developers have been.
Looks fun. My only question would be on multiplayer - is it couch and online both? Max # of players?
@fullyilly You know, there is a happy medium between no blood at all and buckets full of it flying everywhere. If you want to be historically accurate, you really should tone down the blood, as nobody actually bleeds that much outside of a Mortal Kombat tournament.
@fullyilly Thank you so much for your thoughtful reply. I'm actually far more comfortable with the movement once hearing your explanation and watching the video again.
Something you didn't reply to was the heavy use of blood. I'm wondering if there will be an option to turn this off. I would personally rather play without it.
Thanks for your response and I'm looking forward to this game when it comes to Wii U.
@BonafideInfidel thanks for the kind words and feedback, we've still got some camera shake refining to do so we'll bare this mind, thanks for sharing your thoughts!
@LoveSugoi we like to be as open and honest as possible as nothing good ever comes from averting the truth We REALLY want this to work so will be doing all we can to make it happen. Everything on Wulverblade is paid for out of our own pockets and its financially killing us, but it's worth it as its been our dream to make this for longer than I can even recall.
@McoobabWATP that's great to hear thanks! We've considered doing a KS campaign but have decided to plough all our efforts into just trying to get it done. It's incredibly hard financially but nothing worth doing is ever easy
@Wuneye for launch its a local 2 player game for both the campaign and the arenas. We really want to add online play too but in simple terms, we've not got the spare funds to make that happen at launch. We do plan to add this in the future if the game brings in enough to fund itself
@BulbasaurusRex we're taking all feedback seriously and up until now we've never heard any negative feedback about the gore but as a couple of people here have mentioned it we'll certainly bare it in mind. Thanks.
@artofmana no problem at all! Thanks For sharing your thoughts! Up until this article we've actually never had any negative feedback regarding the blood but as its been mentioned by a couple of people on here we'll certainly take it into consideration.
The guy doing the voice over in the vid sounds like Bram from TNA wrestling. I'm probably wrong though.
@fullyilly Will you release a demo? And how much will it cost?
This is another reason why Nintendo should have given Wii U more power and used a similar architecture to PS4/Xbox One! Then it would have received a lot more third party support. fullyilly, I'm not directing this at you
@123akis We've not currently got plans for a demo, but, with that said, we're still a good way from finished so there is still lots of elements that will get looked into nearer release. The only issue we have with the Wii U 'technically' is the available RAM, everything else is fine for our needs. Wulverblade's sprites are massive and as they run at 60fps at 1080p, the sprite sheets are humongous! Stick a large bunch of characters on screen and BAM we need a nice chunk of ram to keep them all in memory. We'll find a way to make it happen though! We're determined
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