Quick Look: The Wonderful 101

The Zeboyd article about this game (and games like it) is pretty great read too: http://zeboyd.com/2013/09/10/why-games-like-the-wonderful-101-are-a-poor-fit-for-the-gaming-press/

Before anyone gets the wrong idea, I’m not saying this to badmouth the gaming press. Skill-focused games that don’t have an easy analogue in a pre-existing genre are hard to get into for a lot of people. Not having that community support structure online to help makes things even harder. But as someone who loves new experiences & loves a good challenge, it’s frustrating when many of my favorite games, games that I think are expertly crafted (except for, perhaps, not doing a good enough job teaching the depths of their gameplay) don’t get the respect that they deserve. And it’s frustrating because by not understanding these games & by reviewing them negatively, we’re actively discouraging creativity in game design.

Personally, I bought a WiiU for this game the day after they announced the Wind Waker HD bundle+price cut. Ironically, I got the game on Sunday, but I won't have the actual console until Friday. :V

Why strange? This is out now and Bayo2 is coming next year. They also are built around different mechanics (single character vs. group) while being part of the same brawler genre both with very deep combat levels.

Also, W101 is Kamiya's new project while Bayonetta was handed over to Hashimoto's team at Platinum.

I was pleasantly surprised how badly the demo kicked my ass the first couple of times I played it. I'm looking forward to really digging into this game and S ranking some levels.

There is nothing I would love more than to see @vinny and @brad play-through this whole thing ala Bradley May Cry.

And in some cases it's warranted like Brothers. Also the game doesn't do a great job of explaining itself. I know everyone loves Vinny and I think he's awesome as well, but he shouldn't get a pass for doing the same things Brad gets crucified for.

My limited experience with the game from PAX was kinda strange. I really enjoyed what I had played of the game but I see where a lot of the critics are having complaints about the explanations. The game basically explains as little as possible to you, or at least the demo they had available at PAX was like that. I'm fine with certain things that you just need to discover through playing a la Dark Souls, but there are things that you're just like... what am I supposed to do?

You can sorta see it with Vinny and the food mixing. I had a similar instance where I walk into a building and it focuses on the roof. The roof has these dials on it and I'm trying to twist the sticks to turn them, or just leave the place. Turns out you actually look at the game pad where you have to move the pad to move over to these gears and then you can turn the gears in the room (on the gamepad) that change on the TV. I mean, its a neat idea, but the game didn't do anything to prompt me, no "hey this is how you should handle these situations". Someone said they thought immediately to look at the screen, but I wasn't that way and it broke the pacing horribly. There were a couple other points like this where I, and others I saw, didn't really seem to understand what to do.

Again, it might have just been the PAX demo, but if that was reminiscent of the final product it becomes kinda frustrating. Beyond that I enjoyed wandering around bashing people with the people's fist.

Man, there's a lot of stuff going on in this game. It certainly looks interesting but I'm not sure if I'm totally into the gameplay.

Man, this game is charming as all hell.

Aw man, you were SO CLOSE to getting Wonder-Pink right there...

A million stuff going on at the same time? Yup, this is a Platinum game.

the playing isn't 100% perfect, take it away -_-

Not my cup of tea. I'm starting to realize I am into simulations more than pure games. GTAV looks awesome and this scares me away. Glad Vinny was playing so he didn't say "hey do this" every 30 seconds.

@bonechompski: But... GTA isn't a simulation?

Dearth: mostly harmless.

@legendarychopchop: who the hell ever called it a WiiU savior? It's just a damn fine new IP from Platinum exclusive to the platform, and it is totally a Platinum game

I saw TONS of Wii U fanboys saying this would be the game to save the Wii U and would be a system seller. Then it sold 5k copies in it's first week in Japan. TOTAL bomb, like I expected. Not saying it's a bad game, just Platinum games are niche as all hell.

This looks pretty great. My copy is in the mail right now.

Really adorable. Got a great Incredibles vibe about it. Gameplay doesn't seem deep but there seems to be a lot of charm.

Blunder red, defender of dearth...

Oh god, the humor in this one makes me regret not owning a Wii U :(

To think if more games like this were at the WiiU console launch (not launch window) might have sold more of them as looks like something the WiiU desperately needs right now, games that not only are unique to the Nintendo but most importantly FUN.

This looks unbelievably tedious

I agree. I wasn't calling out this quicklook, or the average gamer, I was talking specifically about the comments made regarding reviews.

"An our heroes save the day!"

They left out the D on purpose, right?

EDIT: Nevermind, I just realized it was , "Can our heroes save the day?"

This game looks neat, I might end up buying it.

It's not. It's actually a pretty tough action game.

Man, I'd buy the shit out of this if I had a WiiU. This looks great! Vinny is a great QL host.

The article makes a great point about reviewers being ill equipped to play through skill/technical games that aren't already familiar to them.

