In 2013, Nintendo published PlatinumGames' The Wonderful 101, a uniqu??e and stylish action gam?e that slowly became a cult classic. For many years, the IP belonged to Nintendo, but fans recently noticed that PlatinumGames acquired its trademark from the publisher earlier this month.

Reddit user r/Joseki100 recently discovered that on August 19, PlatinumGames filed a document in the United States Patent and Trademark Office requiring the transferal of the Wonderful 101 trademark from Nintendo, which was succes???sfully completed by September 9, ultimately confirming that the studio fully owns the rights to the game now.

This is quite an unprecedented event, since it is extremely rare for Nintendo to give one of its IPs to someone else. Although this acquisition isn't much surprise in retrospect, considering that PlatinumG?ames has been trying to become independent since 2020, not to mention that Nintendo hasn't done much with the Wonderful 101 IP, aside from allowing PlatinumGames to remaster the game and p?ort it over to other consoles in 2020.

The potential future of The Wonderful 101 franchise

News of the acquisition made some fans speculate that PlatinumGames may have plans of developing a sequel to The Wonderful 101. It all depends on the studio that created the franchise now, as it no longer needs to rely on the funding or approval of Nintendo. It's possible that PlatinumGames may even do another crowdfunding campaign in order to develop a new The Wonderful 101 game, similarly to what it ??did for the 2020 remaster.

There's only one problem: the director of The Wonderful 101, Hideki Kamiya, left the company in September 2023. Some fans believe that his departure means that making a new entry in this series is almost ?impossible, since his signature style was a big part of the original game's identity. However, there still are many other talented people working today at PlatinumGames who may be able to take over from him and successfully direct a solid sequel.

The post PlatinumGames acquires ownershi?p of The Wonderful 101 trademark from Nintendo appeared first on Destructoid.

Morph on

_{[This article was original published for Wonderful 101's Wii U release, but we are bumping it forward due to the remaster. All the same tips apply, and face button clarifications for the new platforms are provided!]}

The Wonderful 101 is finally here, and behind the cute Super Sentai veneer is a moderately technical action game. At first, 101 can seem incredibly complicated, ??foreign, and ov?erwhelming.

But once you start learning how to combo, dodge, and block (the latter two abilities need to be purchased first, funnily enough!), it's not so bad. Just pull yourself together, unite up, and co??nsult the following tips!

• The Wonderful 101 can get pretty hectic, and the worst thing you can do is give into it. Don't single out one enemy in a group — keep your eyes on the big picture. For example, when fighting two tanks, it's really easy to get wrapped up fighting one, and ignore the other, who will most likely nail you with a cannon shot or a revved up charge. Play it safe, slow down, and only take big risks if every enemy is either stunned or vulnerable. Sometimes you just need to exhibit patience in this game to come out on top.

• Try drawing new abilities as soon as you get them: drawing the triangle for the glider for the first time is really hard when you're put on the spot. The gun can also get pretty messy in the heat of battle, and the hammer is the same. Even if you have to sit there for five, or ten minutes, make sure you know the unit drawings before you waste time dying in a fight.

  In summation, just make sure you practice.

• After tracing a Unite Morph attack, you can press X on Wii U/Switch (Triangle for PS4/Y for Xbox) to queue the AI to attack on its own. You can even use this in the first few stages before you "learn" this ability.

• Buy Unite Guts (blocking) and Spring (dodging) as soon as possible.You can afford them both after the intro level, and they come in handy for every single stage in the game. The Spring unit morph can be used to dodge attacks at the last second as well as rushing enemies down, but sometimes just mashing the Y button on Wii U/Switch (Square for PS4, X for Xbox) is faster. Buying unite morphs unlock more, even though they don't show up yet.

• If there's a dial on the map, odds are you need to change to unit hand to grab it and twist it. Sometimes you can just press attack to use the dial without calling on the unite hand ability, but just to be sure you'll want to draw and queue it up.

• Combo the unite Rocket and Tombstone abilities for massive combos. The Rocket is a pop-up essentially, allowing you to aerial rave the enemy for a moment, then finish it off with a Tombstone downward finish. Not only does this produce a ton of damage output, but it also will net you a decent amount of points towards a Pure Platinum medal.

• You can quickly cancel an undesirable unite morph by pressing Y on Wii U/Switch to dash. For instance, if you have a unit fist ready to go and you're moving too slowly with it, just press Y to change back to your normal state.

• You can synthesize Space Peppers, Carrots, and Eggplants found in each stage in the post-mission menu under the "Mixer" option. Just save them at first and blow them all on the last item — then slowly grab the health items you want to top off your crew during boss battles.

• Don't underestimate the sword. You can use the sword morph for most of the game, given the giant reach, damage, and overall usefulness of it. You generally won't score very high rankings wise, but you'll survive.

The post Very Quick Tips: The Wonderful 101 appeared first on Destructoid.

Barely squeezed it in

The Wonderful 101 arrived back in 2013 on Wii U, but you can't keep a good squad down, as the Wonder Team will unite again on PC, PS4 and Switch in May of this y??ear.

The impetus for this re-release is none other than a Kickstarter campaign by Platinum Games, which just recently closed down with a final ceremony stream on Twitch. But what about those stretch goals? Did any money trickle through to get them o??ver one las??t hump? As it turns out, it did.

By way of a message from director Hideki Kamiya on?? Kickstarter, it looks like they eked out the orchestral recording goal of $2.25 million thanks to "revenue from Twitch that [they] earned during [their] closing stream." According to Kamiya the orchestral soundtrack will hit the final edition of? the re-release, but it looks like they did not hit their final $2.5 million "new language" goal. Close enough!

It seems as if this Kickstarter story will end well for everyone, as it wasn'??t really a years-off Kickstarter for an unplanned pro?ject: but a pre-order system for something that was already finished to "gauge interest."

