Rating of
3/5
The Tolerable One-Double-Oh
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 05/16/15
“The Wonderful 101” (“W101”) is one of the last of the dying breed of third-party exclusives. Published by Nintendo, “W101” was actually developed by Platinum Games, a smaller Japanese development house created from the remnants of Clover – the dev behind the PlayStation 2 classic, “Okami.” Platinum Games itself has been responsible for much more Action-based fare since its reformation, producing such titles as “Bayonetta,” “Anarchy Reigns,” and “MadWorld” (i.e., not the type of game I like). Always seeking exclusives to justify a console’s existence and seeing copious amounts of praise heaped on “W101” in Nintendo-loving circles, I went against my better judgment and decided to give it a try.
Presentation
“W101” is a colorful, stylized Japanese superhero (a.k.a., super sentai) game featuring cartoony environments and short (but not quite chibi) character models. The game engine is fully polygonal, but keeps the camera locked at a 45-degree angle, making the experience resemble the isometric games of yesteryear. Character and enemy designs are well done, wildly creative, and sometimes outright goofy, all of which contribute to “W101’s” visual charm. During the game’s numerous (numerous) cutscenes, characters’ heads bobble to show that they are speaking, while a larger, fully-animated model of the speaker appears beside the textbox.
Sadly, “W101” is not without visual issues. The camera, in particular, is not particularly adjustable. It cannot be swayed from its mock-isometric angle, but it can be cycled through three zoom levels, of which only the furthest-out is usable in any way. Of course, if it was possible to zoom out any further, the characters would be so small on-screen they’d be nearly impossible to see. The HUD that displays the team’s health and energy (among other things) is also far too large, obscuring a significant portion of the screen and making already busy and confusing gameplay even more baffling by covering it up. The textbox and character portraits also like to pop up in the middle of actual gameplay, leaving a mere fraction of the full screen available to see what is actually going on.
Despite still using text to convey dialog, “W101” is also fully voiced. While some of the accents on the international team of characters sound a bit off, the overall dubbing job for the English localization is fantastically done. The soundtrack is likewise of high quality and invokes all of the traditions of the super sentai TV shows that provide “W101’s” inspiration.
“W101” is technically fairly solid (it is a Japanese console game, after all). However, I did notice some framerate dips and audio stuttering, specifically during the final few climactic scenes in the game. I believe the WiiU is barely capable of handling all of the stuff that happens simultaneously in this game (a problem to which I can fully relate).
Story
Invoking the strongest traditions of Japan’s super sentai superhero teams, “W101” follows the exploits of the Wonderful One-Double-Oh as they strive to protect the Earth from an invading alien armada known as the G.E.A.T.H.J.E.R.K. (which stands for something humorous, but I can’t recall the full acronym off the top of my head). The Wonderful Ones themselves are led by a core group of color-coded international team members.
Wonder-Red (American) is the overachieving genius (and true leader) of the team, Wonder-Blue (American) is the loose cannon bad-boy, Wonder-Green (French) is a fat kid who provides lame comic relief, Wonder-Pink (Romanian) is the token female who develops a token crush on the token handsome enemy rival, Wonder-Yellow (Russian) is the peace-loving tank, Wonder-White (Japanese) is the sage voice of long-winded reason, and Wonder-Black (...) is just kind of ‘there’ to provide racial diversity… because he is Black (with cornrows and everything) yet is supposed to be an Indian from India, complete with a big-ass bindi stuck in the middle of his forehead. Joining this core groups of well-developed stereotypes are 94+ other recruitable Wonderful Ones with bizarre costumes based on their jobs or hobbies (including such warped individuals as Wonder-Beer, Wonder-Toilet, and Wonder-Voodoo). None of these extra characters get any development outside of their bio profiles (which aren’t even viewable until after beating the game once).
The Wonderful Ones invoke the concept of ‘strength in numbers’ by channeling digital energy through their Wonder Masks in order to create objects, including weapons, out of each other’s bodies. Using these Unite Morphs, a small 100-man team of humans is able to bring overwhelming force to bear against the frequently-gigantic alien Jerks.
Aside from the traditionally stereotyped characters on the team proper, the Wonderful Ones have the backing of Admiral Lawrence Nelson and his gorgeous assistant, Alice, aboard the C.E.N.T.I.N.E.L.S. (which also stands for something I don’t remember) Flagship, Virgin Victory, which serves as the Wonderful Ones’ base of operation, as well as a mobile weapons platform. Between these supporting characters and the core group of colored Wonderful Ones, there is quite a bit of intermingled backstory detailing the history of the Jerk invasion.
“W101’s” story and characters are almost always entertaining, and the game’s quirky sense of self-referential humor manages to keep the mood light even when events become deadly serious. The huge number of cutscenes that pepper the game ensure that there is almost always some kind of storytelling happening, which can sometimes make it difficult to pay attention to the narrative in the midst of combat. I’m not even a particular fan of the super sentai genre, but “W101” does a fantastic job of invoking the best of it. The narrative is a regular rollercoaster with both predicable and unpredictable twists that doesn’t disappoint.
Gameplay
What first interested me in “W101” was the fact that early screenshots and videos made the 100-man squad-based gameplay look incredibly similar to Nintendo’s ‘Pikmin’ franchise. I have fallen into this trap before, with “When Vikings Attack.” Unfortunately, the similarities between ‘Pikmin’ and “W101” are limited to the 100-man squad.
