When the remastered version of The Wonderful 101 was announced on Kickstarter, it was wonderful news for multiple platforms. As exciting as it was that this Wii U exclusive would be made available to more players, not every fan was necessarily happy with the decision.
In an interview with Nintendo Everything, prior to the official announcement of the remaster, the game's director Hideki Kamiya made it clear that the original game "wasn't a successful business endeavor" and that it was a "high-quality game" Platinum was hoping a lot of people would experience. Obviously, this wasn't the outcome.
Well, we first released Wonderful 101 back in 2013 on Wii U, and for various reasons it wasn’t a successful business endeavor for us. Inaba and I have since lamented that not many players were able to experience the game.
I mean, it was really disappointing for us, you know? We worked so hard to make this high quality game and we were hoping a lot of gamers would play it, but that didn’t really pan out. So as a result of our negotiations, the kindness of Nintendo has made both the ports and this campaign possible.
Based on Kamiya's comments, it's easy to understand why PlatinumGames was so eager to give the game maximum exposure on a platform like Kickstarter and port it across to as many platforms as possible.
It's paid off, too. In the first week, the campaign raised $1 million in 12 hours and since then has reached multiple stretch goals. How do you feel about this Wii U exclusive being given a second chance? Let us know.
[source nintendoeverything.com]
Comments 60
I suppose it's great that the game is getting a second chance. Wonderful, in fact.
Business perspective: "We didn't make a return on investment!"
Artist perspective: "Not enough people appreciated our creation!"
Totally agree with the need to bring it back for others to see how great it was.
You can save $100 by tweeting at him in English and getting blocked btw, for anyone looking for a bargain.
I was interested in this when it first came out but decided to pass as I heard it had too many technical problems like the camera and touch controls, that mixed with all the chaos, caused me to pass. I’ll wait and see if they smooth this one over and they should as they’ve basically got this game paid for to rerelease by the public.
I absolutely understand his decision and am happy more people will get to experience this game. That being said, the Switch version is going to outsell every other version combined multiple times over.
Meh, this game will never be as good as "The Excellent 202" a far better game with double the numbers
@patbacknitro18 Ah that game was brilliant, but have you tried "The Marvelous 303"? In my opinion its at least 33% better.
Great news. Bring all games out for everything. Consoles are an antiquated concept. Nintendo can keep making weird controllers or something.
People didn't buy the game cause it looks unappealing. And I still don't want to play the game, it looks stupid and boring for some reason.
They have been slowly adding in the tiers and stuff that people would like. Just this morning in the Eastern US, I upgraded my pledge to the new digital/physical combo tier.
I can't wait for this to come out!
@AnnoyingFrenzy, @patbacknitro18 Great games, but I'm even more partial to The Fantastic 404. Sadly, it's currently nowhere to be found.
@AnnoyingFrenzy I think The Marvelous 303 was at least 50% better than The Excellent 202. 😉
I bought a Wii U specifically for this game.
@kepsux I laughed too hard at this...
I'm definitely giving it a second chance since I never finished it. Booting it on my Wii U
Loved this game. Beat it multiple times. But I still haven't felt inclined to buy any of the remastered games again. I hope people find as much enjoyment in this as I did, though.
@AnnoyingFrenzy I'm just sad nobody played the 4th game, The Unfound 404.
@Tyranexx Should have checked before posting my comment. I'm so proud of you and you delivered it perfectly.
I'm happy it's getting a second chance but something tells me this game just won't sell no matter how many platforms it gets ported to. Certainly not on non Nintendo platforms.
Hopefully the flexibility Nintendo has shown Platinum with 101 will encourage further collaboration and more Switch exclusives in the future.
@patbacknitro18 @AnnoyingFrenzy @Tyranexx sorry i missed out on all the games only watched the Netflix adaptation
@Moistnado Nintendo won't have agreed to it out of the goodness of their collective hearts. They'll have something in return.
I think people are confused about the names of the games in the series. It was 'The Wonderful 101', 'The Terrific 202', 'Thee 303' and finally the 'Formidable 404'.
I bought the digital version on Wii U and finished it.