A Word from Our Director [Kickstarter]

The post Hideki Kamiya clarifies that Plati?num did make the Wonderful 101 orchestral stretch goal due to Twitch revenue appeared first on Destructoid.

Further Stretch Goals added

The crowdfunding campaign for The Wonderful 101: Remastered continues to go from strength to strength. Having recently surpassed the $1.5 million USD mark, developer PlatinumGames has confirmed the addition of a new 2D side-scrolling mode: Luka's First Mission.

The spin-off story concerns Luka, a young student who attends the class of Will Wedgewood (aka Wonder-Red). Luka has a chip on his shoulder, as well as a major problem with The Wonderful 100, but Platinum says that you'll have to wait to play the new mode to find out Luka's story, as well as how he ultimately fits within The Wonderful 101 universe.

Understandably, given the initial success of the crowdfunding campaign, Platinum has added several further Stretch Goals, including a remixed soundtrack at $1.75 million, and a second Luka ?adventure should funding hit the $2 million mark. At this rate that heady amount seems a legitimate possibility.

The Wonderful 101: Remastered is in development for PS4, PC and Nintendo Switch. There is no official release date, but Platinum is optimistica?lly aiming for an April 2020 launch.

The post The Wonderful 101 Kickstarter passes $1.5 mil?lion, secures bonus side-?adventure appeared first on Destructoid.

And of course with the power of GAMERS!

Hello fellow gamers, here is the video game news from today's video game news-focused broadcasting named after a dirty referential subject known as Pregame Discharge ?which today includes the following su?bjects:

• The Wonderful 101 is coming to Switch, PS4, and PC!
• Fallout 76 will finally have NPCs!
• Season 3 of Netflix's Castlevania is coming March 5 and more!

While Lyle continues to grasp the power of a village and much more as the ultimate gamer, video games continue forward with new consoles coming this year! But, did you know KFC are looking to fuel gamers with plants!? That's right, KFC is introducing the “Esports Performance Burger.” Truly, the next?? generation of gaming food products has arrived and we're ready to enhance ourselves further.

Discharged question of the week: what gaming products hav?e you shamefully or shamelessly consumed as of late? Personally, I remember eating Taco Bell one too many time??s in the hopes of winning an Xbox One X. I never won. I am not the ultimate gamer, unfortunately.

The post In this episode of Pregame Discharge: The Wonderful 101 has escaped the graveyard that is the Wii U?? library with the power of crowdfunding appeared first on Destructoid.

Here comes the science part...

The technical specifications for Platinum Games' remaster of The Wonderful 101 have been added to the official Kickstarter page. According to the new info, Platinu??m is aiming to have the retu?rning title running at 1080p and 60 frames-per-second on all platforms.

In an incredible, whistle-stop week, Platinum announced that it would be utilising Kickstarter to get the long-requested remaster off the ground. The crowdfunding campaign began on February 3 with a relatively humble starting target of $50,000 USD. Mere days later, the figure now stands at well over a million dollars?, with 29 days still remaining on the clock.

This figure guarantees that The Wonderful 101: Remastered will now see the light of day on Nintendo Switch, PS4, and PC, and will also include bonus extras such as a Time Attack mode. A small push would pop the $1.5 million mark and also unlock all-new 2D side adventure, "Luka's First Mission." To say the Kickstarter ca??mpaign has been a resounding success would be an understatement.

The technical specifications are as follows:

Switch:
Resolution: Portable 720p / Docked 1080p
FPS: Targeted 60fps

PS4:
Resolution: PS4 1080p / PS4 Pro 2160p
FPS: Targeted 60fps

Steam:
Resolution: 1080p with Super Wide monitor support planned
FPS: Targeted 60fps

While there is no specific release date for The Wonderful 101: Remastered, Platinum notes that it has ?penciled in April 2020 as a tentative launch wi?ndow.

The post The Wonde?rful 101 tech specs shooting for 60fps and 1080p on all platforms appeared first on Destructoid.

'We've always wanted to self-publish'

The Wonderful 101...versus...sales numbers. Round Two: FIGHT!

Oh what's that, it already won via flawless victory? You only need to look to the Kickstarter for proo?f, which has soared over a million dollars at the time of publication. It looks like Wonder-Red and the gang are getting a new lease on life on PC, PS4 and Switch come April.

But don't count on Platinum using Kickstarter as a way to fund every project. Speaking to Eurogamer, Platinum boss Atsushi Inaba hinted that this was more of a rare occurrence, as a way to jump-start their foray into self-publishing. In fact, he says the studio "always wanted to self-publish," but their limitations as a developer didn't allow them to do so. Inaba notes that not only was this the right time and approach, but Nintendo?? also "gave [them] the okay to do?? this." He calls it an "original case," but it could be "an option" to consider "where crowdfunding makes sense."

Looking back, Inaba says that Wonderful 101 "wasn't quite the success [they] wanted," but it's something he and his team always had confidence in. They've bee??n talking about bringing it back for years, but could n??ever really figure out the right way to do it until recently. Will there be some changes? Well yes, an??d legendary producer Hideki Kamiya steps in to explain how they'll handle the Wii U-centric mechanics on other platforms.

On Switch it actually won't be a major leap since t??hat port "??will retain a lot of the same features" like drawing on the actual system, but on the PS4 you'll have to "draw" with the analog stick "like in the original." Not one for disparaging this mode of play, Kamiya says he actually prefers this control method, and thinks the PC and PS4 ports will be fine as a result.

The ?project is aiming fo??r an April release date, but Inaba says "there isn't an exact date or timeline," even though "the core is already there." He clarifies that statement by saying he doesn't want to take too long, so as to not be "rude to the backers." Preach.

The Wonderful ?101 Kickstarter will let you get blocked on Twitter by Kamiya himself [Eurogamer]

The post Platinum calls The Wonderful 101 Kickstarter ‘an original case,’ will not rely on it frequently appeared first on Destructoid.

