Thomas Happ has revealed that Axiom Verge will be released for the Wii U on September 1. In a new post on the game’s official website, the developer said that Axiom Verge’s 8-bit inspirations made this announcement feel like a homecoming:
The Nintendo games of my childhood are what inspired me to make Axiom Verge. Metroid is probably one of the more obvious influences, but it’s actually a lot more than that. Axiom Verge actually started out as an exercise in game design. I wanted to deconstruct my favorite games from my youth and see what would happen if I took the best elements of each and put them together. The Bionic Commando’s grapple hook and Rygar’s Yo-Yo in the setting of Blaster Master and Shatterhand. I wanted to see what would fit together – and just as importantly what wouldn’t work.
Happ also refers to the Wii U version of the game as “probably the best one” because it’s the only console version to support Leaderboards for Speedrun Mode and includes Wii U GamePad support for Off-TV Play or a dedicated map screen.
Axiom Verge is also in development for the Xbox One, though its release date is still a mystery.