Hey look I'm back to actually writing blogs; well don't get used to it. The sad fact is, I'm sick and have nothing better to do at the moment. In addition to that, I just got a new computer and haven't got around to loading all the video software I need to make Scenes Out of Context so it may be a bit late this week... But boy is this computer nice!
What was I supposed to be talking about? Oh yeah The Wonderful 101. This is a game by Platinum Games, creators of titles such as, Madworld, Bayonetta, Metal Gear Rising Revengeance (that's a hard word to spell) and of course The Wonderful 101. As I understand it, this game came about when Nintendo bought exclusive rights to Bayonetta 2. When Platinum signed the contract Nintendo gave them free reign to make a passion project and it could be whatever they wanted. The Wonderful 101 was the result. And boy you can tell they had a lot of fun with this game.
It is a character action game that puts you in control of a colorful super-hero leading a team of up to ninety-nine other similarly named heroes. The game feels very different than any other game that's like it because... well there really are no other games like it; but when I was playing it I was reminded of games like Lollipop Chainsaw and Bayonetta and what's interesting about that is because in those games you play as an individual character trying to control the crowd. In The Wonderful 101, you are the crowd trying to survive individual enemies. The game controls very well considering that you control 100 characters. It also makes very good use of the Wii U gamepad. There are sections of the game where you will enter a building and you will need to look back and forth from the television screen and the gamepad screen in order to solve the puzzle. There was one in particular where the characters entered a spaceship and it went into the two screen mode. You control the characters on the gamepad screen in order to steer the ship and avoid obstacles on the television screen. It was not easy. Also, enemies continually spawned within the ship.
The Wonderful 101 opens up with a scene of a school bus being attacked by aliens. You play as the teacher Mr. Wedgewood and you must protect the students before the bus careens off of a bridge that is under construction. Why was the bus driving towards the unfinished bridge in the first place? Who cares EXPLOSIONS! At some point Mr. Wedgewood manages to get the children to safety and when it appears that the bus explodes, from out of the ashes appears Wonder-Red! That's right unassuming grade school teacher William Wedgewood is merely the secret identity of Wonder-Red. As if you didn't already guess that. I did put a giant picture of him above this paragraph.
Eventually you are joined by some of the other Wonderful 100 and a tutorial ensues teaching you how to use your powers or "unite morph." Every character has a morph that is unique to them and a unique way to activate it. Red for example, lifts a giant red fist made up of his teammates morphed into that particular shape whenever you draw a circle on the gamepad. There is also Wonder-Blue who has a sword, Green who has a gun and so on. Some of the morphs are great, like Wonder-White's claws that can potentially freeze enemies and allow you to climb on walls. On the other hand, there is Wonder-Black who throws bombs that slow down time. It sounds good on paper but it's really only useful in situations that were designed for it.
It is the duty of The Wonderful 100 to protect the Earth from alien threats and on this day there is no shortage of those. You go up against everything from aliens the same size as you to three headed hydras the size of skyscrapers and that's just the first level. Of course the best villain is a character who is similar to your character but just chose to go down a different path. Someone who has more in common than they do different but we just can't admit it. The Joker to Batman, Lex Luthor to Superman and now Prince Vorkken to Wonder Red. Prince Vorkken leads a team of 100 of the worst scoundrels and criminals throughout the galaxy and now they've come to Earth.
This game has so much depth to it I could not possibly try to summarize it. The story is just insanity in the best possible way. There is so much to it. Other companies would have stretched this into a trilogy but Platinum shoved it all into this one epic. There's really no other word to describe it other than epic.
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