Switch now, and possibly on PC and PS4 too

Platinum's beloved-yet-overlooked Wonderful 101 is being remastered on Switch. That statement is technically a little presumptuous, but it'll probab??ly end up accurate before I'm done writing this article.

Originally published by Nintendo and released on the Wii U in 2013, Platinum is now turning to crowdfunding for a Switch remaster. The bar is super low, though. Platinum is only asking for $50,000 to make it happen; mere minutes after the campaign went up, it's already sitting at $26,000 as of time of writing. So yeah, The Wonderful 101 is coming to Switch. [Update: It's already well over $50,000.]

Other platforms are in the mix too. The Kickstarter's stretch goals include a PC release on Steam if $250,000 is raised, and a PS4 port if it hits $500,000. The Wonderful 101 is a strong cult classic, and this campaign is off to a blazing start; both of these stretch goals are a good bet. [Update 2: It hit $250,000 within an hour, meaning the PC port is officially going to happen.] [Update 3: And...it has now passed $500,000, so ??we officially have a PS4 port too. That clears out all the current stretch goals, but Platinum has added a time attack mode at $1 million, and Luka's First Mission which is "a brand new 2D side-scrolling adventure starring a young hero" at $1.5 million.]

In terms of contribution tiers, $36 will net you a digital copy when it releases; bumping it up to $41 will get you a physical copy. There are many tiers, all the way up to $5,000, but one of the more eye-popping rewards comes at $102. That's where Platinum's famed director Hideki Kamiya will bl??ock you on Twitter.

Also of note, the Kickstarter pegs the reward delivery date as ??April 2020. If this is accurate, that'd mean the remaster is already nearly finished. In that?? sense, this campaign serves more as an elaborate pre-order venture for the Switch version, while drumming up funding for the eventual ports.

The Wonderful 101's remaster also clears up a bit of other Platinum-tinged mystery from this morning. Platinum's "4" website turns out to be referencing some sort of four-pronged initiative. The Switch remaster of Wonderful 101???? is merely part one. Stay tuned for the other three.

The Wonderful 101: Remastered [Kickstarter]

The post (Updates) Platinum is remastering The Wonderful 101, but only if fans fund it th?rough Kickstarter appeared first on Destructoid.

Anyone

Wonderful 101, like many Wii U exclusives circa 2013, was enjoyed by a quiet collective. It was a nice within a niche: that just so happened to be developed by PlatinumGames, who increases their cachet on a near daily basis (even more so in a post-Bayonetta 2, post-Nier: Automata world)

Well, the time has probably come to saddle up and ride into the Switch sunset as Wii U cowboys are wont to do, and Wonderful 101 producer Atsushi Inaba agrees. Speaking to Famitsu in the latest issue, he notes that he wants to "secretly announce it as a new game for the Switch," after re-iterating direc??tor's Hideki Kamiya's joking comments about how "only 13 people played it."

While this quirky action romp was never going to break through as a multi-million seller, as I said above, I think it would fare better on a far more popular system (especially given its bite-sized level "one more" feel that's conducive to portable play): especially now that Platinum has grown in stature and is right on the cusp of releasing Bayonetta 3 (remember, Bayonetta is in W101 as a guest character).

Wonderful 101 [Famitsu via Black Kite] Thanks Rick!

The post Platinum still w??ants Wonderful 101 porte?d to Switch, someone help them appeared first on Destructoid.

Let Nintendo know you want it too

Last year, Platinum Games tweeted an image that very clearly teased The Wonderful 101 for Nintendo Switch. It seemed like an announcement was com?ing and fans got excited about the possibility of having one of the Wii U's overlooked gems make more of a name for itself on Switch.

Except, ??nothing has come of that tease -- at least not yet.

Today during a Reboot Develop 2018 talk about Platinum's past and future with action games, director Hideki Kamiya said he was "super proud" to be able to make The Wonderful 101. Th??rough a translator, he asked the audience who had played it before. A not-insigni??ficant number of hands shot up in response. Kamiya joked that he assumed "only about six people on the planet had ever played."

He then expressed interest in a Switch release, but it would have to go through Nintendo. So, Kamiya asked for more audience ??participation: would we buy it? If so, clap. (Almost) everyone did.

With the Bayonetta games making it over to Switch, it really seems like 101 should be next.

The post Plati??num wa??nts to drum up support for The Wonderful 101 on Switch appeared first on Destructoid.

This game was slept on

While I didn't go as gaga about Wonderful 101 as some, I was wondering where all of the buzz was. Maybe it was the weird off-putting Sentai setup that made some westerners stay away, or the low installbase of the Wii U, but this game deserved to be much bigger than it was.

Either way, another relic of 101's past is dead this year -- the soundtrack. Platinum's Hideki Kamiya shared the sad news on the developer's blog that "the soundtrack will be out of distribution within the year...[and] there are no current plans for a re-release." But before it goes away into that good night, he's given us a tracklist of his favorite songs, which you can read about here.

His picks are on point, and yo?u can download the tracks yourself in the master list. You can also buy all 127 songs (!) over two albums digitally, which are $9.99 each.

The Wonderful 10??1 Soundtrack&??rsquo;s Distribution Comes to a Close [Platinum]

The post Kamiya shares his favorite Wonderfu?l 101 songs, ?sadly tells us the soundtrack is out of print appeared first on Destructoid.

Also, Wario and Ninja Gaiden 3

If you haven't played The Wonderful 101 yet, now is a perfect time as the game has dropped in price to $30 on the Wii U eShop. You'll also be able to pick up Game & Wario and Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge for the same price -- digitally of course.

$30 may be too rich for a lot of people to bite on Wario, but I heartily enjoyed it for what it was -- especially if you play it with a group of people. Ninja Gaiden 3&??nbsp;on the other ha?nd is probably only worth half of that pricedrop entry fee, even with all the Wii U fixins.

