Review: THE WONDERFUL 101 REMASTERED Is Still Mostly Wonderful

Platinum Games has brought out the big, and old, guns once again this year. Along with Bayonetta and Vanquish, we see the return of The Wonderful 101. This game is another nonstop, “no-regrets” action game that tests players on their ability to learn and play a very different type of action game. Even though there are still similar issues from the Wii U version, there are plenty of fun missions, crazy bosses and entertaining silliness that keeps players engaged.

Let’s talk about gameplay first, it is the definition of over-the-top. But that’s a good thing. Between lots of different types of combat styles, simple but interesting puzzles, and on the fly decisions for battle, each mission and interaction with enemies feels pretty great. To give a quick overview, players will control a huge group of special superheroes to fight off aliens and other dangers in the world. This group of heroes can grow and shrink in size throughout each level and a player will choose a leader and then literally draw the weapons with the positioning of the heroes to create new weapons that play uniquely. It seems a little confusing in written form, but watching gameplay or playing for the tutorial makes it very easy and understandable. In harder difficulties, the game can be extremely challenging, but nothing more than what you sign up for. In other words, if you want to play the game with a moderate difficulty, things are good but if you really want to challenge yourself there is plenty to keep you on your toes.

The rest of the game's story, characters, and level design are all comparable to the quality of Vanquish. It’s not quite as cool, or interesting, or good as Bayonetta for sure, but you’ll still be entertained by the silly antics and self-aware dialogue.

In the past, there were complaints and issues with cameras, frame rate drops, and other small bugs. In the Nintendo Switch version, the one that this review is based on, a lot of those issues are still there. Many times I would lose my character behind geometry for a second or I would be in an awkward place against enemies and couldn’t find a good way to understand where to go next because of some odd camera. When things are really hectic, there can still be those frame rate drops too. Even though these problems are still there, and honestly should’ve been fixed, it doesn’t ruin the overall experience. It is just odd that these weren’t better addressed for the remastered version.

So overall, this game is still a lot of fun and is worth it for those who really enjoy action games or zany adventures, but it is just really surprising that issues from the past version released seven years ago are still an issue now. This won’t be as good as Bayonetta or Devil May Cry 5, but the unique gameplay and entertaining style/story has a lot to offer.