It's funny how Nintendo gets so much heat for the Wii U. We hear often how the Wii U is underpowered and weak. However, the system is only underpowered compared to the specs on the PS4 and (variably) on the Xbox One as a multimedia machine. The console is more than adequate to do what it was designed to do: play games and play them well. In light of that, the Wii U will be receiving The Swapper this November and the game is being designed to run at the equivalent graphics from the PC build, opposite of the PlayStation 3, which had to undergo massive downgrades in key graphic departments.
Curve Studios is working on porting Facepalm Games' to Nintendo's console this holiday season, according to an article on Kotaku UK. According to author Keza MacDonald, the game will house all the amazing features that it did from the PC version, but attuned for the Wii U's GamePad, including new touchscreen capabilities to make gameplay more intuitive and fluid.
If you've never seen The Swapper or have no idea what the game is about, there's a teaser trailer below. Additionally, Gaming Blend's Ryan Winslett offers up a review of the title for the PS4 version of the game right here.
The really interesting part about it is that the game will supposedly maintain all the high-end graphics effects from the PC version... on the Wii U.
If you remember correctly, the game had to be massively downgraded on the PS3, with Curve Studios admitting that...
While everyone knew that 60 fps on the PlayStation 3 wouldn’t be possible, the team wanted to make sure that the game ran at 30 fps and that the player had a consistent experience across the board.“The obvious solution was to remove some of the lights. However, since most lights are placed to subtly guide the player in a certain direction (or aid with puzzles), avoiding major changes was the only way forward. The solution was to go through key areas of the game and examine how every light was affecting speed, then plot a path that addressed performance while keeping the overall lighting setup seemingly intact.”
According to the Kotaku article, the Wii U will retain the lighting system from the PC version of the game. Proving once again that the console is capable of DirectX 11 style shader techniques, just not in a straightforward sense.
This has been a hotly debated topic but it appears as if the Wii U's proprietary architecture just requires more time and dedication from the team to get the most out of it. It's not using a unified system setup like the Xbox One and PS4 on x86 tech, so things may not always be a hop, skip and a jump for getting games on Nintendo's device.
Amanda Allen, Production Manager at Curve Studios had commented about the restrictions on the PS3 version of the game, additionally adding that...
Working through the game like this is a great example of how we convert games to older hardware with the minimum impact on the experience,” … “It’s tempting to just ‘turn off’ features when faced with lower frame rates, but going through the game in more detail and working out where the main performance bottlenecks are means we’ve ended up with a game running smoothly while still looking great.”
On the bright side, Wii U owners won't have to worry about the game being filtrated and downgraded to the point of almost becoming unrecognizable.
The Swapper is due for release on the Wii U this November. The game is currently available for PC and set to arrive on the PS4, PS Vita and PS3 on August 5th.
