Operation Backlog Completion 2024

PlatinumGames Did “Intel Gathering” For The Wonderful 101 on Switch

 Video games  2 Responses »  Tagged with:
Jun 212019
 

It’s coming up on two years since PlatinumGames teased The Wonderful 101 for the Switch.

It was much more blatant than their tease of Bayonetta & Bayonetta 2 for the Switch, which is why when that became reality, I assumed The Wonderful 101 was right around the corner.

We haven’t heard much since then, although in an interview with Gematsu earlier this month, Platinum’s Atsushi Inaba said he was glad he’s mentioned the possibility of The Wonderful 101 on the Switch and asked fans to “be patient.”

Now, in an E3 interview with VGC, Inaba further addressed the matter by saying:

The Wonderful 101 is obviously something that we hold near and dear to our hearts. And so we’ve talked to a lot of different people about what it is and what it means. We’ve done a lot of intel gathering and the only thing that I can say right now is that I’m glad we did. I’m glad that we talked to a lot of different people.”

Now, that’s not confirmation that The Wonderful 101 is coming to the Switch… for all we know, their “intel gathering” could have shown them there isn’t enough demand for it.

Combined with his earlier comment about being patient, however, it sounds like there’s a good chance of The Wonderful 101 being released for the Switch.

I enjoyed The Wonderful 101 on the Wii U, and I’d love to see a re-release or a sequel. Will you be interested in The Wonderful 101 if it comes to the Switch?

PlatinumGames Teases Nintendo Switch Games

 Video games  3 Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Jul 102017
 

PlatinumGames is on the list of Nintendo Switch partners, so we know they’re working on something.

But what is it?

Their new Japanese Twitter account got people talking last week by posting official red and blue artwork of Bayonetta.

On the surface, that’s nothing special. Red and blue match the colors of the neon Joy-Con controllers for the Nintendo Switch, sure, but they’re also the colors associated with Bayonetta in each game.

When fans started comparing the colors to the Joy-Cons, however, PlatinumGames liked their tweets.

I loved Bayonetta and thought Bayonetta 2 was even better, so I’d love to see another game made. Still, you can’t say for sure it’s a tease when all they did was like a few tweets.

On the other hand, if the official Wonderful 101 artwork posted later isn’t a tease, what is it?

When PlatinumGames posts official artwork of Wonderful 101 characters playing what appears to be The Wonderful 101 on a Nintendo Switch, that seems like a pretty strong hint. And since their jackets say “W101” instead of “W100,” it might even be a tease for a sequel!

I enjoyed The Wonderful 101 and will absolutely get The Wonderful 102 (or whatever they call it) if it’s announced. And I finally bought a Nintendo Switch from Amazon (they’re sporadically in stock, so check back often to see if the price returns to $299), so I’ll be able to play it!

(The other art included in the tweet features Vorkken, Immorta, and some unknown characters, but since it has a copyright date of 2013, it’s probably not a hint about something new.)

Kamiya isn’t helping matters, as he simply replied with a smile when asked on Twitter about Bayonetta 1 & 2, the Wonderful 101, and potential sequels coming to the Switch.

What do you think? Is PlatinumGames teasing Bayonetta and/or The Wonderful 101 (or Bayonetta 3 and The Wonderful 102) for the Switch?

The Wonderful 101: The Closest I’ll Get to Okami

 Reviews, Video games  No Responses »  Tagged with:
Feb 172017
 

I finally finished The Wonderful 101.

The Wonderful 101 is about a superhero-like organization fighting alien invaders known as the GEATHJERK (which stands for Guild of Evil Aliens Terrorizing Humans with Jiggawatt bombs, Energy beams, Ray guns, and Killer lasers). It was a fun game, but one I’m not likely to play again.

I had The Wonderful 101 in progress for quite a long time, even though it took me less than 20 hours to complete. Even though I enjoyed it, I kept taking long breaks to play other games that interested me more… a situation quite similar to another game I tried to play, Okami.

But unlike Okami, which I eventually gave up on, The Wonderful 101 doesn’t last so long that I got completely tired of it.

It does have some pacing issues. The game is divided into operations, each of which has multiple parts, and each part can take a while… especially boss battles, which often seem to parody similar boss battles by going on and on and reaching an increasingly larger scale.

(The Wonderful 101 doesn’t take itself too seriously, so it’s full of parodies.)

It’s also not a game you can easily take long breaks from, since the combat can be pretty challenging. Combat is where another Okami-esque aspect comes into play: drawing!

You control a group of superheroes who can unite into powerful weapon forms. For example, if you draw a circle, they form a hand to grab things or punch enemies. If you draw a straight line, they form a sword. And so on. There are many different weapons, and getting the game to recognize my attempts often caused me frustration.

Different enemies require different strategies to defeat, and it gets a bit complex.

On the other hand, while The Wonderful 101 is often challenging in its combat, it’s also very forgiving. If you die, it penalizes your score for the mission and brings you back with full health right where you left off the battle.

This, together with the shorter length of the overall game, is probably the main reason I didn’t quit it like I did Okami.

The Wonderful 101 also has a fun tone, a lot of humorous moments, and some surprisingly serious scenes. I liked the characters (with the exception of Luka, whom I couldn’t stand) and enjoyed the plot. In fact, it was interesting enough that if they are making a “Wonderful 102” or whatever they’d call the sequel, I’d look into it.

So in short, it might not be a new favorite game like Bayonetta, but finishing The Wonderful 101 is probably as close as I’ll ever get to finishing Okami.

Do you like superheroes? Alien invasion stories? Games that don’t take themselves seriously? And are you all right with complex combat that involves drawing shapes to form giant weapons? Then give The Wonderful 101 a try!

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