The Wonderful 101 Saving Wallets on Wii U eShop [Nintendo Life]

The post The Wonderful 101 gets a digital price drop on the ??Wii U appeared first on Destructoid.

You don't say

Pretty much everything famed game director Hideki Kamiya says on Twitter shouldn't be taken at face value, but every so often he'll tweet out a sincere take on the industry. Musing on some of the design concepts of Wonderful 101, Kamiya noted that developer Platinum Games "tried" to make it possible for your Mii to join the Wonderful 100 as the "101st" member, but for whatever reason it didn't pan out. He then ominously tweeted that he hopes it can happen in "TW102."

Responding to a fan when asked who he'd want to direct a sequel, Kamiya responded "me." While sales for the game weren't too hot all around, it's clear that he wants to keep the series going in some way -- and I'm sure most of you ??don't have a problem with that.

@PG_kamiya [Twitter]

The post Kamiya considered Mii play fo?r W10?1, wants it in W102 appeared first on Destructoid.

She had dumps like a truck

One of the things I wish I had talked more about in my review of The Wonderful 101 is how fun it is to collect all the characters. Finding a new hero to join your crew combines the excitement of discovering a secretly bomb-able wall in The Legend of Zelda with the thrill of catching a new Pokemon, or finding a rare toy in a rando??m, hole-in-the-wall toy store. 

The game hasn't sold in the multi-millions yet, which means that there aren't legions of people digging into to excavate all its secrets, though the people who are playing it are playing it hard. While The Wonderful 101 may not be marketable, the people who like it love it, and are playing it to death, working to unlock every inch of it, with plenty of stuff still to discover. While I'm yet to find any gameplay of Wonder Bayonetta in action, 3DSItalia ha??s managed to get video of each of the game's 115 playable characters... in their unde?rwear. 

The video is a bit fuzzy, so if any of you were actually interested in the erotic potential of seeing some ??relatively low-polygon, big-headed, little-bodied superheroes in their short and skivvies, you may be disappointed. I'm more impressed with how each and every character gets it's own little logo and unique pose. So much attention to detail in this game. So sad that most don't seem interested in giving it a try.&n?bsp;

The post See all the Wond?erful 101 characters in their underwear appeared first on Destructoid.

More than the sum of its parts

The Wonderful 101 was origi?nally pitched as a Nintendo franchise crossover title, and the remnants of that plan remain in the final design. The cast of pla??yable characters are all easily linked to some of Nintendo's biggest names. Wonder Red (the game's lead) can break blocks and shoot fireballs with his hands, not unlike the worlds most beloved super-powered, baby-bodied plumber.  

There are si??milar connections between other playable characters in the game -- Wonder Blue = Link, Wonder Green = Fox McCloud, Wonder Pink = Samus Aran, Wonder Yellow = Donkey Kong, and so on. 

In the end, it's for the best that The Wonderful 101 became its own game. There is plenty here that will appeal to fans of other Nintendo properties, but this is very much a one-of-a-kind experience, and deserves to be billed as such. It draws upon other Hideki Kamiya titles like Viewtiful Joe, Okami, and Devil May Cry, Super Sentai shows of the '70s, the previously mentioned Nintendo titles, with a touch of Pikmin thrown in on the side, all while infused with a unique wildness that will leave eve??n the most jaded among us on the edge of their seats. 

The Wonderful 101 (Wii U)
Developer: Platinum Games
Publisher: Nintendo
Released: September 15, 2013
MSRP: $59.99

The concept of the game is simple -- control over 100 heroes as they explore exotic locations and battle robots and aliens. Unlike something like Pikmin where you're really only controlling one character at time, your army in Wonderful 101 moves like a single organism -- like a blob made of multi-colored bodybuilding handsome dwarfs, armed with the ability to transform into giant swords, guns, whips, rockets, tombstones, jello, and tons of other surprising things. The focus tends to stay on the "colored" members of?? the team like Wonder Red ?and Wonder Blue, but the likes of Wonder Toilet, Wonder Sister, and Wonder Santa, and 90+ others are also there to lend a hand. It's superheroes Kamiya-style, and there's nothing else quite like it.

Kamiya has said many times that The Wonderful 101 was never intended to be Viewtiful Joe 3, but I can't help but wonder. As much as I love Viewtiful Joe, I was left feeling that in order for the series to continue to grow, that the scale would have to be expanded upon in a big way. That's exactly what The Wonderful 101 does. It takes the core concepts and ideas of Viewtiful Joe and blows them out in every direction.

The game is rated T, probably due to all the death, violence, unnecessary butt shots peppered over its candy-coated exterior. The whole experience feels like a grown up looking back on their childhood fantasies, re-filtering it through their adult minds in the process, not unlike Adventure Time or LEGO Star Wars. Also like in LEGO Star Wars, everything in The Wonderful 101 looks like a part of gigantic, magnificent play set.?? When seen up close, many of the character models look like they could have come from the PS2-era, but the camera stays panned out ??most of the time, resulting in more impressive visuals. There are times when the game's hard plastic visual style is downright breathtaking, but be prepared to spot a few blemishes here and there.

The game's tone starts off unabashedly silly, but the story gets surprisingly serious by the fourth chapter. There are two central themes here -- that anyone can be a hero (or a villain), and that we can be defined by how we deal with loss and victimization. There's a great scene where a lone wolf anti-hero, who feels his personal losses (think Batman) entitle him to all the anger and rebellion, gets his comeuppance that I won't soon forget. An amazing score recorded by a full orchestra (complete with theme song) and strong voice acting from animation veterans Tara Strong and Steve Blum add cinematic polish in way??s that both enhance and contrast the toy-like visuals. 

The central gameplay hooks revolve around using the right offensive and defensive moves against the right enemies at the right time, while balancing the amount of meter you have left. You can pull out four super-powered attacks almost simultaneously if you want (activated by either drawing a shape on the? Wii U GamePad or through a motion on t??he right analog stick), but that will blow your whole meter, leaving you relatively defenseless.

