The Wonderful 101
Developer: Platinum
Publisher: Nintendo
price: $59.99
Genre: Action
Rated:T
The Wonderful 101 is a weird game to say the least. Being made by Platinum Games weird is a requirement.
Starting off as Project P-100 a nintendo all-star game that simply evolved into this game. Okay to describe this imagine you are 7 to 12 years old just finished a marathon of the good Devil May Cry and power rangers AFTER you binge on sugar, then you dump your toys on the ground and play with them and then someone down your sugarcoated escapades and that is pretty this game in a nutshell. Honestly, it is just a wonderful game and is easily worth your $60. When this game clicks with you can't stop you will just love it.
Plot synopsis:
You play as Will Wedgewood A.K.A Wonder Red the the straight laced by the book rookie leader of the Wonderful Ones a military force of CENTINEL a Secret Service dedicated to protect Earth from the Guild of Evil Aliens Terrorizing Humans with Jiggawatt bombs, Engery beams, Ray guns and Killer laser (a.k.a GEATHJEAK) attacks. He has to work Eillot Hooker a hotheaded cop from L.A Wonder Blue, a French big eater child sharpshooter named Jean-Sebastien Reneault Wonder-Green, and more. Red and his team needs to go to the four corner of the world to protect five statues that power a planetary defense device so the GEATHJERK armada with be stuck in the perfect position to fire the Shirogime Comet to save the Earth and while doing so you have to more recruit Wonderful Ones and recruit/save Citizens to help you fight. Yes, this is the plot to the game now I could end the review here. If you thinking that is stupid fun or just plain stupid is one of the linchpins to this game. The story is fun, light-hearted, exciting, and quiet cheesy for me I love that and I love this story also really strong voice acting helps and the lines being pretty well written makes it is really fun to listen to the banter between the main 7 Wonderful Ones, their allies, and enemies. This is a game that keeps rising and rising testing you and the Wonderful Ones. This story takes very clearly from a lots sources and it is proud of that such as Power Rangers. Yet, it is still its own thing it is like the friend you have who makes references but, build his own jokes from them. A really nice thing they do is you always meet and have banter with villains before you fight them some more then others. Wonder Red always has to try to reason with them and it always fails. The characters are simple and they get some development but, overall they archetypes but, that is what they are trying be just archetype here is the group dynamic is such Blue fights with Red, Green trolls Blue, Green hit on Pink which she rejects and both verbally and psychically abuses him, yellow is shy, White speaks mostly with proverbs or gives, and Black doesn't speak he just always playing on his 3DS.The story and character are simple, yet entertaining and overall it is very endearing and to put it in one word epic.
Ascetics:
The art style takes quite a few notes from Viewtiful Joe another title by Hideki Kamiya the director of the this game, and a few of the enemies movement patterns and designs reminds me of some enemies from Bayonetta, yet another one by him. The world looks colorful, playful, cartoonish, and overly large however it doesn't hurt your eyes or make it to hard to see your characters. The levels or Operation are varied, they start at Suburbs, move to skyscraper, to fighting on airplanes, a water city, temples in a volcanos and the arctic, and another interesting place that I don't want to spoil to much let's just say it ends in space. Each of the wonderful ones have either a funny (Wonder-Toilet), cool(Wonder-Sister is a gunslinger nun), weird(Wonder-Art a painting), or cute(Wonder-Nusre) looks to them. They all remind me of actions figures that you had when you were younger or ideas you had for one. Graphically this game is not very impressive but it is good and is really nice at certain places. My favorite parts are the transformations, and over the top cut-secenes. Each transformation for the 7 main Wonderful Ones is unique Red is serious and to the point, Blue shows offs, Green is smirking all throughout, Pink poses in a partying manner or sexy manner, Yellow has a lot of flexing, White japanese dance thing, Black break dances. And the Over the top cut-secenes are funny and just plain epic there is a moment where you finish a boss by nearly playing jumprope with it. Enemies are varied even when they look similar they have different abilities, there are dragons, robot foot soldiers, sea serpents, giant enemy crabs, Excaidrills, snapping turtles, hydras, Giant mechs, Octopi, etc. Even the citizens are varied to a degree they all reasonibly look like they are natives to the level. The music really helps gets you into the mood when they introduce a new member, fight enemies, kill bosses, even some of the sadder moments. My favorite song the Wonderful 101 theme song that plays when ever you kill a boss. Lastly is this version of achievements are called bottle caps and by completeing sets of them you can unlock characters like wonder-bayonetta. The Ascetics complement and enhances the story and gameplay rising them. although their are some animation errors like members laying down, but these aren't too bad.
