Nintendo’s eighth-generation game console is generally thought to have been a disaster;the Wii U struggled to surpass 12 million sales during its life cycleand was hindered by a lack of first and third-party support. That said, one indie developer isn’t giving up on the Wii U and is planning to debut a new digital title on the platform this month.
Pad of Timeis an upcomingWii U2.5D platformer that boasts a cutesy, cartoonish art style that’s somewhat reminiscent of thePaper Marioseries. What at first glance comes across as a fairly standard platformer is boosted by its titular mechanic which allows players to switch between three separate time periods on the fly. While that’s not necessarily a new mechanic—titles likeSingularityandBraidmay spring to mind—it’s an interesting wrinkle capable of transforming an otherwise simple game into something more complex.
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Though the gameplay looks to be engaging,Pad of Time’s primary claim to fame seems likely to be its potential status as one of the final games to be released for the Wii U. Third-party support for the platform had always been relatively lackluster and dried up fairly quickly after the debut of the Nintendo Switch in 2017. However, the system’s virtual console capabilities were widely lauded, and many fans stillclamor for Nintendo to bring something more akin to the Wii U’s virtual console to the Nintendo Switch. With the general lack of support beyond retro games, the Wii U’s digital ecosystem was never particularly promising for indie developers.
Of course,Pad of Timeseems as if it were built with the console in mind. Just asThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wildseems to have been developed with the tablet-like tech of the Wii U and Nintendo Switch,Pad of Timewas destined to be played on a pad. In fact, developer Markanime Studios released a video of the forthcoming game running on all sorts of pad-like devices from the Wii U and Nintendo Switch toValve’s fast-selling Steam Deck device.
That’s an obvious indication that, while it will be a final or near-final farewell for the Wii U eShop,Pad of Timewon’t be restricted to the fast-forgotten hardware. There’s still a chance that other titles will debut on the service, but, given thatNintendo has recently confirmed that the Wii U and 3DS eShops will be closing down in roughly one year’s time, it doesn’t seem likely that any other developers will venture to put their products on a soon-to-be-defunct platform.
Pad of Timelaunches for Nintendo Switch and Wii U on April 13.
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