Originally set to appear within the Wii U's 'launch window' (the period from the console's release up until March 2013), but delayed along with other key titles, Platinum Games' Wii U exclusive The Wonderful 101 has been a bit of an unknown quantity until recently. Thankfully, the game was treated to its own dedicated Nintendo Direct broadcast last week, and a free demo was made available soon afterwards so players can get a taste of the action ahead of the game's impending release. Now a few more of the game's mysteries have been revealed, make sure your superhero outfit is brought in from the washing line, your mask properly ironed, and let's take a look at this quirky and impressive title.
The Wonderful 101 follows the valiant feats of an elite superhero squad, and when Earth comes under attack from the alien Geathjerk Armada, it's up to this team of diminutive champions to fend off the galactic menace while rescuing civilians and locating new heroes to join their cause. Visually, this is one of the more impressive Wii U titles we've seen so far, and dynamic action and comic book style burst onto the screen at every turn. You'll be left in awe when the heroes converge on a series of jet fighters to take on a raging alien dragon over a stylish and colourful city for example, leading to a fantastic explosive aerial backdrop for the fight. And fighting is what you'll be doing most of the time as this is very much a fast paced and relentless action game, albeit one that plays a little like Pikmin 3 in overdrive.
They'll need to flip that thing over with a giant jelly pudding before they can do any serious damage. Obviously.
While the 101 of the title does refer to the 100-strong team of heroes (the 101st member is you, the player), to begin with at least you'll actually take control of a fraction of the whole group. One of your main objectives, along with rescuing citizens in peril and beating back the Geathjerk horde, is to recover the missing members of the 101 as, while each member of the team brings their own skills to the table, they're nothing without their fearless leader. The GamePad is vital in controlling the team, and its unique features are integrated particularly well here. During play you'll use the analogue sticks to manoeuvre the currently designated leader (you can select one character to be in charge, while the rest follow behind a bit like Pikmin following the player characters in that game) while drawing on the touch screen initiates each character's 'Unite Morph'; a special move which transforms team members into oversized weapons that can deal more damage than regular attacks. Drawing a straight line on the GamePad for example, forms your team members up into a huge sword, while a wavy line creates a giant whip to tackle enemies with. Truthfully, this can be a little awkward to implement in the heat of battle, but practice combined with handy button prompts on screen mean that the controls do become second nature after a while.
The Unite Morphs aren't just used for mindless slashing either, as the sword can deflect enemy lasers and act as a key to open locks, while the whip is very useful for pulling out of reach items towards you. These secondary functions provide a light puzzle element which stops The Wonderful 101 from being just a straightforward brawler. Each member of the 101 has his or her own unique Unite Morph, so finding lost heroes bolsters your numbers while also adding a new ability to play around with. Learning how to use these powers will be the key to progressing throughout the missions, activating changes in the environment such as a water slide for the heroes to zip down, or starting up a Ferris wheel. Occasionally, when entering a building for example, the action switches to the GamePad screen rather than the TV, and you'll have to use Morphs like Unite Hand (literally a giant hand) to manipulate items while moving the GamePad to look around in a first person view. Changes to the formula like these keep the game fresh, and mean that you'll have to be on your toes and ready for whatever the game throws at you next.
Fun as the Unite Morphs are though, you can't use them repeatedly for fear of draining your battery gauge. Once that gauge is empty, you won't be able to utilise your Unite Morphs until you come across some batteries to refuel it. These can typically be found hidden inside objects in the surrounding environment, or discarded by defeated enemies. Smashing open boxes and defeating enemies can also reveal 'O-Parts' (the in-game currency), which you can trade in at the Wonder Mart for power upgrades and items to aid your heroes.
Each level is broken up into a series of bite-sized missions, which suits the fast and furious gameplay style perfectly. Each mission ranks your performance, and replaying missions to improve your rank is likely to prove hard to resist, especially as a poor performance is met with a newspaper headline screaming 'Where are our real heroes?!' You'll want to take care to secure the best ranking, if only so the media gets off your back.
The Unite Hand in full swing.
Happily, as we do love a bit of local multiplayer, The Wonderful 101 lets up to five players play not just co-operatively, but also competitively against each other with their own squad of heroes. While one player controls using the GamePad, the other four will have to use Wii U Pro Controllers (using the right analogue stick to summon their Unite Morphs instead of the touch screen). The main game is already chaotic enough in single-player mode, but the antics of five players teaming up to tackle enemies together and swarming over enemies like ants to quickly gather spoils with explosions bursting all around, makes it border on almost visual overload, and thus it's quite difficult at times to keep track of where you are. Despite this minor annoyance, the multiplayer is a real blast, if only for the sheer delight of bashing things to bits with friends and family. We're hoping there'll be some kind of online play, but that remains to be seen.
It should be noted that The Wonderful 101 is absolutely bonkers. One of the available Unite Morphs, Unite Guts, transforms the heroes into a giant jelly which can bounce enemy tanks on their backs leaving them ripe for a pummelling, while health-restoring pickups take the form of cakes and soup. The titular heroes are an odd bunch too, with the colour-themed main players Wonder-Red, Blue and Green being joined by unlikely-sounding heroes such as Wonder-Painter, Wonder-Beer and even Wonder-Toilet. These are secondary heroes, and right now we can only guess as to their particular talents, but it's a safe bet that they'll be in keeping with the game's uniquely Japanese style. It's easy to see where The Wonderful 101's influences lie, particularly in Platinum Games' own Bayonetta series (the second of which is also due exclusively on Wii U), and 101 designer Hideki Kamiya's GameCube classic Viewtiful Joe.
If you're half interested in a game that's fast, fun to play and completely crazy then why not head to the Wii U eShop and give the demo a try to see if you've got what it takes to join a very elite group.
The Wonderful 101 will be released in Europe on August 23rd exclusive to Wii U.