If you wait to block an enemy attack by forming a giant jello mold, you could leave them stunned, allowing you to perform a (potentially) lengthy multi-part juggle combo, which if you have the right upgrades, may even cause you to earn back more meter than you spent. Again, it's a very similar formula as Viewtiful Joe, but instead of focusing mostly on balancing meter with slow-mo, it's balancing meter with over multiple melee attacks, proje??ctile??s, a slow-motion activating bomb, and tons of other options. 

I've heard other reviewers had trouble with the controls, but I've had no issues. Like playing a fighting game, you need to have some level of dexterity to pull off motions and combos, but it all gets to be muscle memory after a while. Knowing that there are different levels of physical skill to aspire towards helps gives The Wonderful 101 a feeling of depth, but what keeps me coming back is the depth of the combat system. The game does more to show you how to play it on an expert level than Vanquish or MadWorld did, but isn't quite the immaculate teacher that Viewtiful Joe was.

It makes sense, as there are so many more moving parts here that to gently inspire you how to use them all would be a lot to ask. Instead, the game shows you how to handle most of the basics and inspires you to keep digging back in to explore and re-explore w?hat your sizable arsenal of super powers can do. Just before writing this I found a new way to move quickly and powerfully murder giant robot turtles. This is after fighting many, many robot turtles prior. Who knows -- maybe I'll discover an even better way to murder robot turtles tomorrow.

Part of what makes the prospect of return plays so inviting comes from all the other things you can do with your powers outside of combat. There are so many secre??ts to unlock here: Secret Missions, hidden challenges in every level, secret files, new members to your wonder army, achievement-like "bottle caps" to score in order to unlock secret characters (Bayonetta, Jeanne, the Viewtiful Joe-inspired Poseman, and even Kamiya himself), and more.

Most of these are found by attempting to break into parts of the environment that don't appear to be accessible on the surface, or by commandeering a giant robot or other mechanical monstrosity to take on the world with titanic new abilities. The act of combing every inch of the environment as you move in-between fights is a thrill unto itself, especially when they involve using your new powers in new and interesting (and destructive) ways. I don't want to give too much away, but I'm very tempted to gush about how much I love the Zelda and Punch-Out tributes that pop up in the? game. I hope you discover t?hem for yourself.

Sadly, these diversions also offer some of the game's worst moments. The methods towards to tackling the puzzles and platforming aren't always logical or easy to read. That's fine in an optional hunt for a secret character or unlockable, but when you're hit with a timed puzzle that has an arbitrary solution, and you end up dying on it as you scratch in the dirt for a way to move forward, it can be a be a real stinker. The game doesn't have a ton of these stinkers, but the ones that are there are worth m??entioning.

There's about two exploration/puzzle elements per character that were specially designed for the Wii U GamePad, though GamePad screen use is totally optional. You can move the stuff on the GamePad screen to the TV, or have both screens up on the TV or down on the GamePad via split-screen if you don't want to divide your attention between two separate displays. Sadly, the camera tends? to be pretty poor in these sections, and the solutions to the puzzles tend to either be way too obvious or way too obscure. But they still feel fresh, and are generally more fun to run through after you've already discovered their solutions. 

The campaign is split into a prologue, an epilogue, and nine chapters, each containing three levels. Each level takes anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes to get through, so you can expect your first playthrough to take upwards of 20 hours. You can change the difficulty from Very ?Easy, Easy, or Normal in between levels, with more difficulties available later on. I played the entire game on Normal, and while I didn't always get a great grade at the end of a level and I missed a lot of secrets on my first run through, I never felt like the game was overly punishing.

There's also a separate mission mode?? that borrows content from the campaign, allowing for up to five players to join in at a time. Multiplayer adds a huge arcade-style replay element to the game which almost fee??ls unnecessary given how much content there already is here. It will be interesting to see if it picks up a following. 

There were moments early on in my time with The Wonderful 101 when I wasn't sure which way it was going to go. The third chapter was particularly rough going, as it introduces a new weapon that isn't particularly fun to use (at first) and has some of the least satisfying platforming and puzzle segments. Thankfully, it keeps getting better from there, and going back into that third chapter with all the abilities and combat strategies I've acquired since makes it a lot more fun than it was the first time around.

The Wonderful 101 is one of those rare games that keeps getting more and more fun the more that you play it. If you have the dexterity to handle the controls and the pat?ience to deal with a few momentum-killing platforming/puzzle bits, you're in for a heck of a time. 

The post Review: The Wonderful 101 appeared first on Destructoid.

Platinum's latest sold just over 5,000 in Japan

Depending on who you talk to, this is either sad, or expected, but the Wii U exclusive The Wonderful 101 has sold a mere 5,258 copies in Japan. For reference, it's also completely missed a top 20 spot on the UK charts. Thankfully, Nintendo still has Mario & Luigi: Dream Team, Animal Crossing: New Leaf, Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon (still? Yes!) and Pikmin 3 all still chugging on the Japanese charts.

Although a fair bit of international reviews have popped up across the net for Wonderful 101, the US is held to?? a different set of requirements, so expect our full review from Jonathan Holmes shortly before the September 15th lau?nch!

Media Create Sales [Gematsu via Nintendo Life]

The post The Wonderful 101’s sales don’t look good so far appeared first on Destructoid.

Also, there are two super special secret hero characters

Nintendo big boss Satoru Iwata recently brought PlatinumGames director Hideki Kamiya onto Iwata Asks to discuss The Wonderful 101. In a followup roundtable, a healthy chunk of the W101 development crew went into even greater detail a??bout the upcoming Wii ??U title.

Right out the gate, Kamiya revealed the origins of W101 as a Nintendo crossover game. The idea, pitched by Platinum CEO Tatsuya Minami, was to gather a bunch of Nin??tendo all-stars into a single adventure à la Konami Wai Wai World or Famicom Jump: Hero Retsuden. K?amiya's team then conceived of having tons of Nintendo characters on-screen at once, forming into different shapes using what would later be known as "Unite Morphs."

