Platinum's Most Platinum Game
Despite being a rather huge fan of both Platinum and Kamiya's games, I didn't get around to actually playing The Wonderful 101 until January 2015, I severely regret not playing it sooner.
The titular Wonderful Ones are an international squad of heroes who save the day from alien invaders, said heroes "unite morph" into a variety of different shapes by piling their bodies into glowing energy forms. Its part sentai, part tilt shift aesthetic, part collectable Gashapon While there are shades of Pikmin, as you amass a squad that eventually fills up to 100 and can pile up on enemies, the combat itself is 100% Platinum. This is definitely a Platinum game, so you will be comboing fools like there is no tomorrow.
The core gameplay concept for this game is that you must draw the shapes that mimic the different Unite Morphs in order to activate them. A circle for a fist, a straight line for a sword, etc. While you can use the stylus and touchpad, you really should use the right analog stick, ala Okami. Thats not to say it doesn't use the gamepad well, particularly the idea of a second screen, but that's spoiler territory. The stick is faster, just as accurate, and feels more natural once you get it down. Switching from fist, to sword, doing a spring dodge, sword again, into a literal tombstone drop on an enemy. Its worth noting that that tombstone move, as well as the spring dodge, are moves you need to purchase, make sure you get every move you can, because you will definitely need them. Once you get to roughly the halfway point and have collected the last of the core 7 members, the game stops holding your hand and you have to use every tool at your disposal to make it through the game's lengthy story.
Speaking of that story? That fucking goes places, and the way it handles plot scale and escalation (both literally and figuratively) is to be commended. I don't really want to delve into spoilers, as it really needs to be seen to be believed, but its arguably the best story from Platinum. There are honest to god character development arcs, playable back story (complete with ye olde filter), plot swerves, and surprisingly heartfelt tearjerkers. It feels like a full season of a show compacted into a single game and its a hell of a ride with one of the most satisfying endings I've ever seen in a game. The biggest accomplishment is that this giant clusterfuck of concepts, characters, and styles all manages to mesh into something truly excellent and unique.
I don't suppose its a game for everyone, you have to physically adapt to the controls, and you have to take your knocks as you learn the ropes, but once you do its a very hard game to walk away from until its all said and done, even then there's loads and loads of fun secrets to go back in find, as well as a ton of hidden Platinum fanservice and an entire achievement system. Its a great game that got sadly overlooked in late 2013, and thats a damn shame. I'll also use this space to plug ChipCheezum's video series about it, well worth watching to see what all you can actually do in the game if you're not feeling up to the task yourself.
