There is nothing more universal than the Saturday morning cartoon, it’s a tradition that spans continents and generations. If you want to know when someone grew up, ask them what they watched on a Saturday morning there is no one in the civilised world who will not have fond memories of getting out of bed at age 5-28 and sneaking into the front room with a bowl of cereal to watch their favourite animated shows before the rest of humanity catches up with them.
The folks over at Platinum games were definitely these kinds of kids. Their latest game The Wonderful 101 is a bombastic, colourful and charming love letter to the traditional Saturday morning cartoon.
In the Wonderful 101 you play as the Wonderful One- Double- Oh (The 101st member is the player). 100 souls from across the globe, their identities a mystery, duty bound to defend earth from alien forces that would threaten our peaceful existence.
As you would expect, the Wonderful 100 are made up of all kinds of different characters from around the world. You know they’re from different parts of the world because of their terrible accents.
There’s Wonder Red and Wonder Blue from America: Red, the groups recently appointed leader complete with encyclopedic knowledge of every other member in the group, which he’ll recant whenever a new member of the team turns up. Blue, the brash lone wolf of the group.
The tubby Wonder Green from France, who never stops eating and has a somewhat disturbing relationship with his gun.
The insane Wonder Pink from the Romanian office who bears a striking resemblance to a certain witch from one of Platinum’s other games.
The pious Wonder Yellow from Russia, you know he’s Russian because he says “Da” instead of “yes” and wears a lot of fur.
Wonder White, a ninja from Japan who communicates with the other members of the team in haiku and proverbs.
Finally, we have Wonder Black from Delhi, who spends most of the game ignoring everyone else by playing on his DS and saying very little, I guess no one in the office knew how to do a bad Indian accent.
This is then bulked out by all sorts of weird and wonderful heroes from every part of the globe which are unlocked as you enlist more people to your cause.
Together this rag-tag group of heroes are tasked with defending the world from an invasion from GEATHJERK a collective of extra terrestrials hell bent on destroying earth for, I’m not sure why really, it’s just what aliens do.
Over the course of a lengthy 15 hour campaign, you’ll have to learn how to fight effectively as a team in this isometric brawler that from first glance looks a lot like Pikmin, but despite the camera angle or the need to amass a horde of heroes which follow the leader character, Wonderful 101 has much more in common with the likes of Bayonetta and Okami.
You see, the whole of the Wonderful 100 fight as a single unit, tapping X allows them to jab at an opponent as well as trap them as numerous members of your ever expanding horde trap and attack nearby enemies, softening them up for the games main form of attack: “UNITE MORPH”!
By bonding together, the members of the team can turn themselves into giant weapons with each of the main Wonderful ones responsible for a different type; Red creates a fist, Blue: a sword, Pink: a whip, Yellow: a hammer, White: a set of cat claws and Black: bombs which slow down time.
How big and powerful these attacks are depends on how many people you currently have in your squad. The more the merrier as they say with additional heroes press ganged from the local populace into joining your rag tag group of heroes in each level by encircling them within the Wonderline which can be created either by drawing it on the touch screen or by using the right analogue stick.
Once you have enough followers choosing which weapon to use is as simple drawing the corresponding symbol and then hitting A to summon one of them as your primary attack or tapping X to have other members of the squad chime in for additional damage.
How you want to do this is entirely up to you, I found that a mix of the two worked well for me. Drawing the more complex shapes like the hammer and the bomb on the pad and using the right stick for more simple shapes like the sword and the gun with the analogue stick. It takes a little getting used to, for example sometimes one input can get confused with another one for example the claws and the whip are quite similar and early on I found my gun’s L shape didn’t always register, until I figured out that if you pressed up on the right analogue until the line turned blue and then pushed right you would get a gun every time.
As with anything new or worthwhile it takes a little getting used to, but once they click, you’ll discover a deep and nuanced fighter with an incredibly rewarding risk vs reward scheme. Should you make your sword as big as possible and wallop everything it touches or chip away with multiple weapons at once? Attack or defend invasion and repulsion? As with every Platinum game from Madworld to Vanquish when it all comes together you’ll feel like an absolute bad ass as your squad tears enemies you initially found troublesome to pieces as weapons flail and fly all over the place.