Dark Souls is not extremely technical, but I remember a great number of people criticizing the game for clunky/unresponsive controls when it was COMPLETELY WRONG to think that. People were unwilling to learn the mechanics of the game because they couldn't mash the attack button and kill all the enemies in the room. They were impatient and blamed the game for their own failings.

I've seen plenty of first time players say similar things in the Dark Souls forums. After several more hours of play time they would come back saying they finally were beginning to understood the controls.

Wonderful 101 is on a similar path.

Diplomacy has failed!

Wow, if I had a Wii U, I would definitely pick this up.

When I get my Wii U next year I definitely will pick this up.

I know i'll get hate but my biggest problem with the game is the WiiU pad. Games way less confusing with this mishmash of inputs and audio/videobits in my face

Wow, another good game for the Wii U so soon after Pikmin 3? Nintendo's really stepping it up.

It's gonna be nothing but smoooth sailing for Nintendo from here on out. We have another DK coming out soon, and Bayo 2 next year, X should be out next year too, Mario Kart, they'll probably announce a new Mario, Zelda, probably Kirby, I hope a Star Fox or F-Zero come out for the Wii U sometime. Lots of great games at least for the next year.

Reviewers need to be able to look past a lack of skill and just grade the game. I think a good bit of reviewers do in fact, do that. I can realize that King Of Fighters 13(NOW ON STEAM!) is a great, well crafted, fighter without having any grasp on the mechanics that i would need to win any matches online(my online record proves that) let alone beat the final boss(true, i havent yet done it).

The bigger issue is that developers who craft games with deep mechanics often dont go into enough detail to teach those mechanics to the player. They leave it to the player to experience the base level mechanics and take it where they want. This is the problem with competitive games, except raw twitch FPS games (although i guess classes addsome more strategy to those types of games.) The problem with Strategy games, MOBAs, and Fighters are that they all basically throw the player into the deep end and let them struggle to swim, for the most part. How many people have had to go online to look up what he hell a Focus Attack Dash Cancel is in Street Figher, trying to figure out how to do the latest Magneto swag combo in Marvel Vs Capcom 3, and dont get me started about trying to take a machete to the jungle that is DOTA2(see what i did there?)

I don't think it's possible to make a game with a tutorial sufficient enough to teach players deep mechanics. How much time would a new player be willing to spend in a tutorial section if they are unable to grasp a certain system? What if 15 hours are required to get decent at a game because it requires that much practice? Should the game be dumbed down so that everyone can pick it up right from the start and beat it without any effort?

I still remember the drama caused by the original DMC3 and how its difficulty was preventing reviewers from reviewing the game because they couldn't get past Cerberus. That still didn't prevent Greg Kasavin (back when he was at gamespot) from giving it a great score because that was his type of game. I think one of his favorite games ever is God Hand. That's another game (hmm, another character action game that reviewers didn't get) that god dealt bad reviews by people that didn't understand the combat system.

I played this game for like 2 hours, and had a terrible time... in the 3rd everything seemed to click and I've been having a great time with it since... it's fast paced and when the controls become intuitive combat situations acatually become pretty rewarding (in the same way a racing game can be rewarding when you nail a corner).

with the timing of this release being up against GTAV vying for my time, that 2 hours of poorly presented tutorials and frustration that game was very close to getting put back on the shelf never to see the light of day again. Really glad I stuck with it though, it is pretty charming (some really thick cheese in there) and challenging.

Looks pretty awesome. Will put this on my list of things to get when I get a Wii U.

Boom!

The gameplay is actually deeper than about 95% of all video games. It's fairly well disguised by charm

Never bring a sword to a hand fight. Too much blood and decapitated hands to deal with.

There is kinda way to much happening on screen at the same time, but the characters and dialogue in this game seem great.

The enemies definitely seem colour coded.

Looks cool. Might have to get this at some point.

This game looks like a blast! Some more original titles like this and I might be tempted to buy a WiiU.

@golguin: Easy, fighters have started to do this. You make a "trial" or "mission" system that attempts to teach you the more complex mechanics. That way they are optional but there. You just have to make sure you explain what you are doing and why you would do it. Just like you say a player wouldn't want to go through a huge tutorial, not every player is going to want to go online and watch a video series about how to 'properly' play the game. These are the same problems fighting games are facing now, trial and mission systems without proper tutorializing don't explain what and why. They just throw examples at you. In the end its better to have a vast amount of optional tutorials that teach the player than to force them to outside sources for strategy when it comes to things like the deeper mechanics.

They talk alot.

They'll ignore it anyways. The vast majority of game betterment is less ego and more effort.

This is the first game that actually makes me want to get a WiiU I kinda love everything about this aside from the super long boss fight. Didn't expect to be as into this as I am.

Aww, I was really hoping Vinny would show off the multiple unite forms stuff. This game will probably be frustrating to newcomers because they throw so much stuff at you all at once and there are so many things to get used to. But once you get over that hump, this game is a lot of fun.

Maybe by the end of WiiU's life there will be five games out I want to play on it. This is one of them. Also I'm still not buying a WiiU.

Fuck I love Platinum.