“W101” is a frantic Action Beat ‘em Up, much in the vein of Platinum Games’ other well-known franchise, ‘Bayonetta,’ and therefore also bears a passing resemblance to the ‘Devil May Cry’ series. “W101” is not for thoughtful, slow-paced players, but for twitchy gamers who can’t stand it if the entire screen isn’t filled with different stuff happening all at once.
The Wonderful Ones’ primary weapon is the Wonder Liner, a cursor that can be dragged with the right analog stick or with a finger via the GamePad’s touchscreen. Using the Wonder Liner, the player must draw specific symbols (using the Wonderful Ones as ink) in order to invoke the core team members’ stable of weapons: Fist, Sword, Gun, Whip, Hammer, Claw, and Time Bomb (with a couple more for special guest characters). Every Wonderful One outside of the core group wields a weapon in one of these basic categories. The size of the weapon symbol drawn by the player determines the number of Wonderful Ones that Unite Morph into the weapon’s physical body, and thus its power and duration before needing to be redrawn. Defensive Unite Morphs are controlled via the GamePad triggers and include an evasive Spring morph for bouncing out of the way and a deflecting Bundt Cake (WTF?) morph for reflecting blunt attacks back to their source.
The Wonderful Ones all share a single health and energy meter. Energy is depleted by using Unite Morphs offensively or defensively and regenerates at a moderate rate. Health is depleted only when the team leader (indicated by a glowing circle) takes a hit. Other Wonderful Ones on the team are effectively immortal, and are only stunned (and knocked out of their super suits into their underwear) when hit. Stunned team members can be revived simply by running over them with the leader or waiting for them to wake up on their own.
The player is not given all of the required tools from the outset of the game, however. Each of the core Wonderful Ones joins the party as the game progresses, and recruiting permanent extra team members is a matter of finding their hiding places throughout the game. In order to pad out the ranks, it’s possible to recruit random civilians as temporary team members. Unlike temporary members, all permanent Wonderful Ones can be leveled up through use to a maximum of level 4. As more members reach higher levels, the team’s overall health meter increases. Each permanent Wonderful One also has specific stats and abilities that make them move and attack slightly differently from the core team member that shares their weapon. Unfortunately, switching Wonderful Ones for each weapon is cumbersome and oft-repeated, since the game loves to revert to the core members (who reach max level early on) at every opportunity.
Besides team members, it’s possible to buy a number of upgrades by spending O-Parts (the game’s currency) at the Wonder Mart at the end of each stage. These upgrades include improvements to the Wonder Liner, essential Unite Morphs (like the Spring and Cake), as well as plug-in units that grant the entire team special bonuses. Many of these upgrades are 100% essential to even complete the game, so spending O-Parts wisely is important if the player doesn’t want to replay stages over and over grinding for currency.
In addition to the standard gameplay, “W101” loves to throw in random sections and bosses that employ completely different mechanics. There are random SHMUP stages and two bosses that play like “Punch-Out!!” matches, to name a few. “W101” also loves, loves, loves QuickTime Events, throwing several of them into almost every enemy encounter.
All of this gameplay might sound great on the surface, and it is reasonably fun. The problems are the game’s absolute lack of pacing, the amount of stuff on-screen at once cluttering the view and making it very difficult to tell what’s going on, the amount of cheap enemy attacks that come from off-screen with next to no warning, occasional moments where it is difficult to figure out what the game wants the player to do, and the incredibly strict performance metrics slapped onto each mission.
“W101” is divided into 9 main operations (stages) with a prologue and an epilogue. Out of these 9 main operations, all but one is a three-parter, with A, B, and C designations for the three parts, creating a total of 28 operations. Each of these takes approximately 30 minutes to an hour to get through, while being further subdivided into a large number of missions, which are all graded based on time, combo performance, and damage received.
Much like “Kirby’s Epic Yarn,” it is actually very easy to ‘beat’ “W101,” thanks to unlimited continues and never losing progress upon death. Doing ‘well,’ however, is frustratingly impossible due to the fact that fumbling any aspect of any mission during an hour-long operation will downgrade the overall rating for that operation. This downgrading is especially brutal during a first playthrough of the game where everything about it is unfamiliar to the player. I gave up caring about performing well in missions and operations very quickly, and simply accepted my shelf of consolation prizes, bronze trophies, and silver trophies. It felt like the game was specifically making it impossible to do well on Normal difficulty without having access to all of the unlockable characters and upgrades that are accumulated over the course of the game, and are available in New Game+. Sure, this could instill some replay value into “W101,” but in my case it backfired and made me never want to touch the game again after I beat it. The stages are just too long for repeated playthroughs to be fun. As far as I can tell, getting all ‘Pure Platinum’ awards in every operation doesn’t even do anything besides unlock a Bottle Cap (the game’s equivalent of a Trophy/Achievement).
Overall
I found “The Wonderful 101” to be merely tolerable. It’s a stylish game with an entertaining super sentai story that is simultaneously a chore to play due to the tediously long stages and the fact that the player is not given all the tools they need to succeed on a first playthrough. The hectic, cluttered on-screen action can be too much to handle, and the random, sudden gearshifts in gameplay style are just too jarring. Fans of super-twitchy games who think practicing a single stage for weeks in order to get it perfect is ‘fun’ will definitely get more out of this game than I did.
Presentation: 4/5
Story: 4.5/5
Gameplay: 2/5
Overall (not an average): 3/5