IMO, it's an average game. Both its play control design (especially the right stick drawing control, much better on touch screen) and its tutorial (missing any touch screen control info) are terrible. Its learning curve is quite high.
On the whole, character design, level design and game idea are good but the implementation of those idea (the play control) is poor.
Honestly, I won't buy it for the second time.
@TYRANACLES the camera? There's no camera... everything's seen from an isometric perspective and it works flawlessly. I don't know where you read that.
There are a few segments that are in a third person perspective that took place on the Gamepad... but as far as I remember there are like 3 of those and you're done with them in 2 minutes.
Also you didn't need the touch controls AT ALL. Everything could be controlled with the joysticks, and better. It's one of those control systems that is difficult to master but so gratifying once you get the hang of it.
I remember being mad at reviewers with this game at the time because you could tell which reviewers did play the game and which ones just gave a score after reading other reviews. I remember the piss-poor IGN review.
This game suffered a lot from it. Gamers were REALLY uninformed with this one and it reflected in the sales. I 101% finished it, even unlocking Wonder-Bayonetta and, in my opinion, its one of the best Platinum games around, if not THE best out of the studio, and became one of my favorite action games.
Ahem- “Well... DUH!”
-slaps money down on the table-
My body is ready.
I didn’t like it on the Wii U but I hope it finds more success. Third party exclusives are becoming a thing of the past, which is great news for gamers.
Very glad to see it get a second lease of life, though slightly sad it won't stay a Nintendo exclusive. Always wanted to see it become a new, regular IP from them, still think it has that potential. Plus I want the Wonders in Smash!
One of Platinum's best though not without flaws. I'm super happy to see it return and get so much support!
@Ogbert For what it'll sell on other platforms compared to Switch, it will look like an exclusive 😉
@Mince Sony showed they have no interest in Platinum when they turned them away over a Bayonetta sequel
If an old game on a new console is being ported without a remaster then it should be released at a low budget price.
An old game for a new console at a new game price deserves to flop.
If they take a leaf from the Spyro team I would buy 101, it does not need to be a Switch exclusive if that helps sales.
@Mince @PlayedNSlayed
Sony turned down Bayo and MS cancelled Scalebound while Nintendo have funded two Bayo games and published W101 originally while letting them have a go at Starfox.
Yet some people think Nintendo are bad for Platinum?
@Mince has been a Nintendo fan for 5 (five!) whole years and thinks they can be annoying for fans. I’ve been a Nintendo fan for 30 years and can confirm they are often “annoying”. But they are also masters of their craft so we all put up with it.
@Mince Sony hate Platinum. They told their fanboys to review bomb games like Bayonetta 2, Wonderful 101 or Astral Chain. The first thing Sony would do if they bought Platinum would be to dismantle them. Sony want to destroy the japanese industry and favor their narrative western blockbusters without any game design creativity.
It’s not going to reach a much larger audience. Let’s face it, even if it did well amongst fans in the kickstarter. It was a niche game to begin with and will be lucky to hit 750k on the Switch. As for the other platforms, combined it probably won’t sell half of that amount.
Because "the first wasn't a successful business endeavor"? Seriously??? Somebody please hire this guy over at Sega so we can finally get some of those beloved IPs not named "Sonic" again!
In all seriousness, though, that single sentence encapsulates the schism between what so many gamers hope and plead for, and what we end up getting every single year. Corporations are in business to make money first and foremost; any notion that you as the consumer or your wants and needs come first is pure, concentrated self-delusion.
It also makes this statement by Kamiya seem paradoxical, but then the creators and development teams who spend countless hours envisioning, designing, and playtesting games probably tend to be much closer to and have much more passion for their projects than the corporate higher-ups and shareholders who only see profit margins. It was constant meddling by the latter that made key members of Team Camelot (the Shining Force series) up and leave Sega, for example, and why an IP as well-known as Shenmue required a Kickstarter by the series' chief designer for its latest installment to exist.
