On the dawn of Platinum 10th Aniversary, let's talk about The Wonderful 101 which I just finished recently.
Even after getting the U, I was lukewarm about this game as it seems more 'viewtiful' than 'stylish hard action'. H.Kamiya has made many great games but it's his Devil May Cry style which appeals to me the most. Fortunately Club Nintendo rewarded me this game so I didn't have to make the choice of buying.
Even after getting the U, I was lukewarm about this game as it seems more 'viewtiful' than 'stylish hard action'. H.Kamiya has made many great games but it's his Devil May Cry style which appeals to me the most. Fortunately Club Nintendo rewarded me this game so I didn't have to make the choice of buying.
This is a hard game to describe, it has a realistic cartoon visual style but a less than friendly learning curve. The heroes looked like old-fashioned superheroes and they have a lot more personality than the average hero. This is probably H.Kamiya best writing work so far. I laughed a lot at the banter between the heroes because it's just so sharply written. The localisation team did a great job on this one, it reminded me of the Ace Attorney humour. Apparently S.Takumi from the Ace Attorney series is close friends with H.Kamiya during their Capcom days.
It's easy to say this now but this game was doomed for commercial failure and I don't think releasing it on a more popular system would have made a difference. Like most Japanese games, it gives you all the tools you need and expect you to learn everything on your own. At times, I feel like I need 4 extra mechanical arms from Doc Ock to play this. I struggled with when to block and when to dodge, apparently you need a bit of cartoon logic which I certainly lacked.
Things eventually clicked and I started to enjoy it a bit more. There is certainly no other games out there like this. Some games try to be different for the sake of being different however this one feels genuinely unique. It's probably Platinum games best game so far and that is not an easy feat considering the competition. It's an amalgamation of everything H.Kamiya has done. There is a bit Okami (formation attack), a bit of Devil May Cry (Wonder-Blue) and a lot of Viewtiful Joe (Wonder-Red).
If you love video games, it's hard not to like The Wonderful 101 at all. Well unless you are some kid who grew up on mobile games that requires only one finger to play and minimum amount of attention.
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