When this idea was brought to Nintendo Software Planning and Development Group 2 leader Hitoshi Yamagami, he exclaimed, "This is impossible!" Getting characters from different games to work sensibly in Smash Bros. was already a challenge, but the ??way this new Platinum concept was presented would have been even more challenging. The plan was shelved for several months, then Platinum returned with ??the same idea but replaced Nintendo characters with completely original superheroes. Now the wheels were finally turning.

W101 features many wild characters, but there are two ?extra special characters for players who keep their eyes peeled. One is "Wonder-Director," modeled directly after Kamiya and who has a signature trait that sets him apart from the rest of the heroes.? The second comes from a certain other Nintendo collaboration and even has a completely unique Unite Morph. You don't need to read between the lines to guess that this character is likely Bayonetta.

Development of the game seems to have gone on right up until the last minute. In fact, the Multi Unite Morph ability, in which more than one transformation can be triggered simultaneously, was only added this past May, completely under the nose of W101 producer Atsushi Inaba. It turned out all right, as this new technique greatly expanded the depth of? the ??game's battle system.

Hit up the Iwata Asks link below for more hotness.

Iwata asks: The Wonderful 101 Development Staff [Nintendo via Polygon]

The post The Wonderful 101 was almost a Nintendo crossover appeared first on Destructoid.

Henshin A Go Go...er...wrong game

Europeans have been getting a fair bit of Nintendo platform based games early, most recently with Pikmin 3 and Mario & Luigi: Dream Team. There's at least one more early bird launch as well, as Wonderful 101 is launching on August 23rd for all y??ou EU peeps.

I had a chance to play the demo last week, and I found it to be a bit simplistic. I didn't have much trouble getting Pure Platinum medals, and strate??gically, I didn't find it all that deep, despite the fact that it was still?? fun. All of that could change with the full release of course (and with higher difficulties), and based on this trailer, it looks like the game really ramps up after the first set of levels.

The post This Wonderful 101 EU?? launch trailer is, w?ell, wonderful appeared first on Destructoid.

(Iwata laughs)

The latest Iwata Asks is positively delightful as Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata chats up Platinum Games' Hideki Kamiya, director of the upcoming Wii U title Wonderful 101 and a bunch of vaunted Clover classics (Viewtiful Joe, Okami).

Kamiya starts answering questions about how he got into videogames, describing a childhood in which he braved a bully's home just to play games because he had none. "Every time, I'd come home having been punched," Kamiya said, "but I'd go again the next day." From that point on, Kamiya remained ensconced in the medium and goofed off in school, playing loads of games. After school, having taken no particular strides towards becoming a game creator, he sent resumes and received word back from Namco and Capcom, eventually landing with Capcom as a planner on Resident Evil under Shinji Mikami.

Kamiya noted that "there was a backlash and shock from giving the director absolute authority," with Mikami heading Resident Evil aut?horitatively, rather than Capcom's previous, more cooperative approach. Staff, including Kamiya,?? "would complain to the director how we were frustrated by, for example, not being able to have the player-character move faster. The director, however, would say that the theme of the game was fear, so it should be left as is, and refuse it," Kamiyza said. "And when I played the final, complete version, I could clearly see why Mikami-san hadn't budged."

"But immediately after, when Mikami-san made me director of Resident Evil 2, I messed up in a big way. As a result of saying okay to everything that came up, it turned out horrible. We had to scrap what we had spent a year and a half ma??king." Kamiya certainly has a more loose approach to game design.

When he was first tasked with heading a small team, for Viewtiful Joe, he struggled making fun systems before falling back on a subconscious knowledge gleaned from all his years of playing games, eventually realizing he had to be more conscious of this understanding. Of course, luck and a good eye help, too. Viewtiful Joe's slow?-motion only came when a programmer was slowing something down and Kamiya thought it looked c??ool. The whole VFX power core wasn't there to begin with. It developed organically.

"My games tend to go that way, so the core isn't in the plan from the start," Kamiya said. "We make the game with luck ?and inspiration, and if we work hard, at some point the God of Video Games descends upon us."

Note to aspiring game creators: I'm not sure Kamiya's methods -- just playing a lot of games and applying to a major developer -- will prove all that successful for you. It makes for a good, strange story, though. The lucky game creator -- Resident Evil was his first project and he was bumped to director on its sequel -- with an eye for inspiration and the ability to capitalize on ideas. I'm sure Wonderful 101 will be as wonderfully unique as all?? of Kamiya's past efforts.

Be sure to give the whole interview a read. It's interesting and good insight into the development of some fabulous games. It's also adorable, in text, to read "(laughs)" after that many of Iwata's lines. What a likeable guy.

The post Wonderful 101’s Hideki Kamiya chats with Nintendo CEO appeared first on Destructoid.

Wonder Pink and Wonder Yellow unite

After playing The Wonderful 101 back when it was Project P-100, I wasn't sure what to think. Thankfully, the newly rele?ased demo shows that the game's come a long way since then. While it's easy enough to breeze through on a lower difficulty without delving very deeply into the combat system, gaining Pure Platinum medals requires you to master some pretty interesting techniques. Slathering charming characters like Wonder Painter, Wonder Beer, and Wonder Toilet onto a simple but deep core design is exactly what I hope for from a Platinum Games release.

The demos seemed to be designed around showing the player the basics -- acquiring new members for your wonderful army (up to 100 in all) and using the fist, sword, and gun techniques to solve pro??blems (like blowing stuff up). There doesn't seem to be much practical use for the glider, whip, and hammer unite powers that were left in the demo, but they're in here anyway. The glider can be activated by drawing a triangle unite, where the whip and hammer have to be obtained by finding Wonder Pink and Wonder Yellow. They're in the opening screen of mission mode, invisible to the human eye. The handy video above will help you find their location. 

