It’s quite clear the moment you see Need For Speed Most Wanted running on the Wii U that Criterion Studios loves the new hardware and is making sure they get the most out of it in this very outstanding updated version of the game. I actually did a double take when I walked into the room the game was being demoed in at the W Hotel in Times Square on Wednesday because there were a group of kid bloggers hooting and hollering on the right side as they played some of the new PS3 DLC (coming out soon), while on the left side a Criterion rep was showing off the Wii U version to a fellow editor type who was glued to the screen with a huge smile on his mug. Talk about bizarre creations (ha ha) – it’s supposed to be the other way around (at least in the minds of the confused Nintendo haters out there), but the Wii U has plenty going on under the hood that more developers will need to start taking advantage of. Calling this game a mere “port” is doing the team a supreme disservice. From the use of PC textures to the amazing new features exclusive to the console, Wii U owners are clearly getting the best console version of the game to date…

Both of the Criterion guys there I spoke to were absolutely thrilled with the hardware and it shows. In addition to the textures which look spectacular in HD and exactly like the PC version, the new nighttime lighting, more detailed maps and the general added boost to the visuals make a big difference when compared to the PS3 and 360 versions. Those two versions indeed look great, but side by side, it was certainly no contest which game looked as good as the screenshots that came on the asset disc I got. I’d say this probably will make the most nit-picky graphics folks hopefully shut up a bit about how a console “can’t do” PC quality visuals. I’m also now actually hoping this may get a few developers who have either said they’re not doing games for or who may have expressed reservations about making games for the console change their tunes to something a bit more positive.

The frame rate blazes along at 30 FPS and from what I experienced, it’s pretty rock solid and the draw distance is even better than before. For the 60 FPS or bust crowd, get over it, please. There’s nothing wrong with 30 at all, especially when you’re in that Lamborghini Aventador boosting along at upwards of 205 MPH with no loss of detail even with a full highway and AI racers or a city course packed with traffic and a few cops chasing after you. The only thing I really noticed that was “off” was minor – some slightly muddy leaf textures in the tree my car flew into when I was taking a curve at high speed against traffic, got taken out into a skid by a rival AI car and then slammed off the road by an oncoming truck. Ouch. A few seconds of being upside down looking at about six or seven big blurry leaves and a reset later, it was back to the road. You can also swap out cars during play, but expect some loading as your chosen ride is spawned. After that, it’s back to the action and like the other versions of the game, there’s plenty to do from straight up races to all sorts of cool, fun challenge events.

As for the new features? Holy Cats. It’s insane what Criterion has done with the Wii U GamePad in adding a two-player co-op driving mode that’s part driving class, part debug mode. Made primarily for new players to this type of super-fast racing experience, among other things, it allows one player to drive and the other to control elements of the gameplay, upgrading and environment, making things easier or harder. You can turn night into day, change the color of and.or repair the car, remove traffic and more all on the fly with no drop in frame rate. The other player can also co-drive the car (again, this is for new players who may be really bad at racers, so the game is truly for kids to adults) or make things worse by cutting on the traffic mid-event (or better, removing it so you can’t crash into other cars). You can also slow down the action so the driver can learn how to escape dangerous situations with deft braking and tricky power slides. Veteran players can skip all that and just get down with the game as it’s meant to be played, but Criterion knows that they’re target audience is much larger on a Nintendo console.

No, you can’t make the AI you’re racing against vanish and nope, you can’t spawn cops on your “student” (which would have been cool), but overall, this is almost like getting a new game (and will CERTAINLY be a new game for Nintendo-only gamers out there. The Miiverse gets support as well as if you take your game online (up to six players with Autolog support, of course), you can crash through billboards and your Mii will appear on them on the screens of your opponents. If you end up being better at launching your ride through more billboards, your Mii will basically be taunting your buddies to best your billboard smash-throughs just so they can stop seeing your mug when they’re blazing around the huge game world. Solo players can play entirely on the GamePad (freeing up the TV), there’s a Spectator Mode here and a lot more. I didn’t get to see it all, as the game was quite the hot ticket. But the half hour or so spent was well worth it.

Wii U owners will get the same starting cars as the other versions plus the Ultimate Speed Pack (five lovely supercars), full support for every first-party controller on the system (including the Wii Remote/Nunchuck combo, Steering Wheel and Pro Controller) and a few more things you’ll find about soon enough. Whether you’re just tooling around enjoying the huge maps in the car of your choice or competing for upgrades and Autolog glory, there’s so much to do in the game that I can see some Nintendo fans who’ve never played a NFS game (or may remember Criterion from the fantastic Burnout 2 on the Game Cube) becoming a bit overwhelmed by the game at first. That said, there will also be a bunch of new fans of the franchise as well as multi-console owners who’ll have another reason to blaze through the game on a different platform in a much-better looking game.

Finally, I can’t imagine what’s next for Criterion on the Wii U, but if they’re interested and have the manpower to spare, I’d bet those Nintendo fans who’ve never played the other Burnout games would love an open world compilation made up of the best bits of that franchise PLUS a Wii U version of Burnout Crash! (with Miis and certain Nintendo characters as guest drivers) on the same disc. Who knows – perhaps they can get those classics up and running in HD at that 60 FPS some fans are still wanting to see. I say they should go for if only to convince these professional skeptics that it can be done more easily with the older games because they’re set in relatively smaller (but still highly detailed) maps. No charge for the idea, by the way…