The Wonderful 101

[Guy]

The Wii U is suddenly going to go from having very little software to having a great deal of very great software.

 

Day one for this, been growing increasingly hyped. The Nintendo Direct tomorrow will probably push me to breaking point.

[Fierce_LiNk]

The Wii U is suddenly going to go from having very little software to having a great deal of very great software.

 

 

Yeah, it really seems to be coming on now. Even if it doesn't become a commercial success, I'm confident that it'll be a very good game system anyway.

 

Basically, what they need to do is create a time machine and erase the last 7 or so months. Count all these titles that are out now or coming out and say that they are the launch day games. If Pikmin, Wonderful 101, DK and Mario3DLand were all at launch, it would have sold itself.

[Serebii]

Apparently The Guardian accidentally broke the embargo and posted their review. It was glowing

[Kaepora_Gaebora]

Apparently The Guardian accidentally broke the embargo and posted their review. It was glowing

 

N4G have that review apparently, but you need a subscription to view it. Managed to find this quote from the Guradian review though:

 

...It's in these moments that Platinum displays a mastery of the Wii U hardware hitherto unseen, even in Nintendo's homegrown titles. One especially memorable section has you controlling a giant spacecraft on the television screen by marshalling the 101 onto directional pressure pads in a cockpit that's rendered on the Wii U pad's screen. If this weren't enough to juggle, you must simultaneously battle enemies in both the cockpit on the pad and in the skies on the TV screen. It is a genuinely novel gameplay invention and gives a true taste of the Wii U's untapped potential and promise.

 

 

 

 

[Serebii]

Unfortunately, I have seen many people, including a couple of friends, dismiss this game as "kiddy" -_-

[Andyliini]

Unfortunately, I have seen many people, including a couple of friends, dismiss this game as "kiddy" -_-

 

I can imagine your face. it's probably the same face some of my friends give me when I say I consider Metal Gear overrated. The difference here is that i have played the series, and somewhat enjoyed it, too. From time to time.

 

Back on topic, I have already preordered this game, and am eagerly waiting for tomorrow's Direct. Platinum's Blog is also a joy to read.

[Hero-of-Time]

Apparently The Guardian accidentally broke the embargo and posted their review. It was glowing

 

I'm expecting nothing less from a Kamiya game.

[Wii]

Full Guardian Pikmin 3 review.

 

If Pikmin 3, Nintendo's great summer hope for its beleaguered Wii U console, has you directing a herd of miniature helpers, The Wonderful 101, the company's leftfield, summer sleeper-hit-in-waiting, puts you in control of an angry mob. In both games you sweep through the landscape as a hustling cluster of bodies. In both games you use this crowd's wisdom and strength to create pathways to your objectives, and to eliminate the foes and obstacles in your way.

 

But only in The Wonderful 101 can you, with a delicate swipe of the finger, arrange your swarm into a giant pink spiked whip used to tear the armour from your opponents, or a pea green handgun used to launch your minions as a kind of fleshy ammunition, or even a Soviet hammer that pounds the concrete in a thick Russian accent. If Pikmin 3 is the Gardener's World of ponderous strategy games, The Wonderful 101 is police helicopter footage of a sweltering Los Angeles riot.

 

The premise and styling is as wild-eyed as anything to come from Platinum Games, the most boisterous of Japan's contemporary video-game developers. The titular 101 is a group of topflight superheroes plucked from each of the world's nations. Each individual has his or her own unique styling and ability, but this is a game about the power of co-operation, not individual might. The swarm might be composed of individuals, but it must act as a single entity. Using either the Wii U pad's touchscreen or one of its stiff analogue sticks, you can shepherd your mob into esoteric tools and weapons by tracing shapes. The larger the shape you draw, the greater the number of superheroes who add their bodies to its formation.

 

Platinum's talent for the set piece is brought to the fore by way of the game's chosen style, that of the 'Tokusatsu' – the genre of special effect-heavy Japanese TV shows and films that include Godzilla and Kamen Rider. In this way, play is routinely interrupted for an outrageous and delightfully inventive gameplay intermission as you, for example, fire giant baseballs into an alien's face on a baseball field, or use your mob to tickle a 50-foot robot's underarm, or morph into a giant hang-glider and tear through the whipping wind collecting upgrade tokens.

 

It's in these moments that Platinum displays a mastery of the Wii U hardware hitherto unseen, even in Nintendo's homegrown titles. One especially memorable section has you controlling a giant spacecraft on the television screen by marshalling the 101 onto directional pressure pads in a cockpit that's rendered on the Wii U pad's screen. If this weren't enough to juggle, you must simultaneously battle enemies in both the cockpit on the pad and in the skies on the TV screen. It is a genuinely novel gameplay invention and gives a true taste of the Wii U's untapped potential and promise.

