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The Wonderful 101; the best Wii U game NOT made by Nintendo

VGEsoterica

Member
Yes I know it also exists on Switch...so I will ALSO say it's one of the best Switch games not made by Nintendo either lol

Honestly it feels like a Nintendo game. From the colorful charming graphics and art design to the overall gameplay you'd think it was a Nintendo game if you squinted hard enough. It has everything you'd expect when you think of "a Nintendo game"...yet it's from Platinum, the same company that gave us Bayonetta.

I wasn't even sure what to make of The Wonderful 101 when it first came out. Considering at that point the Wii U needed more games I purchased it on a whim and figured "eh...why not". After playing it I pretty much fell in love with the game. The combat and team based mechanics are absolutely outstanding. The art design feels like a comic book come to life (ok maybe Comix Zone did it better...) with all the intense and punchy colors. The animations and voice over work in the cut scenes feel like outtakes from Team America: World Police...without the swearing and sex lol

Toss in the second screen mechanics and it definitely rises to one of the Wii U's best games for me.

But I am curious...what other games are AS GOOD as Nintendo games on Nintendo hardware? Stuff like Eternal Darkness on GameCube or Wonderful 101 on Wii U
 

Jaxcellent

Member
Its a great game for sure, Platinum is one of the best devs of the world IMO, i also really like Astral Chain.. another fine example of god tier game development.
 

DunDunDunpachi

Patient MembeR
It's my favorite P* game, by a wide margin. The only major drawback is that the first playthrough really is like the tutorial.

I bought the PS4 version so that I could enjoy it with better performance. I plan to replay it (for the first time on PS4, but for the fourth time overall) sometime later this year.
 
I could just never get into W101, everything I heard about it sounded fantastic, but something about it was just off to me. I don't think I got to grips with the combat system and that really put me off. Maybe I'll give it another go and try and master the systems.

For those of you here who love it, what is the draw with that control scheme
 

Dazrael

Member
Saying that though most of their games seem to follow the same structure. 3D action game with dodge move that slows down time (or some such mechanic) allowing for combos. See, Bayonetta 1 & 2, Vanquish, Nier Automata, Transformers, Metal Gear, etc.

Kinda samey but they do sometimes have something different such as Wonderful 101.
 

DunDunDunpachi

Patient MembeR
For those of you here who love it, what is the draw with that control scheme
Weapon select via Street Fighter II joystick movements. It puts everything at your fingertips, with just one or two button presses plus flicking motion of the thumbstick. Another comparison would be EA's Skate franchise.

This vid does a pretty good job of laying out all the mechanics on the table



Even when it comes to basic enemies, you have a lot of things you can do, such as stringing together different weapons which each have their own combo loops, or sending out Unite attacks to extend your combo, or building up stun by throwing out your Wonderfuls like pikmin, or using the wonder-liner to attack, or reflecting/bouncing attacks to expose a weak underbelly, or capturing stunned enemies during a brief window to add them to your team, or stealing enemy weapons, or picking up and throwing enemies, or a whole host of other things....

I think a weapon-wheel would've still been too sluggish. When you go full tilt on the battle system, it's handy to have so many things just a flick of the thumbstick away.
 

VGEsoterica

Member
Weapon select via Street Fighter II joystick movements. It puts everything at your fingertips, with just one or two button presses plus flicking motion of the thumbstick. Another comparison would be EA's Skate franchise.

This vid does a pretty good job of laying out all the mechanics on the table



Even when it comes to basic enemies, you have a lot of things you can do, such as stringing together different weapons which each have their own combo loops, or sending out Unite attacks to extend your combo, or building up stun by throwing out your Wonderfuls like pikmin, or using the wonder-liner to attack, or reflecting/bouncing attacks to expose a weak underbelly, or capturing stunned enemies during a brief window to add them to your team, or stealing enemy weapons, or picking up and throwing enemies, or a whole host of other things....

I think a weapon-wheel would've still been too sluggish. When you go full tilt on the battle system, it's handy to have so many things just a flick of the thumbstick away.

The entire combat system was awesome. If there was one critique I could make about it is that it really didn't explain itself super well. Considering it was a new franchise maybe some newcomers didn't grasp how deep and effective it was
 
Weapon select via Street Fighter II joystick movements. It puts everything at your fingertips, with just one or two button presses plus flicking motion of the thumbstick. Another comparison would be EA's Skate franchise.

This vid does a pretty good job of laying out all the mechanics on the table



Even when it comes to basic enemies, you have a lot of things you can do, such as stringing together different weapons which each have their own combo loops, or sending out Unite attacks to extend your combo, or building up stun by throwing out your Wonderfuls like pikmin, or using the wonder-liner to attack, or reflecting/bouncing attacks to expose a weak underbelly, or capturing stunned enemies during a brief window to add them to your team, or stealing enemy weapons, or picking up and throwing enemies, or a whole host of other things....

