Wonderful 101 (WiiU) review

[Goemon]

There is Miiverse on the PC

https://miiverse.nintendo.net/

I think the best thing to do on the loading screen is practice your drawing, just sit doing it over and over without the heat of battle.

[KIT786]

thanks Goemon but can't save as a bigger image sadly

[S3M]

Play the demo over the weekend and really enjoyed it, that said I just feel Pikmin 3 and Rayman Legends are just better games. Platnium seem to lack a level of polish to their titles that they had under Clover. It's got plenty of depth and challenge but I sill feel Infinite Space & Vanqished are their best games by miles.

Will be picking this up but not till the price drop in the next few weeks.

[dataDave]

Platnium seem to lack a level of polish to their titles that they had under Clover.

In what department? The mechanics in this are clearly both VJ and Bayonetta amalgamated and evolved.

One area they need to sharpen up on are the tutorials... This seems to be going over most people's heads who are taking it at face value as another Pikmin, when it's actually a hack'n'slash. Even Vanquish, at its core it's a 3rd person bullet-hell, although most people just see it as a "polished" cover-shooter as they probably never took the game to that level.



Seriously, watch the entirety of that vid and tell me that the gameplay needs more polish!

[S3M]

In what department? The mechanics in this are clearly both VJ and Bayonetta amalgamated and evolved.

Should have been clearer in my orginial post but both Graphics, Sound and Multiplayer all needs some serious work. Bayonetta had fanastic combat and gameplay (bar the **** QTE that ruined the bosses battles.) but needs a lot of work unfinished cutscenes, unfinished textures etc..

Wonderful 101, still looks to need work in places to, certainly the camera is a big problem with it hard to tell from certain angles what attacks some of the bigger enemies are using. The recuitment feature needs more work as you can be standing right next to someone in game but there not center screen on the Wii U gamepad radar. I had the W101 disappear behind large mobs and couldn't see where they were etc..

All of these are polishing issues. It also lacks the pace of scrolling beat'em ups of old and I can't help but feel the game should be much faster. Also all scrolling beat'em ups should be co-op I can't help but feel that this and Anarchy Reigns would benefit greatly from four player OFFLINE co-op play.

Interesting I noticed Clover's art director went on to UTV acording to Wakapedia, which would explain why Okami and VJ look better than most of their recent release.

[dataDave]

Only had two hours on this so far before being dragged back into work, although throughout those two hours I had a big smile on my face the whole time.

Much like in MGR:R; the way Platinum Games are integrating the music to the on screen action is fantastic. I love it how the vocals kick in during the heroes theme when you're running over the top of the school bus whilst grasping the dead basics and soaking in all the sci-fi they are throwing at you. I can't believe they put so much thought into the setting, it's truly a charm to listen to. The whole dialogue and presentation really is second-to-none.

It certainly drip feeds the abilities here in the full game. You start off completely bare bones with just your main dude and the attack button (infact I don't even think you can attack until a couple of scenes in!). There should be no excuse for feeling overwhelmed with what's happening here, like perhaps a few people felt with the demo.

I can't really comment on the combat mechanics yet as I've only unlocked the Unite Guts and Unite Spring (Presented to me in the form of some dinky 16-bit era cartridges, and I was even given a receipt for my Wonderful Mart purchases!), and I've only been simply repeating the same unite morphs as I was in the demo - minus a lot of the stuff I've yet to unlock such as the launcher and stinger. Both the pudding and the spring can be purchased by anyone following the prologue as they are both super cheap. I presume the reasoning behind that being they probably didn't want the player feeling overwhelmed by so many inputs as soon as the controller is picked up, so simply locked them off until 001.

Anyway, I can't wait to play more. Playing on easy as I want to rinse this one.

[dataDave]

I've just got through the whole of Operation 001. Maybe it's because I'm playing like **** right now but that level was HUGE! I kept thinking each mini-boss was the main boss until there would be more of the level immediately after it! And then when I finally got onto the final boss I thought it was OP.002.

I just about unlocked the Wonderful Rising (launcher) at the end there... I might go back and try 001 again now that I can lift fools into the air.

