Criterion is one of the industry’s more respected development studios, and one of their strengths has been in working with different consoles.  Need for Speed: Most Wanted will be hitting the Wii U several months after it has been released on the X-Box 360 and PS3, but will the wait be worth it?  Here are some shots of the Wii U version alongside the X-Box 360.

Of course, the usual disclaimers apply.  While these screenshots were picked to capture the same scene, it’s impossible to make things exactly even.  The lighting in the first X-Box screenshot is pretty shoddy, but that could just be the lighting situation in that particular scene.  It is worth noting that these shots come from different sources which may explain some of the disparity.  It does seem that the textures used are a very clear step above the 360 version, which shouldn’t come as a surprise.  Criterion has said that they were using PC textures for the Wii U version which features more RAM than current gen systems.

This is hardly a be all end all comparison, and one set of shots can’t tell the whole story about a console.  Still, it’s very nice to see that Criterion is intent on getting the most out of the Wii U, and hopefully this is an example all developers will follow when porting games from one system to another.  I’ve never bought a Need for Speed Game before, but the drought of Wii U software combined with the clear effort Criterion is putting in may be enough to get me to check this out.