I think a weapon-wheel would've still been too sluggish. When you go full tilt on the battle system, it's handy to have so many things just a flick of the thumbstick away.

Really brilliantly explained. I'll watch the video after work. Thank you for the recommendation and explanation.
 
It was meant to be a Nintendo all stars game at first, that's why things like the powered up Unite Hand tosses out fireballs Mario style still made it into the final product.


Above is a treasure trove of info about the game's initial concepts and even ideas meant for a possible sequel, along with scrapped concepts and such. Anyone passionate about TW101 should read that article (my personal game of the last generation)
 
Yes let's talk wonderful 101. I picked it up for ps4 when it came out a while back.

Now you may know I am a huge Platinum Games fan, but I just can't slog my way through this game.
I have watched all those vids (like the one posted above), but the mechanics just.. well indeed they don't click for me.

I want to love it. But it shoots me down.

I am a Wonderful 101cel.
 

VGEsoterica

Member
Yes let's talk wonderful 101. I picked it up for ps4 when it came out a while back.

Now you may know I am a huge Platinum Games fan, but I just can't slog my way through this game.
I have watched all those vids (like the one posted above), but the mechanics just.. well indeed they don't click for me.

I want to love it. But it shoots me down.

I am a Wonderful 101cel.

Lol that's fair. I never expect everyone to share my opinion :) I have heard from some people they just don't "click" with the game. That happens sometimes

I love Dark Souls and ABSOLUTELY love Bloodborne...but Sekiro I was just "it's decent" about...so I get it
 

kunonabi

Member
Brilliant game on any format but the Wii U version is still the all-round best.
Pretty much due to the multiple viewpoint stuff and being able to draw with either thumb opens up so much in terms of combat options.
 
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Neff

Member
Pretty much due to the multiple viewpoint stuff and being able to draw with either thumb opens up so much in terms of combat options.
Not only that but the performance is slightly better on Wii U, there's fewer bugs, and the arranged tracks in the Remastered version are inferior to the originals imo.

Still, like I said, you can't go wrong with any version. It's an absolute cracker.
 

kunonabi

Member
Not only that but the performance is slightly better on Wii U, there's fewer bugs, and the arranged tracks in the Remastered version are inferior to the originals imo.

Still, like I said, you can't go wrong with any version. It's an absolute cracker.

Holy shit, they effed up the music?
Dude, why would they even touch that.
 
Also to note is that the multiplayer missions are broken in the Remastered...doing air combos with more than one player in the air leads to the players drifting in mid air towards the corner of the room and such. Such a glitch did not exist in the Wii U original (which I just performed with two controllers in the Wii U original right now to confirm)
 

VGEsoterica

Member
Also to note is that the multiplayer missions are broken in the Remastered...doing air combos with more than one player in the air leads to the players drifting in mid air towards the corner of the room and such. Such a glitch did not exist in the Wii U original (which I just performed with two controllers in the Wii U original right now to confirm)
Even more reason the Wii U version is the one to play then I guess
 

Neff

Member
Holy shit, they effed up the music?
Dude, why would they even touch that.

It's only a few tracks, but unfortunately one of them is 'Tables Turn' and it just doesn't have the same urgency and oomph it used to. You can't select the original tracks either, you're stuck with the arrangements.
 

VGEsoterica

Member
It's only a few tracks, but unfortunately one of them is 'Tables Turn' and it just doesn't have the same urgency and oomph it used to. You can't select the original tracks either, you're stuck with the arrangements.

So weird they managed to introduce issues into the Switch port
 


If somehow you haven't seen it in action...maybe I can compel you to pick a copy up lolol.


Weapon select via Street Fighter II joystick movements. It puts everything at your fingertips, with just one or two button presses plus flicking motion of the thumbstick. Another comparison would be EA's Skate franchise.

This vid does a pretty good job of laying out all the mechanics on the table



Even when it comes to basic enemies, you have a lot of things you can do, such as stringing together different weapons which each have their own combo loops, or sending out Unite attacks to extend your combo, or building up stun by throwing out your Wonderfuls like pikmin, or using the wonder-liner to attack, or reflecting/bouncing attacks to expose a weak underbelly, or capturing stunned enemies during a brief window to add them to your team, or stealing enemy weapons, or picking up and throwing enemies, or a whole host of other things....

I think a weapon-wheel would've still been too sluggish. When you go full tilt on the battle system, it's handy to have so many things just a flick of the thumbstick away.


Doubly sold! I've already have it on my to-get list. This just affirms it further.

Nice job on shining a light on it, VGE. The gaming media bulldozed the remaster recently, so, evidently its way too much of an actual game to them.

The soundtrack sounds great by the way. It looks pretty charming too.
 
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