Riot Games released an extensive look at League of Legends: Wild Rift on Friday to show off gameplay, champion updates, skins, and much more that’ll be found in the game planned for mobile platforms and consoles. The dev diary covering gameplay and other parts of Wild Rift spans just over 14 minutes and shows League players and those interested in the new version of the game their best look yet at what’s coming in the first tests and beyond. Alpha tests have also been confirmed for certain regions on Android devices first which will start in early June and run the course of almost the whole month.
The Wild Rift video above definitely has familiar League champions and mechanics in it, but it shows a much different game compared to the League players already know. Retooled to work on mobile devices and consoles, the game’s been outfitted with dual-stick controls, a revamped rune system, quicker ways to browse through the shop and get the items you want, and much more. Many champions have also had their designs adjusted both in terms of visuals and gameplay to make them work in the new format.
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Riot’s video highlights different parts of the Wild Rift experience and how it’ll differ from traditional League, but if you want to see some of the biggest changes, you can skip ahead to around the 6:40 point in the video where Jonathan “Riot JCM1117” Chao, the lead for gameplay and balance on Wild Rift, gives a gameplay overview. We see champion select options, updated runes, new versions of the jungle monsters already found in League, and a feature that offers a flipped-map perspective to Wild Rift players. This means that even if you’re technically playing on the Red Side of the map, your perspective will show the game as if you’re playing on the Blue Side. Players often prefer to play from the Blue Side for better visibility or other reasons, so those players can look forward to always playing on that side in Wild Rift.
We’re heading to our first round of global testing in Brazil and the Philippines! A small number of pre-registered players on Android phones will be randomly selected for a Wild Rift alpha test between June 5 – June 26 in BR / June 6 – June 27 in PH.
— League of Legends: Wild Rift (@wildrift) May 29, 2020
Looking ahead to the future of Wild Rift, Riot said there will be an Android test held in early June for players in the Philippines and Brazil. Those who pre-registered during League’s big 10th anniversary celebration when Wild Rift was first announced will get priority during the tests.
League of Legends: Wild Rift is planned for a mobile release in 2020 and a console release after mobile is available.
