The Wonderful 101: The First Forgotten Wii U Title?

Unless you are living under a rock, you may have noticed that yesterday was a big deal for Nintendo fans. During yesterday’s Nintendo Direct broadcasts, the final pieces of information that we all wanted about Wii U were revealed, most importantly the price and the release dates for the 3 main regions.

But, as Nintendo have always said, it is all about the games, and on that part we weren’t disappointed either. The launch titles were confirmed and further little bits of information were given on games we already knew about. There were even games we didn’t previously know about, like Platinum Games bringing a sequel to Bayonetta to the Wii U exclusively. But there is one game that stuck for me, which many others have overlooked, and that was Platinum Games’ other title The Wonderful 101.

The Wonderful 101 isn’t a newly announced title for Wii U, it was first shown at E3 2012 under the title Project P-100, and I must admit it slipped by me unnoticed. It wasn’t until the broadcast yesterday that I really noticed the title. In fact, since being excited by the new trailer, I have gone back and looked up other information on it and it has already become one of my most anticipated Wii U titles.

The premise of the title is that you control a group of superheroes who are trying to save the world from an alien invasion using the touchscreen on the Wii U GamePad. These aliens are very strong, so you have the ability to transform your group of heroes into a variety of huge weapons to dispatch your foes. These transformations are completed using the touchscreen and movement and actions are executed using the left analogue stick and buttons respectively. The Wonderful 101 may not use the GamePad for many features like ZombiU, but the controls seem intuitive enough to keep gameplay smooth, but complex enough to create a real challenge.

Also, all of the footage I have seen so far of The Wonderful 101 looks to me to be a bizarre cross between Pikmin and Viewtiful Joe, but with robots. Pikmin based on the gameplay, in that you control your army (so to speak) on the GamePad in real time. Viewtiful Joe was the first connection I made in terms of the graphics, owing to the gorgeous cartoon-style visuals. Yesterday I also discovered (very behind on this, sadly) that Hideki Kamiya, the director of Viewtiful Joe is the director of The Wonderful 101 too, neatly explaining why the visual style is so similar.

My point on this title is this, it looks and sounds incredible, but I just get the impression that this will become Wii U’s first forgotten title. It has a lot going for it; whether it is its humour (as seen in the trailer), the lush HD scenery, the garish explosive action, or the slightly-more-difficult control system (especially to say Pikmin 3’s beautiful simplicity). It’s just that it was easily overlooked yesterday because of the Bayonetta announcement, and I would hate to think that a title that looks this great would get ignored.

What do you guys think of The Wonderful 101? Would you consider buying a copy?