Not had one single issue with the drawing so far. Oh, and you can speed up the lines when drawing by holding 'L', there is also a purchase which boosts it even further!

[dataDave]

This has the potential to be my Game Of The (Next) Generation. It's absolute perfection.

[Geoff D]

W101 is keeping me from playing anything else at the moment - it's bat**** insane, but makes perfect sense in its own context. The controls are fantastic - I'm team right stick as opposed to the touch screen though; drawing doesn't seem particularly intuitive, whereas using the right stick it's pretty clear that if my morph doesn't activate then I've ****ed it up.

It's charming as hell & has a monster challenge; I'm just playing through at the moment, but intend on doing various score runs in the future. I'm loving it.

[parkinho]

To echo Geoff and Dave, this game is absolutely exceptional. About half way through and already I cannot wait to tackle the earlier levels again to experience the exhilaration once more, this time armed with a wider array of skills and a deeper knowledge of the combat system. Heck, the first mission is more climatic than the final level of most other games I've played in my lifetime.

If the quality of the first half of this game is maintained to its finale - and nothing suggests that it won't - then this is going to be one of my favourite ever games, it's that good.

Oh, can someone add a poll please? 10/10 no questions.

[Neon Ignition]

Started this up and so very early on but its immediately better than the demo suggests. I still feel the drawing is finicky to an extend but the larger your group the easier it is to draw and a few missions in it hasn't been often my group has been small enough to be troublesome. Closest to a second niggle has been it sometimes being a bit awkward spotting your character amongst the mayhem but again, the group sticks close so you've nearly always got a good enough idea. Different kind of game to MGR of course but I've never made any secret of my dislike of the game on several fronts, first impressions of the full game of this howevervare much stronger. Keen to see how it expands on these early missions and options.

[dataDave]

Start using the right-stick to 'draw' instead.

Your leader is like the tiny hit-box on a shmup. On the loading screen try standing still with your dudes surrounding you, you won't get hit by the attacks from the little guys as they will chip away at your 'padding'. The only attacks which will penetrate this defense are the big enemy attacks which are telegraphed and should be either evaded or blocked. You can also bunch up your dudes by holding down 'Y', remember that 'Y' is a toggle for dash as well.

This is the problem people are having, they are expending their entire team with unite morphs and team unites ('X' instead of 'A' after a morph), and leaving themselves wide open to any incoming attack.

It's exactly like a shmup with the hit-box analogy - after a while getting used to this you won't even need to know where your leader is.

Just watch all Saur's vids, it's all in there (and more) - seriously, don't touch the game again until you watch them.

[Neon Ignition]

I'd best do lol, I didn't even realise the group shields the player automatically, I just assumed they power up attacks based on number and type

[dataDave]

I'd best do lol, I didn't even realise the group shields the player automatically, I just assumed they power up attacks based on number and type

Nah, they do all sorts.

The 'X' (climb) attack is like the game's weak attack, spam it against everything when trying to work out the enemies. If the enemy is without armour this will eventually stun the foe (chime noise, stars, big rings) and give you a window to launch them into a huge combo. Most of the more complex baddies come with armour, so you need to work out how to remove it first before proceeding with climb attack. This is usually done with Unite Guts, Unite Hammer, or Unite Whip.

It's usually best practice to clear out pockets of the smaller dudes before going all out with morphs on the bigger guys. This will secure your attack window meaning you won't get hit by a puny attack from a minion that you can't see. Again, much like a shmup where you'd clear out the annoying waves before concentrating laser fire on a bigger enemy.

Clearly the more Wonderful Ones you have the more the range is increased with the climb attack. I think the strength is increased as well, maybe. You can also use it to poke groups of stunned allies to revive them. Also, if you activate dash with 'Y' and then draw a line you can use this to scoop up stunned friendlies, and also collectibles as well.

Also, once an enemy is tagged with climb attack it will be locked onto. All team-unites (morph+X) or unity morphs (morph+A) will hone in on what's tagged closest.

[dataDave]

I don't think smashing **** up with a hammer like this can ever get boring...