Terraria still doesn't have a firm release date on Wii U yet, but it's getting close. Spending time with the game recently we had the chance to see first hand how it used the touch screen of the Wii U's GamePad and multiplayer via its Wii Remotes.

The first thing to say is that it looks great. The Wii U renders the game really nicely, both on the TV screen and the Wii U GamePad display. In fact, seeing these two screens working in harmony feels a little like the game had come home to its ideal platform.

"We take full advantage of the touch interface," say 505 Games producer Dean Scott. "You can touch to build, or use the bottom screen as a map. It enables us to provide a seamless transition to the Wii U platform."

In terms of multiplayer things get really interesting. In two player mode you can have one player use the main screen while another joins in via the GamePad screen. "Unique to this platform is this ability to have split screen across devices," continues Scott. "We make the most of having an extra screen."

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Sadly this doesn't stretch to five players (which could conceivably be four on the TV and one on the GamePad, like Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed). "Rendering five different Terraria worlds was too much for Wii U, it was important to keep the frame rate," comments Scott. "But we do have up to eight players online."

With that online play you can also have four players in one family join four players from another family in the same online world — and with just two Wii U systems. "We made sure we supported the original Wii Remote for split screen," Scott says. "There's more likelihood of families having these lying around and they can use them for split screen as well as GamePads and Pro Controllers."

We also asked about which version Wii U Terraria would match. "The Wii U version [has] content parity with the console versions," explains Scott. "The Wii U will be 1.2.4 - that is everything up to fishing. We're also committed to updated all versions of Terraria for free which is one of the reasons that Terraria is so beloved. We've not just taken the Xbox game port and just chucked down to Wii U, we've really thought about the control systems to give the player more control and flexibility."

Are you excited about playing this game on your Wii U? Let us know by posting a comment.