There are plenty of foes to fight too, the game delights in throwing all kinds of weird and wonderful robotic creatures at you from simple automatons to spike covered giants to dragons, tanks and colossal beasts piloted by the games pantheon of extra terrestrial pantomime villains. Taking apart these massive monsters in the games epic multi tiered boss battles was an absolute joy, and the sheer scale of them is intimidating to say the least.
Highlights include chasing a mechanical hydra through downtown Blossom City whilst riding on the back of the wonderful 100’s ship: the Virgin Victory, taking out a giant octopus with different weapons for each tentacle and fighting a massive serpent creature on the back of UFO with gigantic circular saws for hands.
Finding the right tool for the job is essential within a fight as some enemies are only vulnerable to one type of weapon, initially at least. For example Wonder Pink’s whip is the only thing capable of dealing with spiked enemies.
Outside of combat each of your powers are used to help solve puzzles and traverse the environment in fun ways; Pink’s whip can swing you across distant gaps, Yellow’s hammer lets you sink underwater, White’s claws to scale the sides of buildings, Red’s hand can turn dials and Blue’s sword opens doors.
Although the use of the touch screen within combat is unique and a lot of fun, the most impressive use of the gamepad for me was how action shifted from the TV to the gamepad when you went inside various buildings and structures which would then control other parts of the external environment seen on the main screen. This started with things as simple as turning dials to open door with the code printed on the interior of the building and extended to having the whole team run over dials on the floor to control an alien vessel you’d hijacked on the main.
At the end of each encounter you’ll be graded and depended on how well you do you’ll be rewarded with O Parts, that can be used at the end of each section of a mission at the Wonderful Mart to buy additional Unite Morphs, I highly recommend getting Unite Spring and Unite Guts as soon as possible, as well as upgrades to your Wonder Line that increase its speed and another which makes it harmful to enemies.
You can also buy mods that you can equip that provide all kinds of weird and wonderful buffs and effects like Ukemi that mitigates damage if you press jump at the right time or automatic blocking. My personal favourite is Dodge mine which lays a landmine on the ground every time you dodge an enemy attack, keeping you constantly on the offensive.
Bayonetta style power up construction also makes a return, hidden within the game’s pause menu. Strewn throughout levels are space carrots, eggplants and peppers. These can be used in the right quantities to make all kinds of power ups for use during battle including the usual health items, rockets controlled via the second screen and a credit card which can be used to buy any single item you like from the Wonderful Mart.
Once you’ve finished the main campaign there are the wonderful missions to have a go at which are basically a series of seek and destroy missions set within various locales from within the main campaign for up to five players. Playing the game in multiplayer is a lot of fun as you all vie for resources whilst trying to fend off waves of jerks together. This would be great fun if it weren’t for the fact that wiimotes with classic controllers aren’t supported, only game pad pros, which mean the chances of having a full 5 player game ever are pretty slim. Hopefully this can be sorted out with a patch later on.
On the whole, though, the additional mode feels like little more than an exercise in box ticking, although on the plus side any additional funds collected whilst playing in mission mode can be used at the Wonderfulmart during the main campaign.
But to be honest, even without the tacked on multiplayer, the main campaign alone is more than worth the price of admission. It’s a fun, colourful, rollercoaster ride as our hapless heroes rush from one disastrous situation to another, from flaming school buses to exploding damns, to hidden temples inside an erupting volcano. Each level concluded with incredible boss fights and cut with wonderful set pieces that keep you on your toes an never quite certain what’s going to happen next.
The script is wry, witty and pitched perfectly, just like something straight out of a kids cartoon complete with maniacal villains, dysfunctional heroes and plenty of sly adult humor that will fly straight over the head of younger gamers but have older ones laughing out loud.
If you own a WiiU, you owe it to yourself to pick up a copy of this game, it’s a unique, highly inventive, superbly executed twist on the hack and slash genre that in many ways is a greatest hits of Kamiya’s previous work, with shades of Bayonetta, Okami and Viewtiful Joe blended together into a game that, like the Wonderful 100, is far greater than the sum of it’s parts.
If you don’t own a WiiU, Platinum have created another classic title, to ad to a swiftly increasing lineup of high quality exclusives for the fledgling platform.
