The Pinball Arcade aiming for Wii U release as close to launch as possible, 3DS version still in development

Developer FarSight Studios is aiming to release its pinball simulation collection The Pinball Arcade for Wii U as close as possible to the console's Nov. 18 launch date, community manager Rob Mann told Warp Zoned in a recent interview.

"Development on the Wii U is coming along very well," Mann said. "We are almost at a playable demo of the game that we can show Nintendo.

"We don't think we will make it to the launch date, but we are striving to get as close to that date as we can," he added.

The Pinball Arcade features virtual versions real-world pinball tables that have been rendered to closely resemble their real-life counterparts. FarSight plans to add new tables to the title with monthly downloadable content packs, and has already announced several licensed tables, including one based on the television show Star Trek: The Next Generation.

The Wii U version will utilize the GamePad touchscreen for ball plunging and menu navigation. The GamePad will also show the table's dot-matrix display, giving players an unobstructed view of the table on the television screen.

The game is already available on iOS, Android, PlayStation Network for PlayStation 3 and Vita, Xbox Live Arcade and Mac OS. Development on the Nintendo 3DS version has stalled due to framerate issues running FarSight's ROM-emulation on the 3DS CPU.

"We haven't abandoned the 3DS completely, but it isn't as powerful, comparatively, to phones that are running our game," Mann said. "We need a strong processor to run the emulation tech. We are still trying to get it to push an acceptable frame rate, but it is starting to look doubtful that we'll ever be able to release the full collection for 3DS."