Wii U, unlikely. Arf!

We've been following the development of Gory Detail's The Unlikely Legend of Rusty Pup quite closely since we broke news of its existence back in 2013. Created by two former Rare developers - Chris Seaver and Shawn Pile - this unique puzzle plaformer continues to shape up nicely, as we found when we visited the guys last year.

Given that Wii U was one of the lead platforms for the game, we thought it might be prudent to drop the chaps a line to see where they now stood following the recent Nintendo Switch announcement. The good news is that Seaver himself is incredibly excited by the new console, and told Nintendo Life:

The Switch is great for us, a nice new platform to take advantage of early on in its cycle. The system itself I think is a brilliant little device, and quite bold in what it's trying to do, bridging the gap between home and portable entertainment in one system. Although by all accounts this doesn't mean 3DS is being side-lined, quite the contrary.

It's great for us for a number of reasons; the buzz of a new console, the lack of software initially where we can slot nicely into - we always were a good fit for the Nintendo demographic (E-rated Puzzle Platformer) - plus our core mechanic translates seamlessly onto the hardware. It must be noted I don't have one yet, nor have I played with it, so it remains to be seen what nuances and hidden value the system has in terms of design; I look forward to having a good 'tinker' but as a whole the features seem very solid and sensible.

The price I can see being a bit off putting at first, but that'll come down, although first party game prices are probably a tad high. Even so I imagine most retailers will discount. Obviously Rusty Pup will fall into the more £12 to £15 digital-only price range so that doesn't affect us.

Seaver explains that development on the PC version of the game will most likely be finished later this year, which then means they can focus on other systems, like Switch:

We're looking to have everything done on the PC side by September or so, the Nintendo Switch side of things depends on when dev kits become available. As you can imagine there's a lot of people wanting them and I can't imagine little indies like us are too high on the list. We'll see.

This is all good news for prospective Switch owners, but where does it leave the 3DS and Wii U versions of the game? Wii U fans might want to close their browser window and leave the room now:

I'd pretty much back-burnered the Wii U in terms of dev for a while now because of the cost to develop on something that was increasingly seen as a dead end system. Along comes the Switch, hopefully reinvigorating Nintendo's home console market. It all dovetails nicely. Switch is pretty much a defo, just not sure when. 3DS is dependent on resources and time issues but currently a yes. Wii U, nah.

Rusty Pup has been in development for a while so it's understandable that its proposed platforms change as the market shifts. Gory Detail are a small outfit and naturally have to focus their resource where it's most likely to generate a profit - and let's be honest, by the time September comes around, the Wii U is going to fading into memory for a lot of players, making development of that version almost pointless. Rusty Pup's gameplay is also perfectly suited for the Switch in its portable format, which means the console shift makes even more sense.

What do you make of this news? Were you holding out for a Wii U version of the game, or are you happy that we're now going to get a Switch edition? Let us know with a comment.