The Wonderful 101 Remastered

Genre: Spectacle Fighter

Players: 1-5 Co-Op (Local)

The Nintendo Switch 2 Difference

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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.

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 well does the game work on a platform without the Wii U’s unique features? I’ll save you the trouble now – the answers, in order are: “not really, though the game isn’t without its unique charms”, “Not great, but not horribly”, and “it does what it can, but there’s some stuff that just isn’t going to be able to translate”.

The “remastered” presentation, for one thing, is… well… this was not exactly a visually-stunning game when it was released seven years ago, and cleaning up the resolution and framerate doesn’t really change that. 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, but it’s a bit strange that while Platinum’s other games on the Nintendo Switch are some of the Switch’s best graphical showpieces, Wonderful 101 is, even accounting for its age and silly art style, remarkably… well, unremarkable.

Players wondering how the Nintendo Switch incorporates the original game’s second screen, the answer is… in a clunky manner that’s about what one might expect, barring an overhaul of these features. Players press the “-” button to bring up or dismiss the second screen in a picture-in-picture, and can hold down the button to manipulate it further, changing its size and placement. More often than not, I found this second screen getting in the way and being more trouble than it’s worth, preferring to dismiss it entirely except when it was needed for something.

Players wondering about how the touchscreen controls are adapted to the Nintendo Switch in docked mode (the touchscreen is naturally used for this in handheld mode), the game makes use of the right stick for this sort of thing. This is once again sufficient, but kinda’ highlights just how gimmicky this stuff always was.

And that brings me to the gameplay itself. Yeah, gimmicky, like I said. 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 rarely feels like it adds something to the game, instead seeming like it was trying to find a way to work in the unique features of the hardware the game was designed for… hardware the game is no longer even playing on.

The action here is still decent, but The Wonderful 101 is simply a game that was meant for the Wii U. And while this port tries its best to make it work on the Switch, there’s something that was lost in the transition, and what was lost also makes it apparent that all the game’s oddball personality and unique control scheme was kinda’ helping to hide that The Wonderful 101 wasn’t really all that spectacular a game to begin with. Fans of Platinum’s work or those looking to revisit their beloved Wii U game may find it worthwhile to pick this port up, but most are better off sticking with Platinum’s other releases on the Nintendo Switch.

tl;dr – The Wonderful 101: Remastered is a Spectacle Fighter where players command a large group of heroes who can get into different formations to combat enemies. While this port does what it can to make the game work on the Nintendo Switch, it’s clear that this game was designed with the Wii U in mind, and the attempt at bringing those features over to the Switch is clunky and frankly the game itself is nowhere near as wonderful as Platinum’s other games on the Nintendo Switch.

Grade: C

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2020 Game Awards:

Runner-Up: Worst Port/Remake

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The Nintendo Switch 2 Difference

The Wonderful 101 Remastered

Genre: Spectacle Fighter

Players: 1-5 Co-Op (Local)

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Review:

In my opinion, the problems The Wonderful 101 Remastered had were largely that this was a game made with the Wii U in mind, on a platform that wasn’t the Wii U. However, since no one wants a Wii U in 2025, this is what we’ve got instead. Let’s see if we at least notice an improvement on Nintendo Switch 2, shall we?

Well, the framerates seem fine on both Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2, no difference I can see there. The resolution, same story, no major difference I can discern. So that just leaves the loading times.

I don’t think the loading times in The Wonderful 101 Remastered are particularly bad – 11 seconds to load up the game on Nintendo Switch, and another 11 seconds to get into a level. But for what it’s worth, those times are nearly halved on Nintendo Switch 2 – 6 seconds and 6 seconds.

Better on Nintendo Switch 2? Sure. But significantly better? Not really, no.

tl;dr – The Wonderful 101: Remastered is a Spectacle Fighter where players command a large group of heroes who can get into different formations to combat enemies. While this port does what it can to make the game work on the Nintendo Switch, it’s clear that this game was designed with the Wii U in mind, and the attempt at bringing those features over to the Switch is clunky and frankly the game itself is nowhere near as wonderful as Platinum’s other games on the Nintendo Switch.

Grade: C

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