Most bugs are edible, others aren’t
Elliot Quest is a retro-inspired Metroidvania title that feels right at home on the Wii U, as it takes a lot of inspiration from such NES classics as Zelda II: The Adventure of Link and Kid Icarus. I’d even venture to call this a hardcore Metroidvania as there is no hand-holding — you are free to roam the map as you see fit and there are no directions given, so be prepared for backtracking. Having all your items and maps available to quickly glance at on the Wii U’s GamePad feels natural and appropriate, something the PC version lacks.
Unfortunately in its current state the Wii U port of Elliot Quest is rather buggy in comparison to the PC version which has been available since November and for $3 less to boot. The first ability Elliot gains causes the frame rate to drop dramatically when used in areas with multiple enemies or weather effects. There have been a few times where exiting an area takes you to a different part of the map in error, including one that has prevented me from finishing the game for review.
In the northern part of the map, you’ll find two graveyards. The northmost one has a boss fight and the one below that has a gravestone that can be pushed to fall into a crypt where you find a painting. Upon exiting this crypt, the game glitched, causing me to go back to the area where the aforementioned boss fight took place, only now there was no way to exit the stage and the game saved in this area.
I’ve reached out to PlayEveryware, the team responsible for the Wii U port, and found that this is a known issue and a patch has already been submitted to Nintendo. It will tentatively release early next week. Unfortunately for me the patch only prevents the glitch from happening, so I have to wait until the next patch releases to continue my playthrough for review.
