Worth playing on Wii U?

Last week we reported that a young development studio, Straight Right, had been entrusted with the Wii U port of Mass Effect 3, which surprised some due to its relative inexperience. In an interview with Eurogamer.net, it's become clear that the developer has more mileage than initially thought, with its work alongside sister company Tantalus giving it valuable experience beyond its single iOS title.

That said, Straight Right boss Tom Crago is aware of the expectation and challenge of producing Mass Effect 3 on Wii U, acknowledging the pressure of living up to the original versions and making the most of the new system's capabilities.

We're very conscious of not wanting to mess up, given the level of expectation and the fact that we're taking something which, on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 and PC, was exceptionally good.

You look at the game and think 'how could I possibly make this better?' The Wii U gives you that opportunity with the GamePad. But first and foremost you say, 'well, I don't want to screw this up'.

You want to replicate the experience on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 as sympathetically as possible. But then you say, 'how can I enhance this experience?'. We tried to get the game looking great and singing on Wii U, and then use the GamePad to complement this.

...This is the biggest title we've worked on in a long time. There's a significant technical challenge bringing the game from its original format to the Wii U. It's a new, different and sophisticated piece of hardware, so there's a good deal of technical energy that's been expended making that happen.

Straight Right certainly seems to be supportive of Wii U, talking up its capabilities and then confirming a commitment to the new system with two additional titles.

We've made a number of bets on the Wii U, so we're certainly hoping that the platform comes strongly out of the gate. We've got two other titles in development.

One of them is original, our own IP, and another is based on another big franchise that will come out in 2013. It's a big title and you will have heard of it.

It seems as if Straight Right means business; it'll be interesting to see how well Mass Effect 3 turns out, and what the developer has planned for its next two projects.

[source eurogamer.net]