Gameplay:
Now to meat of this game the gameplay. It is really good, deep gameplay. your base attack is the climb attack which you can upgrade you send your hero to climb on top of enemy and stop them so you can hit them with a unite morph easier also, this is tied to the lock on any enemy that climb attack has been used on you will right away attack the closest one. Each unite morph is unique; Hand is focus damaging attack, sword is used for crowd control, gun is great for aerial enemies, whip is used to remove spikes from enemies and toss them, hammer is a slow, close range, heavying, and piercing guard damage attack unfortunately very easy to interrupt, claws are really fast, freeze enemies, and opens defense, bombs slow down enemies to crawl. Lasers can be reflected with sword, bombs can be throw back with gun or whip depending if they are spiked or not, also enemies with hooks can be effected to by whip, hammer can break most shields, and more. You are given each when needed in the story. you fight a special enemies. example a Enemy with laser spikes that can't be hit shows up then Wonder pink shows up for the first time and uses unite whip. To use each power use draw a image line for sword, circle for hand, L for gun, a S or squiggle for whip, a line then a circle for hammer, a zig zag for claws, a circle then a line for bombs. There two ways to draw the lines, you need to draw them with the right analog stick or use the stylus and touch pad both work pretty well. Although few times I tried to make hammer and the game thought I made a whip when used the analog stick but, time slows while you make unite morphs, each unite morph has a color for it so know whether not you made the right shape or not. I found fighting the enemies fun and challenging some need you to use specific unite morph to fight. Example these giant turtles can't hurt till you break the armor with unite hammer. Enemies are quite aggressive always moving out of way attacks and attacking you. the highest difficulty at the start being normal provides a great challenge and depth I would compare this game to Bayonetta or the Original Devil may Cry when it comes to combat. Like many platinum games you are graded from consolation prize a.k.a. you suck to pure platinum you rock based on damage you took, combos, and how long you took. Also your score multipler is affected by what Unite morph you use; bomb, gun and hammer adds .1 to the multiplier but, are some of the hardest to use whip adds .05, fist has adds .04, and sword has adds .02 claws and most special add the lowest at .01 but are the easiest to use. Now, the key to combat in this game to use the space of the battle to again the upper hand sometimes they will do something interesting aside from just have you fight them at narrow space, have enemy drop air strikes, or have the platform work as teeter toter. Now, there sequences were you have to go into a in closed area and solve puzzle and it really shows what dual-screen gameplay can do. In a great part you are stuck in a cube and you have move punching a colored walls that will move you forward and not into a hole using your third person view to gain persecutive of were the cube is and using the smaller screen to hit the right wall. or a another were you are climbing a multi-colored wall and have to avoid a laser coming out of the wall depending on which color it is getting shoot at. The problem with these sections are the camera controls they work fine for me but, it is connected to the gyroscope so you have move the controller around to control the camera. it should have just been over the shoulder camera controlled with the right analog stick which you can do by hold the right trigger button. Next are Vehicle sections these and they provide good challenge and control great you will control the virgin victory and fighta boss in a on rails shooter sections, their are others but, these are one done used once and never again. And now the worst part the platforming now you jump around platform to platform just fine the problem is when they really try to be interesting when a building was collapsing and I had to climb to the top and sometime I would run a platform that would fall apart and fall to my death it is really annoying but, other times its decent and you have to use your unite morph to get across to the other side. And course lastly the bosses are amazing they provide great challenges some take powers away, some need you to use specific unite morphs to deflect attacks, and some of them references to Punch out and Star-fox. There isn't a lot of hand holding it is there but, this is a game that rewards experimentation and let player learn and grow it is challenging but, it is rarely punishing. Lastly, are the higher difficulties what happens is not only are already aggressive enemy even more aggressive enemies that appear later on show up far earlier.
To wrap this review up The Wonderful 101 is great game and well worth your money and your time. A good, light, decently written story with fun characters, great humor, and a scale broken to hell. Deep, rich, rewarding, challenging gameplay that never becomes chore and is always fun. While platforming and puzzle at times can be a pain sometimes it is worth it. The art style and music just improve what is already great they set the tone and prepare you for the epiciness. What few faults there are the passion, love, and effort that runs through this game they are for me forgiven. Must own for Wii U Owners it is a Nintendo game from the hands of Platinum it isn't perfection but, it is wonderful.
