Dead Island: Riptide not on Wii U as dev didn't want to rework engine

Undead sequel Dead Island: Riptide won't be released on Wii U as its developer didn't want to rework its engine for the new platform.

Techland's time was instead spent updating the engine from its somewhat creaky state on PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 - the cause of many complaints about the original Dead Island game.

"One of the opportunities we had for Riptide was to continue the development of the engine, and really improve it and make a lot of refinements," creative producer Alexander Toplansky told Digital Spy.

"The things that are required to bring something to a new platform, you need to either really get to be integrating it deep into the engine, or you've got to [do] a port."

Not even a port, then? Anything for Wii U gamers at all?

"Neither one of those was a satisfactory outcome for us, so we decided to do what we got platform-wise and just make sure that we can deliver the best experience we can."

And what for the franchise's future on Wii U? Any hope at all of further games on Nintendo's system?

"It's not something I would categorically rule out, but it's not something that's planned," Toplansky concluded.

"It would still be all too tempting to fill this review with complaints about the flaky game engine, the weird floating objects and distracting animation spasms," Dan Whitehead wrote in Eurogamer's 6/10 Dead Island review, "and annoying glitches like inactive quest points, inconsistent navigation markers and the general air of a scrappy half-finished game. All that stuff is in here, and can easily dominate the experience."