This is the first demo I've ev??er downloaded that has me genuinely worried I'll go through my stock of play??s before the full game is released. It will be fun to see what else is discovered here in the meantime. 

The Wonderful 101 Demo - Obtaining Wonder Pink & Wonder Yellow in Mission Mod??e [GoNintendo]

The post There are secret characters in The Wonderful 101 de??mo appeared first on Destructoid.

Also, watch this badass trailer

Nintendo held another Direct stream this morning, focusing entirely on The Wonderful 101 and why it might very well be the greatest thing ever. And roun?ding out the stream was the above seven-and-a-??half-minute trailer that ran through the entire Wonderful Ones squad, introducing the Russian Wonder Yellow and gadget-loving Wonder Black for the first time.

Following the Nintendo Direct, PlatinumGames announced that European and Japanese Wii U owners could download a demo from the eShop right now. From the wordin??g, it? sounded like Americans would have had to wait a few extra days or weeks to get their fix, but it's now officially available in the US as well.

Everyone else gets the game on August 23 while the US has to wait until September 15, but this demo will make that wait so much easier. Thanks for listening to my pleas, Platinum!

The post The Wonderful 101 demo is live on the eShop appeared first on Destructoid.

Oh God, I want this game YESTERDAY!

The whole non-American world will be getting their hands on The Wonderful 101 later this month, while US citizens must sit tightly until September 15. The wait has been espe??cially difficult for myself, considering this has been my most anticipated Wii U title since it was first revealed at E3 201??2. Seems like this game has been in production forever.

As it turns out, The Wonderful 101 has had both a larger team and longer dev cycle than any previous PlatinumGames title. Director Hideki Kamiya mentioned as much during a recent interview with Famitsu magazine, graciously interpreted by Polygon. Both he and producer Atsushi Inaba shared nuggets of the development process, such as how the idea of controlling a throng of characters came before the Japanese sentai theme was settled upon, or how the visuals originally looked far closer to Viewtiful Joe than they do currently.

Both men have stated that the game is a lot deeper than we realize. "It's easy enough to just finish the game," Kamiya said, "but if you try to work out better strategies and play a better, more stylish game, then it just gets deeper and deeper. I'd like people to just play the way they want, and hopefully they'll get addicted once they see all the things they're able to do. In that way, the entire first playthrough is something like a tutorial. I think the real game begins the second time t?hrough."

Inaba added, "Kamiya really has no idea when to rein in the volume. This is a weird way of putting it, bu??t with a lot of regular action games, if you try hard enough, oftentimes you can beat them the same day you purchase them, right? That's not happening with this game. There are a lot of features that we haven't revealed yet, but even if you ignore those features and push through the game, we're still talking the same level of volume."

You aren't making the wait any easier, fellas.

Why The Wonderful 101 does??n't 'really' begin until the second playthrough [Polygon via NeoGAF]

The post Wonderful 101 had longe??st dev time for a Platinum game appeared first on Destructoid.

The first entry is from Kamiya himself

Platinum Games is one of my favorite developers in the industry. Not only do they have an amazing eye for striking visual designs, but they also craft some of the deepest, technical action games of this generation -- in fact, they're one of the only technical action developers left.

So if you're anything like me, you're insanely excited for the upcoming release of Wonderful 101 on the Wii U, and Platinum is helping to ease the wait with some insightful blogs on the game on their official site. You can view the first entry here, and you'll find the Wonderful 101 tag here, for all possible future entries.

Wonderful 101 Blog [Platinum Blog]

The post Platinum is chronicling Wonde?rful 101 through their blo??g appeared first on Destructoid.

Rivers of superheroes

Well, that was wonderful. Good thing Pikmin 3 is finally almost a week away, or else the wait for Wonderful 101 might be too much for Wii U owners to bear.

I'm still not exactly sure what to expect out of Wonderful 101, but Dale's recent Comic-Con preview of the insane, manic, bus-punching superhero conglomerate has me stoked. It's like being a Gr?een Lantern, but instead of willing giant fists and baseball bats into existence, you transform the nearby citizenry into the tools of justice. Good. Let them contribute for once instead of just reaping the super rewards.

The post Go willfully one on one with new Wonder??????????????????????????ful 101 ??trailer appeared first on Destructoid.

Hands-on with the first 15 minutes

Nintendo has a Gaming Lounge here at San Diego where you can play all of their upcoming games, including upcoming Wii U game The Wonderful 101, but we had the chance to go behind closed doors to see something new. We were able to play The Wonderful 101 from the very beginning, ??giving us a good luc??k at the game's opening and first few missions.

It's bus-punchingly good.

We saw mild-mannered teacher Mr. Wedgewood save school kids from a runaway school bus as it plowed and snaked through ??a busy city overpass. But getting them squared away (in 38 seconds, no less) wasn't good enough to save the day as the bus continued to speed forward, putting nearby school Blossom Elementar??y in danger. 

As you might have read in our earlier preview of the game, you play as a hero that has t??he ability to transfor??m nearby citizens into anything you might need to save the day, be it a sword or a powered-up fist. It's as strange as it sounds.

Mr. Wedgewood transforms (in 3 billionths of a second) into Wonder-eyes Red and pulls innocent bystanders together into his powerful Crimsom Fist, which allows him to bash in the heads of enemies that have managed to board th??is bus to hinder his progress. The gathering of citizens is done with either a swiping of the right analog stick into a circle, or by drawing a quick circle on the GamePad's touchscreen. Anyone in the circle becomes part of this fist. It's strange and hilarious every time, too. 

Even Wonder-eyes Red's huge fist isn't enough to stop this bus from barreling forward. Luckily, Elliot Hooker, the hero from the Los Angeles branch office, swoops in to help. After seeing his funny transformation sequence where he smells and then fumbles a rose, he turnes into Wonder-eyes Blue. And just like Red, he can use his Wonder powers? to gather citizens into useful weapons. A swipe upward on the GamePad lets him assemble a massive supersonic sword to slice through just about anything. 

