The Wonderful 101

Genre: Spectacle Fighter

Players: 1

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Review:

The Wonderful 101 is a Spectacle Fighter originally released on Wii U in 2013 and designed with that platform in mind, taking advantage of the Wii U’s tablet-style controller to give players both a touchscreen and a second screen to view the action. Hailing from Platinum Games, the developers of Astral Chain and the Bayonetta series, The Wonderful 101 has had a cult following since its release, and it was until recently one of the last remaining major Wii U exclusives not to be ported to the Nintendo Switch, with that changing when the game was brought to multiple platforms, including the Nintendo Switch, in 2020.

In my review of the Nintendo Switch version of the game, I strongly expressed the opinion that this game was designed around the Wii U hardware, and would play better on the Wii U. Of course, when I wrote that, it had been some years since I had played the original version of the game, so perhaps my memory was hazy. Seems like now is as good a time as any to find out!

As this is still at its core the same game as the version I reviewed on the Nintendo Switch, I will be copying over portions of my review of that version of the game, and changing the review as it pertains to this version specifically.

So the big questions I’m sure many have regarding this game are… is this cult following deserved? How does the game hold up? How big of a difference do the Wii U’s unique features really make here? I’ll save you the trouble now – the answers, in order are: “Eh… maybe, though this certainly isn’t the best thing ever”, “fairly well”, and “quite a lot, actually”.

If you look at my review of the Nintendo Switch version, you’ll see that my answers to those questions are quite different here. That’s because yes, The Wonderful 101 really does make its use of the Wii U gamepad integral. While you will often be using the right analog stick to quickly draw rough and dirty shapes for your characters to get into a formation on-screen, there will absolutely be times when you’ll want the precision of the touchscreen. And having a second screen is absolutely important for parts of the game where you need to see multiple areas at once, areas the remake handles with a less-than-wonderful picture-in-picture.

For the presentation, as I noted in my Nintendo Switch review, this was not exactly a visually-stunning game when it was released seven years ago. The game doesn’t look terrible, and there’s certainly nothing wrong with its chibi-ified 3D characters and silly, colorful art style, but while the number of characters on-screen may have been impressive once, at this point it’s nothing special, and the overall low level of detail in everything is underwhelming by today’s standards. At the very least, the tongue-in-cheek writing, narration, and style is still every bit as endearing as it ever was.

And that brings me to the gameplay itself. Yeah, it’s somewhat gimmicky. The concept here is that players control not only their own hero, but amass up to 100 followers who join with your lead hero to form the shape of a fist, a sword, or various other uses, with players using the touchscreen or right control stick to shape these configurations. Now, I’m not opposed to these sorts of games having odd gimmicks – Astral Chain had a gimmicky control scheme too, and I absolutely loved it. However, in this case, the gimmick only feels like it adds something to the game some of the time, while at other times it seems forced in when you’d really prefer something more straightforward. Again, it’s not bad, but it has its issues..

Still, it’s hard not to smile at this game’s frequently-goofy, sometimes truly creative, and generally entertaining antics. I would still say that The Wonderful 101 is low on Platinum’s list of great Spectacle Fighters, but at least in its original release on the Wii U, it still makes that list. If you enjoy Action games or especially Platinum’s Spectacle Fighters and you own a Wii U, you should absolutely get this release, as the remastered version just ain’t the same thing. This game definitely isn’t without its flaws and odd quirks, but it’s enjoyable enough to look past those flaws.

tl;dr – The Wonderful 101 is a Spectacle Fighter where players command a large group of heroes who can get into different formations to combat enemies. The original Wii U release of this game is still the superior version, as the dual screens and touchscreen are an important element to the gameplay here. This still isn’t one of Platinum’s best games in the genre, but it is at the very least a good one.

Grade: B-

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