The Wonderful 101 Review

Unite and conquer. 

A raucous, over-the-top tribute to Japanese TV shows like Kamen Rider and Power Rangers, The Wonderful 101 stars a team of Earth-defence superheroes who not only rescue imperilled citizens, but absorb them into a superpowered mob of little dudes. With an awkward squiggle of the finger on the GamePad touch screen, this gaggle of part-time heroes morphs into weapons, bridges, hang-gliders and more, letting you fight off endless invaders that range from plate-armored robot turtles to technologically advanced octopuses. It’s bursting with creativity and boisterous charm – but every superhero must learn to control his or her powers before they can be used for good, and Wonderful 101 doesn’t make that easy.

This is a world of energetic, wild, colourful and silly action, with a playful sense of humour and a story that’s enjoyable despite the fact that makes almost no sense whatsoever – quite probably because of that, actually. Its characters are one-dimensional comic-book stereotypes: good-guy Wonder Red, chubby French Wonder Green, sexy whip-wielding vixen Wonder Pink. Their silly accents and competitive banter strike a kid-friendly tone, but the fearsome difficulty and occasional off-colour joke suggest that it has older players in mind.

The Wonderful 101’s 25-odd levels are two parts brawling with the odd situational puzzle thrown in and one part incredible boss battles. The bosses are definitely the highlight for me

– they’re genre-bending and visually spectacular, they go on for up to 20 minutes, and you never quite know what to expect from them. One was a two-headed flying dragon, another has your rowdy crowd of heroes piloting one of two giant robots in a super-sized game of Punch-Out. Fights in general are chaotic, though, due to the inherent problems of picking out one small character among a crowd of dozens and the camera's varying perspective, so it can be difficult to even see what’s going on at first. My eye gradually adapted to the visual cacophony, but there were still occasional times where I was hit by something I couldn’t see, or where I’d momentarily lose track of my hero in the madness.

If you've played one of developer Platinum’s games before, then The Wonderful 101's refusal to explain even basic things about how it works, like how to buy and equip upgrades or unlock new combos, may not come as much of a surprise. The resulting learning curve made getting into the groove tough: in the early missions, you’re thrown straight into the chaotic action with a tiny move set and very few instructions – and what little help you’re given comes in the form of occasional tutorial messages that are difficult to read whilst also trying to keep an eye on the action. Crucial moves like dodge and counter have to be bought from the shop, making the early game a frustrating experience.

As things progress, though, you build up an impressive selection of abilities and weapons alongside a working understanding of the combat. After that, The Wonderful 101 matures into a fulsome, challenging, and satisfying action game with considerable depth to complement its increasingly wild ideas. For me, the initial few hours of my first 14-hour playthrough were painful, but by the fourth operation I was really enjoying myself. There are still things that remain opaque; you can switch characters around as you collect more of the Wonderful 100, and there’s a simple crafting system that lets you synthesise items from space vegetables, but both of these options are hidden away in menus and their workings and benefits are enduringly mysterious.

Once you've got your head around how it works,  the biggest obstacle to enjoying The Wonderful 101 is the GamePad itself, which isn’t well-suited to general combat. When quick thinking and reaction speed are the difference between success and failure, or between a Gold medal and a Platinum one, the lethargic speed and accuracy of touch controls just don’t cut it. Whilst drawing simple circles, triangles and L-shapes on the Gamepad screen isn’t a problem, once you start getting into hammers, curvy whips, bombs and Z-shapes the GamePad frequently mistook one for the other, however carefully I drew. You can opt to use the right stick instead of drawing on the screen with a finger, but I found that option to be unusable for anything other than circles and straight lines. It works about 75% of the time, but that’s not good enough in an action game as fast-paced and challenging as this.

In combination with The Wonderful 101's high difficulty and reluctance to explain itself, this creates a frustration loop that's very difficult to break, and often made me want to throw the Gamepad through the screen. The control shortcomings are most evident in the frequent clashes with your doppelganger; where he can switch weapons and unleash super-combos in milliseconds, the controls meant that I never could.

Other times, though,  The Wonderful 101 fulfils latent potential in the GamePad that other Wii U games have only hinted at before. There’s one especially brilliant section where you’re flying a spaceship on the TV from a cockpit displayed on the screen in your hands whilst fighting off enemies, and another where working the crowd of heroes through a maze on the GamePad clears a room of poisonous fog on the other screen. These scenarios don’t feel shoehorned in – they’re a natural break from the otherwise eye-meltingly relentless action, and they help The Wonderful 101 to feel entirely at home on its native platform.

But the enduring problem is that even when you know exactly what you’re doing and multi-weapon combos and juggles are well within your capabilities, the controls will still sometimes let you down. The Wonderful 101’s levels are designed for multiple playthroughs and it grades you strictly on your performance, but the combination of demanding, precise combat and imperfect controls was frustrating enough that I didn’t want to go back to improve my scores. A lot of the fun in Platinum’s previous games comes from mastering them, but The Wonderful 101 lacks that appeal.

I could never stay mad at the Wonderful 101 for very long. It's just immensely likeable, and so full of personality and verve that I couldn’t help but grow to love it. After that initial difficulty curve, there’s so much here that’s worth sticking around for – particularly the ending, which goes on for about two and a half hours and builds to a gloriously unpredictable crescendo of ridiculousness.