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Chasing Aurora was a launch title on the Wii U eShop, bringing with it a focus on local multiplayer that was undoubtedly unique among its contemporaries. It's since become available as a demo and had a price promotion, though developer Broken Rules admitted earlier in the year that despite a welcome increase in sales it hadn't quite met expectations. In our interview with Broken Rules in the weeks after launch, Martin Pichlmair also explained plans to incorporate gamer feedback and improve the experience with updates, helped a great deal by the Wii U eShop having a relatively straight-forward infrastructure to allow changes.

The developer has been in touch to advise us that the planned update is now available in North America and PAL regions. Rather than just providing basic fixes it makes some fairly notable changes, so check out the details below.

Better Scoring in Tournament

All tournaments now follow a best-of-five structure. It levels the playing field and makes scoring easier to understand. It also gives you a chance to learn more about the level and game mode you are playing. When we started working on the update, we only implemented this for two player matches, but we quickly realized that we need it for all player counts. It really improved all our internal Tournament sessions, so be sure to invite your friends over again to give Chasing Aurora another go with the new scoring. Tournaments last longer now, though.

More Fun for Two Players

If you play Hide & Seek with two or three players the seeking players will get help from an AI controlled jackdaw. She will show you where the Golden Bird is and even try to carry the Gem to you. Watch out, Golden Bird!

In Freeze Tag, hitting the Freeze Bird with the burning Gem immediately ends the round. This gives a more level playing field, especially with two players.

You usually play Chasing Aurora with a friend or two, but a get together with five players is actually rather unusual. Nevertheless, the game was balanced for a high player count. Hide & Seek and Freeze Tag were geared towards four or five players. Not anymore!

Better Progress in Challenge

Challenge Mode is considerably more challenging now. You have to meet a certain number of points (1 star for easy tracks, 2 stars for medium and 3 stars for hard and beyond). If you’ve previously unlocked tracks they are open for being challenged again. We did not wipe you score, of course, and levels that you’ve already unlocked according to the new scoring are automatically unlocked in the update. If you want to brag to your friends that you unlocked all Challenge levels, you better practice flapping!

No More Framerate Hiccups and Faster Loading Times

We made sure that levels load quicker and run smooth at all times, no matter how much is going on on screen.

Play with Wii U Pro controller

We would have loved to include Wii U Pro controller support from the start. Sadly we didn’t get our hands on one until the Wii U actually launched. Chasing Aurora was already out by then. With the update you can use Nintendo’s newest controller to play Tournaments. In Challenge Mode, you can even turn off the TV, put the GamePad up on the table and lean back to play with the Wii U Pro controller. In our opinion, that’s the best way to play Challenge Mode.

Quite a few enhancements and tweaks based on feedback from gamers. Are you Chasing Aurora owners pleased with these changes, and if you don't have this one does the update tempt you into giving it a try? Let us know in the comments section.

[source brokenrulesgames.tumblr.com]