For what it's worth, I really wish that more developers and publishers would at least try this mentality and take a risk when there is obvious demand from consumers for the return of a given IP. I reached a point long ago where I mute the sound and open another window to browse other websites during shows like E3 whenever the latest obligatory annual Call of Battlefield: Madden's Creed or the five or six Ubisoft titles that could have their names switched out and nobody be the wiser come up to waste valuable presentation time every year. Maybe the industry needs to realize that's at least part of the reason for E3's decline over recent years; both the names, the genres and themes, and the amount/balance of coverage given to them feel largely the same and have for way too long. It needs to remember there are other franchises that could bring back that old excitement and enthusiasm...not to mention those $$$s they crave.
@TYRANACLES
As an owner of it when it first released, the criticisms of its controls were exaggerated; only in a couple of places in the game did the controls really ever pose an issue.
Mostly in the very rare areas where the screen moved the action to the game pad.
The drawing mechanic is easily done via sticks.
@glaemay Please stop! It's not the first time you've been spreading that ignorant rhetoric about Sony and their "fans". Sony doesn't hate Platinum. Otherwise games like Nier Automata wouldn't have sold the way it did before it went to other platforms. Also Babylon's Fall wouldn't be releasing either as well as Wonderful 101 on Sony platforms.
@AnnoyingFrenzy Your math is horrible. 33% better would be 134.3 (101 + 33.33).
To get to 303 you need to multiply by 300%.
Wonderful! I bet they are starting development on The Wonderful 102!!!
@Chlocean Thank you! It was one of the times where I thought up a multi-pun.
@Pirlo_ze_sniper The Netflix adaptation is good, but you're really missing out. I've heard each season will be prefaced with 101, 202, etc.
@Tyranexx There’s nothing fantastic about a 404 on the Internet... haha.
@progx True. I'd much rather see a 418. (Web response codes come up in my work occasionally)
@patbacknitro18
Just don't play the prequel. The title says it all - The Sh*t 1.
@glaemay Sony told it's fanboys to review bomb! Where did you get that rubbish from? Don't be so silly.
Never played this back in the day. Got to admit this headline upsets me, if it needed to be remastered then why do all this Kickstarter nonsense. Just like put the game on a cartridge add a few tweaks or whatever and then release it. I do love platinum games especially bayonetta x x x s I guess I wanted star fox zero so will be patient x x x x
@TimboSlice Ummmmm, no.
303-202=101. 101/303=0.33×100=33% increase.
But you were right in one area, I did do the math wrong. The answer is actually a 50% increase as I was supposed to divide 101 by 202 not 303. As a comment below mine pointed out.
@AnnoyingFrenzy sorry, I thought you were saying 33% better than 101! You were saying 33% better than 202... but yes, in that case it’s 50%.
@TimboSlice No problem. In case your wondering I left the math error in because C'mon, 303, 33%? Comedy gold.
@Tyranexx ok you had the best one. Good job.
@Ryu_Niiyama Thanks! I aim to please. Or at least cause a facepalm. 😁
@kepsux I feel like I should get this, but it went r/woosh right over my head. A little help?
@SoIDecidedTo Look at his twitter banner. Homeboy comes off as somewhere between a internet troll and a blatant racist if you dig into his online presence. It's kinda amazing he has time for it all.
I didn't have any interest in this the first time around, maybe this time I'll give it a chance... it's purely crowd-funded right? NOT Tencent-funded?
@kepsux Thanks, I'll look it up now!
@fafonio
I’ll probably give it a go this time. It’s getting a lot of praise as of late and I do like the art style a lot. I loved the viewtiful how games, which it does remind me of.
I finished it on Wii u yet will still buy it. It was great then, and look forward to running through it with my more modern understanding of games now.
The game has lots of fun for sure.
@TYRANACLES hope you enjoy it as much as I did on the WiiU.
If you liked Viewtiful Joe Im pretty sure you’ll like this one too
The exact same thing happened to Devil's Third and nobody is making a campaing for it.
I would be a thousand times more exited about a Devils Third port.
I did not like Wonderful 101. I do think it's a nich game. I was hard for me to understand the gameplay and enjoy it. I sold it after barely playing 2 hours.
But i am still glad for the port if that is what gamers want.
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