 

But all of this unbridled creativity comes at the cost of some refinement. The scrappiness of the action extends upwards and outwards throughout the entire game, which struggles to marshal its ambitions and ideas into a perfectly coherent whole. An alchemy system allows you to create new items from collected pieces of fruit, although its workings are left unexplained; each of the 101 you collect can be levelled up individually, although its unclear what benefits this brings to the whole. New moves and attacks unlock seemingly at random and the means of exposing the game's intermittent in-situ bonus levels is opaque.

 

Finally, the game's tall difficulty belies its accessible aesthetic: make no mistake, this is a far more demanding proposition than its Pikmin cousin. And yet, these are the hallmarks that make Platinum's output some of the most exciting work in contemporary video games: scruffy invention in a playpen that allows for player mastery. In the midst of this riot of ideas and unrefined energy we can perceive some of the Wii U system's idiosyncratic wonder. It may not be a game to sell a system, but The Wonderful 101 provides ample justification for Nintendo's eccentric hardware.

 

It was reviewed by Simon Parkin, he's always very critical with his reviews. So a positive review from him and you know it's good.

[Dog-amoto]

Mixed impressions from IGN. Says the game is good, but the controls are balls. Unless he (she?) is just balls at it.

 

http://uk.ign.com/videos/2013/08/08/the-wonderful-101-quick-impressions

[dazzybee]

What an awful hands on. Two irritating people. It may have issues, it may be that she's simply cack handed! But she only gave Pikmin 8.8. Ridiculous. IGN simply don't have anyone that loves Nintendo, and thus don't have someone who thinks in the same was as Nintendo fans; I think it's important to have people act as a voice for their audience.

[Ronnie]

'she'

 

What an awful hands on. Two irritating people. It may have issues, it may be that she's simply cack handed! But she only gave Pikmin 8.8. Ridiculous. IGN simply don't have anyone that loves Nintendo, and thus don't have someone who thinks in the same was as Nintendo fans; I think it's important to have people act as a voice for their audience.

 

Plenty of people at IGN love Nintendo.

Edited August 8, 2013 by Ronnie

[Wii]

Even The Guardian review says the controls are not perfect.

 

"The scrappiness of the action extends upwards and outwards throughout the entire game, which struggles to marshal its ambitions and ideas into a perfectly coherent whole".

 

It's not the first time I've heard this and it will cost some points when it comes to the reviews.

[Blade]

Cannot wait for this.

 

Some reyt games coming out now!!

[Phube]

My favourite quote from the video is: "You do the drawing on the screen and IT gets it wrong!"

 

Now she may have a point, but if (like me during Infinity Blade) she panics at the crucial moment and draws badly, then that'll be her fault not the games?

[dazzybee]

'she'

 

 

 

Plenty of people at IGN love Nintendo.

 

Yeah, 'she', it's a woman. I'm not saying she can't not like it or do what she does, but we all read the sites, people that are like minded to us. IGN and multi platform sites in general have company teams - so everyone knows the MS team, the Sony team, and the nintendo team; they love that machine, in the same way we love our specific machine; IGN have lost their Nintendo person, was was that woman and the guy, the guy is still there, but he was always the more tame voice of the two, they were a great balance, now they farm the reviews to other people; and in my opinion, they don't represent my feelings towards this kind of software; heightened by the Pikmin review for example. It's all down to personal taste. But I don't feel IGN have someone who gets excited by Nintendo like greg does for Sony for example.

[Mokong]

I'm thinking I'm gonna avoid the 101 Direct tomorrow to avoid potential game spoilers and go on a blackout till release

[Blade]

I'm thinking I'm gonna avoid the 101 Direct tomorrow to avoid potential game spoilers and go on a blackout till release

 

Im gunna watch it and drool haha!

 

Honestly though maybe after tomorrow I will work out what the game is about.

 

At the minute I dont have a clue!!

[lostmario]

After the Nintendo Direct is over though, don’t turn off the Internet just yet, because we’ll have a little something extra to announce shortly after!

 

http://platinumgames.com/2013/08/09/w101-blog-ep-11-go-the-people-need-saving/

Edited August 9, 2013 by lostmario

[Blade]

MEGATON!!!!!!

[Ronnie]

Probably just Red from this game being in Smash Bros or something.

[Serebii]

If it was in the Direct, I'd say "Wonder Red confirmed for Smash"

 

However, as it's after...360/PS3 port :p

[Hero-of-Time]

Probably just Red from this game being in Smash Bros or something.

 

This is most likely what it is.

 

Other decent predictions from Gaf are a demo of the game, demo of Bayonetta 2 with W101 or the original Bayonetta being ported to Wii U.

[Serebii]

This is most likely what it is.

 

Other decent predictions from Gaf are a demo of the game, demo of Bayonetta 2 with W101 or the original Bayonetta being ported to Wii U.

Or, my more outlandish but very possible theory, Nintendo have actually let Kamiya have Starfox for a game

[Guy]

Let's face it, anything these guys announce is going to be fucking delicious.

[Hero-of-Time]

Or, my more outlandish but very possible theory, Nintendo have actually let Kamiya have Starfox for a game

 

Yeah, I liked that one but didn't want to dish out false hopes and over hyping.