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There are “a lot of lazy titles” on the Wii and developers are “under-exploiting” Nintendo’s console – that’s the stark message from the creative director of Kuju, developer of the Battalion Wars games.
Speaking in an interview with VideoGamer.com, Tancred Dyke-Wells, creative director at UK-based developer Kuju, said that despite the fact that the Wii is more powerful than the GameCube “by a factor of two”, third party titles “really don’t take full advantage of the machine”.
He revealed that despite the studio “running the juice out of the Wii” with Battalion Wars 2, it is working on a number of secret projects that are “continuing to advance the graphical standards” it has already achieved and that there is “room to do more”.
Some more hardcore fans of Japanese publisher Nintendo have bemoaned the lack of “gamers’ games” since the Wii’s release and have been disappointed at Nintendo’s reluctance to embroil itself in the graphics “arms race” lead by Microsoft and Sony.
Despite this, Dyke-Wells believes that the Wii is a “pretty good piece of kit” and said that recent titles like Super Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and his own Battalion Wars 2 have provided “a bit of a wake-up call and serve as a batter benchmark than has been established to date”.
Dyke-Wells added: “I can only guess at what’s motivated the approach that some other publishers may have taken to the platform. But at least from Nintendo what you’re seeing is consistent flagship triple-A titles.
“OK you might say there’s been a bit of a gap in core gamer games from Nintendo – a bit of a hiatus in the release schedule, it’s like waiting for a bus and then they all come along at this time of year, but I think you’re just seeing the fact that Nintendo won’t let stuff out of the door until it’s ready. And I think that’s applied to all their flagship titles. Not just us.
“We’re not the only title who’s had our development extended. I think it’s applied to those other big guns too. That’s all about respect for the consumer really and for their own stuff.”
Check elsewhere on the site for part one of our explosive interview with Tancred Dyke-Wells.
