The Wonderful 101 is a colorful and exciting action game developed by PlatinumGames. However, its initial release on Wii U in 2013 wasn’t exactly a big hit. This could be due to the lukewarm reception of the Wii U, or perhaps it has something to do with the game itself.
Fortunately, though, this interesting little superhero game got a second life on new consoles with a recent remaster. But does The Wonderful 101: Remastered do enough to make this update worth your time?
The Marvelous
Playing as a superhero team, the player will compete on various levels collecting more and more super to join the group. Of course, players will also face a variety of villains and bosses, helping to rescue citizens and cleaning up the setting a bit. Of course, the Wonders also manage to cause a lot of property damage on their own. (It’s fun, though, so don’t worry.)
Unfortunately, the story in The Wonderful 101: Remastered is simply competent. It sure is fun and entertaining, but it mostly feels like an afterthought. However, it offers plenty of excuses for doing crazy and silly things within the game.
More than an action game
Based on first impressions, it’s easy to assume that The Wonderful 101 plays similarly to the Nintendo Pikmin series. You control many characters at the same time and solve puzzles with them, right? While it’s not wrong, The Wonderful 101 is so much more. This makes the game insanely gimmicky, as it looks a lot simpler than it is.
A fair comparison would be something like Devil May Cry or Bayonetta. The Wonderful 101: Remastered is a fast-paced action game with a really neat twist. As you frantically increase your combat score in style, you also need to analyze the situation. This way, you identify the next action, which typically involves using a certain move.
The hook gameplay is what accompanies these special moves. Using the wonderful super crew, the player will be able to draw specific shapes to access the move sets. These moves employ swords, whips, giant fists and more. However, drawing these shapes on the fly can be difficult in the midst of battles. Fortunately, the drawing mechanics are pretty good at recognizing what you are trying to draw.
Of course, this system was created for the Wii U gamepad which allowed gamers to use a stylus to draw on the screen. The new consoles and the PC don’t have this functionality, so the sticks and mouse will have to. In my experience, gamepads performed much better for this game than mouse and keyboard. Using the mouse to create shapes felt rather odd and clunky, while the sticks on a controller felt much more responsive.
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