The Wonderful 101 is a genuine treasure, this remaster bringing its quirky action gameplay and effortless charms to more people than ever before. It certainly looks the part, and is an easy buy for PlatinumGames fans, but the awkwardness of bringing the game’s dual-screen UI to single screen systems means the Wii U is still the best place to play.
It's too anarchic, too messy and too unreadable in its combat, as well as too erratic in its execution. But then it's that anarchy that's key to The Wonderful 101's charm, and that runs through so much of the work of Hideki Kamiya. The Wonderful 101 is Platinum at its most imperfect, but I don't necessarily mean that as a slight. There's a real thrill to be found in all that chaos.
The Wonderful 101 deserves this new Remastered lease on life after the way it was treated on the Wii U. For nearly seven years we've clamored for a re-release, and now we have it. Go play it this time.
What’s more, the transition to the Switch, even with its touchscreen capabilities has only exacerbated the game’s core problems. There’s a great concept and the good combat mechanics we know Platinum can achieve in there, but you’ll need a lot of patience to find them.
The Nintendo Switch’s success has given many overlooked Wii U games a second chance to find a new audience, and The Wonderful 101 Remastered deserves to be experienced by more players. So I’m thankful that Platinum is able to bring its most curious release to even more people — Remastered is out on PS4, Switch, and Windows PC — even if I’m part of the crowd that doesn’t remember The Wonderful 101 very fondly.
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