ShockingAlberto
Member
THE OFFICIAL THREAD
From Hideki Kamiya, the director of Resident Evil 2, Devil May Cry, Viewtiful Joe, and Okami comes Platinum Games' newest console title.
When does this game come out?! Surely a game from such seminal talent would be coming out everywhere on the same--
Release dates:
EU August 23, 2013
JP August 24, 2013
AU August 24, 2013
NA September 15, 2013
Do you live in Europe, Japan, or Australia? Then you can get The Wonderful 101 before the end of August. If you live in North America, then you are the victim of Nintendo's crazy U.S. scheduling and I am truly sorry. You will have to wait three weeks. Why?
NOT EVEN KAMIYA KNOWS
Okay, the game comes out soon, but walking is terrible and Amazon would get me the game a few days after release. I might as well just give up on ever playing it.
Worry not! Like all Nintendo-published games, this game goes up on the eShop the day of release (usually at midnight, but sometimes twelve hours later at noon). You can download the game and launch it from your harddrive.
Wii U basic owners will need an external harddrive, because the game is 10GB.
For Wii U Deluxe owners, let it ride, you probably have enough space! Also, since the game is $60, you will be getting a 10% eShop code back for the game, equating to 599 points. You can use that toward other Wii U games like
Or you could just buy retail and get that sweet boxart posted above because oh man look at that thing.
Kamiya also makes a strong argument.
So, uh, what does this game look or play like?
ACTION GAMES!
As previously mentioned, Hideki Kamiya is one of, if not the single, top action game designer in the industry. So even though the isometric view and multiple heroes might look a little strange compared to, say, Bayonetta and Devil May Cry, the game is similar in many ways. There's still attacks of varying power, dodging, blocking, parrying, and multi-weapon combos!
How to Play
Art by schlew
In The Wonderful 101, you are given dominion over a hundred characters at once, but it's probably better if you think of them all as a single unit. You can send your army at individiual enemies to make them fight them one-on-one for smaller enemies or do things like destroy shields on larger enemies. But the real benefit of all these mini-heroes is that you can combine them in to unite weapons like a giant fist, a giant sword, a giant gun, and more. The larger you draw the shape, the bigger--
Whoa wait, draw? I'm out.
You can use the right analog stick to do it! There will inevitably be some people that are way faster drawing on the Gamepad touchscreen, but if you dislike the idea, or want to use the pro controller (keep in mind, the Gamepad is still necessary as the game sometimes uses it as a secondary view), you can do that. Think of it more like Okami than The World Ends With You, unless you want to play it that way.
Though, screenshots and trailers might help, too.
IGN's Image Gallery
There are so many that even Kamiya can't pick a favorite! But let's not forget the trailers.
Short Game Trailer (0:36) | Director's Trailer (7:34) | January 2013 Trailer (1:28) | The Wonderful 101 Direct (20:38)
The twenty-minute Nintendo Direct explains everything you need to know about this game, making archaic OTs like this pointless. The future.
Wait, this game looks like Pikmin. I won't be dissuaded it's not Pikmin, so how Pikmin is it?
Kamiya's never even played Pikmin! But I suppose that there are some passing similarities that may be unintentional. So, let's examine it, how is this game not Pikmin?
Art by Lissar
For one, there's no real finding or gathering mechanic here. There are some hidden things, but time management is not a big part of thise game. You don't defeat enemies by throwing people at them, but you do punch them in the face. Really, really hard. This game is to Pikmin what Bayonetta is to Gears of War, there are some similarities in camera, but they're not really comparable.
What's the story? As we all know, Kamiya games have serious, engaging stories that are really the main thrusts of his game, so I expect The Wonderful 101 to be the same.
Well, uh. Okay.
I'll let Platinum Games' blog cover this one.
Can you play the game Off-TV with the Gamepad in order to fulfill my personal destiny of being the final hero?!
You can! The game does use the gamepad for its normal gameplay, but you can also just sit around and play on the gamepad yourself. When you want to change from normal gameplay to Off-TV play, simply hit the Minus (-) button and soon you'll have 100 heroes in the palm of your hand.
Art by Kyou
As for whether you should actually play it Off-TV, well...
You're getting a smaller picture, which might make the game a bit harder to keep track of, but you can play in bed, so that's a thing.
100 characters sounds like a lot. Do any of them matter?
Do they ever. There's dozens of characters with names and individual designs, but here are the most important ones.
Wonder Red
Wonder Blue
Wonder Green
Wonder Yellow
Wonder Black
Wonder Pink
Wonder White
And the mysterious villains...
Prince Vorkken
Immorta
Kamiya has answered this so many times that he doesn't even want to talk about it anymore, that must be a lot of characters!
I heard this game got a 7.4 from IGN.
It did. Here are other reviews (including the IGN one) if you want to see the context for their score and others'.
Art by Kinvara
You can find these and the rest of the reviews in the The Wonderful 101 review thread kindly updated by Nirolak.
I'm not a high-score kinda person. Is there any reason for me to keep this game after I finish it?
There's multiplayer! Using a combination of a gamepad and pro controllers, you and local friends (the kind in front of your TV, not over the internet). You can find information about it in the aforementioned The Wonderful 101 Direct or read Polygon's writeup on the mode.
This information is hard to digest and I have an illness where I only click the latest page of any given GAF thread. Is there anywhere that drips the information at me a little more slowly?
You can try Platinum Games' blog where you can find all this information and more!
Are there any other things I should know? Any advice?
Yes.
Art by InfiniteNine
Well. I never said it was good advice.
