The Wonderful 101 is superhero-based game that was created by the same folks who put together Viewtiful Joe and Okami, In the game, you literally start out as the leader of a band of heroes, who have to help a city under siege. Along the way, you save citizens, who quickly become your superhero sidekicks and run into bosses and bad guys. The demo I played sent me through several tiers of a colorful inner-city landscape, which played fast and furious. The enemies I encountered were on the ground (robotic ground forces), in the sky (UFO-esque things); coming from all directions. If you’re familiar with a game like Viewtiful Joe then you understand how much is thrown at you at once; it’s controlled chaos in a way. So you might be wondering how in the hell you counter all this chaos? It’s quite simple. You use your finger to draw.
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You form weapons by quickly drawing on the Wii U gamepad. The weapons are formed by your teammates. For example, during the demo if I drew a circle on the gamepad with my finger, then pressed A on the gamepad, it would form a large red fist to punch the heck out of the enemies. The more group members I had in the group, the bigger the fist became. Not only can I use it for offensive capabilities, but I could use it to solve some puzzles. An example of this was trying to start a ferris wheel. I had to use the fist to turn a giant cog, which helped set the wheel in motion. Thus, I could jump on the ferris wheel to get to the next level. It was quite cool, and effective.
Another weapon that you can form in The Wonderful 101, and one that was needed in order to get past a very well armored boss is a whip. If you draw an ‘S’ on the gamepad, the group of heroes would form a pink whip, which would lash out and do some major damage. What was unique about this particular weapon example is that if I drew a bigger ‘S’ during the game play, it would create a bigger whip, which would do a bit more damage to the enemy.
Anyway, if you can imagine, I took down the boss and saved the day.
Out of all the next generation games I had the pleasure of playing this E3, this one was probably my favorite, or at least tied as such (see Dying Light for details). When you first play this game you literally will be all over the place, and lose quite a bit of heroes during your first few minutes. Once you get comfortable with the methods of fighting, you’ll start to enjoy all the controlled chaos the game delivers and understand its unique style and wonderful contribution to the Wii U universe. Of course, this is my first gut feeling for the game, even after being six hours removed from it. Anytime a game can leave an impression like that then there is hope for it.
There is definitely a lot of hope for The Wonderful 101. Can’t wait to see the finished product.