The duo fights off the bad??dies as fast as they can while trying to progress toward the front of the speeding bus. One of the funniest uses of citizens players drawing lines between the cars of the school bus to form human bridges that our heroe?s can walk across. 

When they get to the front they notice that the road comes to an abrupt stop, just before Bl?ossom Elementary, which means that the bus will crash directly into the school if not stopped. Again, Wonder powers and bystanders save the day with a swipe that turns people into a curved track that would guide the bus away from the school. That effort is almost enough. As the bus flies over the edge, Red has to throw in a last minute punch to push the bus away from colliding with the school. 

The kids at? school are all starstruck after the Wonder heroes save the day. Well, one ungrateful kid isn't. I??t seems he has a beef with the entire hero organization. I punched a bus out of the sky for him! What more does he want?

So, just as you've been hearing from us, The Wonderful 101 is so crazy and over-the-top that you can't help but love it. Everything from the super dramatic character introductions to the heroic theme song (complete with lyrics)? that plays in the background sets the stage for this bizarre game. 

The first 20 minut??es? They were wonderful. I can't wait for this game.

The post Preview: The Wonderful 101 from the beginning appeared first on Destructoid.

Plus get 30% off if you live in Europe

Excited for The Wonderful 101? Well check out the intro video from the game.

Also here's some news for all of you specifically in Europe: Download Pikmin 3 from the Wii U eShop between July 26 and September 21 and you can buy The Wonderful 101 for 30% off on the eShop.

The post The heroes unite in The Wonderful 101 appeared first on Destructoid.

Henshin-a-go-go times a hundred

In the opening moments of this year's The Wonderful 101 demo, I turned a stack of people into a giant fist in order to turn on a water val?ve. This valve sent water gushing down a water slide, and my crew and I rode the current and splashed into the pool below.

YES.

If you've not had the privilege of seeing footage of PlatinumGames' take on a superhero-themed Pikmin, you play a red-suited leader with th?e ability to grant temporary superpowers to ordinary citizens. Using your "Unite" powers, your throng of heroes can transform into various shapes -- a fist, a sword, a whip, or a gun -- in order to ward off robot and alien invaders.

When I say "transform," I mean these people literally stand o??n one another's shoulders and get swung around like a sword. In the case of the gun morph, the bullets are actually people being propelled at high speeds. Nuts!

In last year's demo, you would tilt the right control stick in order to "draw" the form you wanted your heroes to assume. I lam??ented the missed opportunity to use touchscreen drawing instead. This year, both options are available, but I strangely find myse??lf preferring the stick method so that I don't have to hold the stylus in my hand, always at the ready.

The game gets a pretty intense. Some enemies take their bea?tings like champs, then knock you down and scatter al?l your friends across the map. You must then run around, picking them back up to regain your numbers and therefore your strength.

My time ran down before I could finish the level, but I was able to tangle with a giant armored robot who seemed to shrug off any brute force attack. I had to transform my guys into a whip and slowly rip chunks of his armor off before he could be susceptible to my other techn??iques.

What really blows my mind about th?is game is the level of detail in each individual hero. Some heroes gain permanent powers and sweet new costumes. But among the temp heroes, I've seen some wearing pots and pans as protection. It's friggin' hilarious!

If there was any justice in this world, The Wonderful 101 would ?? be at home spinning in my Wii U disc drive right now. It's just mean to keep?? this goodness out of the public's hands for so long! The wait until September is definitely too much.

The post The Wonderful 101 is insane but oh so fun appeared first on Destructoid.

Get your Wii controllers ready...

During this morning's special E3 Nintendo Direct, Iwata announced that the multiplayer for Platinum Games' The Wonderful 101 will include up to five people playi??ng simultaneously. That's one more than the usual four, for those of you with difficulty counting.

Also mentioned this morning was an in-game shop where players can purchase upgrade skills. The game releases August?? 23rd, and it's looking to be a fast-paced and fun superhero romp.

The post Wonderful 101 has ro??om for FIVE in multiplayer mode appeared first on Destructoid.

Iwata is pleased

Finally! Nintendo announced today that PlatinumGames title Wonderful 101 will be coming to the Wii U on September 15th. The game came under some fire recently for being touted as a "short" experience, b??ut I personally can't wait, as PlatinumGames rarely misses?.

Oh, and it totally has waterslides.

The post The Wonderful 101 coming to the Wii U?? on September 15th appeared first on Destructoid.

PlatinumGames' Hideki Kamiya believes fun is more important than game length

We still have no idea when The Wonderful 101 will launch; I think it's safe to say that any other significant Wii U release this Spring is completely out of the question. The issue with protracted game developments is that players are bound to have extremely lofty expectations, some which have no chance of being met. Perhaps you expect a delayed title to have a proportionally lengthy campaign that will last a week or more. If director Hideki Kamiya of PlatinumGames is to be believed, that won't be the case with The Wonderful 101.

In a tweet over the weekend, Kamiya stated, "I?f u hate to finish a game the next day u buy it, u better not play TW101. I focus on how it is fun, not how lo?ng it lasts till the ending." How long the game winds up being, we won't know until it finally arrives, but at least now we have fair warning.

This doesn't mean The Wonderful 101 is necessarily going to be bad. Like Kamiya said, it's not how long a game is, rather how much enjoyment you can squeeze out of that limited time that matters. TW101 looks like it was built for replays, so I don't expect to be "finished" right when the credits start rolling. And further on the bright side, Kamiya's words imply that TW101 is a lean slab of meat with no excess fat. Doesn't sound?? too ba?d, now does it?

@PG_kamiya [Twitter via Kotaku]

The post The Wonderful 101 director hints? that the game is short appeared first on Destructoid.