The Wonderful 101 is the most recent in a protracted line of Wii U video games to get a second probability at life on the Nintendo Switch. Platinum’s wacky Sentai superhero story was a true-blue made-for-Wii U expertise: Using a mix of conventional buttons and hand-drawn symbols, you corral and management a mob of as much as 100 characters who battle via beat-’em-up arenas, navigating reaction-based puzzle-platforming challenges and a litany of setpiece minigames. But one thing feels off about The Wonderful 101 Remastered. The seeds of Platinum’s greatest video games are there–the snappy dodging and parrying, the intelligent writing and design, the demand that you just hone the craft of controlling your characters–but it’s laborious to understand them in a sport that calls for mastery over its complicated mechanics with out taking the time to correctly clarify how they work. Combined with new technical points, The Wonderful 101 Remastered doesn’t simply fail to make the generational soar, it forces us to query whether or not it warranted a re-assessment.The Wonderful 101 tells the story of Earth’s costumed world protection pressure, the Wonderful 100, who battle off an alien invasion. It’s a lightweight, peppy romp throughout secret labs and cities beneath siege by aliens. Though there are 100 members, the narrative focuses on a number of core, color-coded characters–trope-borne personas who alternate quips via their adventures.Though the deeply campy storytelling creates some amusing moments, the story indulges a bit of an excessive amount of in Sentai’s penchant for stretching out dramatic moments with sudden however in the end inconsequential plot twists. Many a boss battle ends with you defeating your opponent and declaring victory, just for them to stand up so you may beat them two or three extra instances. The jokes, good and unhealthy, all the time overstay their welcome.Thankfully, each the story and gameplay transfer at a really fast tempo. Levels soar from motion to cutscene to puzzle to recurring setpiece minigames, together with spaceship shoot-em-up sequences and Punch Out-style mech boxing. This is a sport that’s supposed to maneuver shortly and overload your mind with its large scale, punchy wit, and nice gameplay selection.In idea, the mix of conventional motion management and touchscreen gestures helps keep that frenetic tempo. You management a single member of the Wonderful 100 crew, who leads the complete group round in a mini mob of Pikmin-like pixel-people.The workforce strikes via every degree, bouncing throughout platforms and preventing off waves of gigantic-looking aliens utilizing the Wonderful 101’s curious, touchpad-controlled superpower, “uniting” the mob into large weapons and instruments for the chief. To construct up your power, you may rescue and deputize civilians into the Wonderful 100, rising the utmost cost of your assaults. Like so many facets of this sport, the idea works nicely once you perceive its mechanics, however it’s solely defined within the broadest phrases. It’s additionally utilized in puzzles, usually with out clarification, which creates pointless confusion.Each of the core story heroes has a special weapon, which you summon by drawing a fast image, both utilizing the suitable analog stick or the touchscreen in handheld mode. (Technically, you may as well swap among the many heroes utilizing the second display screen menu, which you’ll deliver up picture-in-picture-style within the lower-right nook of the display screen once you need it.) Each of the weapons has quite a lot of makes use of out and in of fight. Wonder-Red, for instance, summons an enormous hand that may punch, but in addition turns large gears and sometimes grabs ledges and issues in quick-time occasions. You additionally draw numerous utilitarian talents, like a cling glider, and contextual symbols for particular moments. Suddenly switching from interested by pushing buttons to drawing shapes all the time manages to incite a small jolt of panicked pleasure, whether or not you’re requested to do it mid-cutscene or to change up your ways throughout a battle.The mechanic nonetheless feels very intelligent, particularly in fight. Once you get previous the early-game grunts, every enemy has particular weaknesses to use: Learning methods to hit enemies hardest and methods to counter their assaults makes for quick, however very tactical fight. Though there are a restricted variety of enemies, every degree brings new combos and environments to make conditions tougher and hold the depth up, even when you might have the tactic down for a selected opponent.Unfortunately, although, the drawing mechanic turns into a legal responsibility within the Remaster. If you play in your TV, you need to use the suitable analog stick to attract, which isn’t exact. Even with loads of time, it may possibly take two or three tries to get the sport to detect the criss-cross “claw” image as an alternative of the same wavy “whip” signal. Drawing is far simpler in handheld mode, since you should use the touchscreen, however the small display screen makes it tougher to inform what’s occurring, particularly when the digital camera pulls approach out to accommodate a really massive enemy. It may be robust both approach, although, as the dimensions of your drawing is set by what number of characters you might have in your workforce. It’s fairly simple to get carried away and run out of runway.That mentioned, it’s laborious to inform what’s occurring it doesn’t matter what. The digital camera continuously feels misplaced. It will get too shut throughout platforming sequences, making it laborious to see the place you’re going, and pull again too far throughout fight, making it laborious to maintain observe of the character you management among the many mass of tiny heroes operating round.Unfortunately, the drawing mechanic turns into a legal responsibility within the Remaster.And typically, the sport is simply too intelligent for its personal good. Outside of fight, lots of the guidelines and visible cues for methods to tackle its puzzles, that are nearly all the time timed, are unclear. Wonder-Green, who carries a gun, destroys a water tank in an early section to place out a fireplace. From that time on, you’re anticipated to know that, once you see something sizzling, you employ the gun to destroy a tank to place it out. Many hours later, when confronted with an oncoming lava movement throughout a chase sequence, I didn’t suppose to shoot an unmarked tank to chill it earlier than I used to be killed. While there’s a logic that connects these puzzles, it’s a stretch to imagine that I’d see hearth and suppose “shoot tank to put out the fire,” particularly with none indication that the tank would cool off the lava. Wonderful 101 is plagued by these sorts of logical leaps, usually in puzzles that must be solved beneath stress. There’s nothing extra irritating than charging right into a state of affairs full-speed and dying with none thought of what you probably did fallacious.Many of The Wonderful 101’s issues–unexplained mechanics, finicky drawing controls, and so on–are exacerbated by the less-than-polished state of the Switch port. Technical points with the save system, hit detection, digital camera controls, and drawing all created sufficient doubt in my thoughts that, once I skilled an issue or acquired caught, I puzzled whether or not I used to be misunderstanding the sport or if one thing wasn’t working.Even if the technical hiccups get mounted in a patch, although, the Wonderful 101 doesn’t stand the take a look at of time. Remastered or not, I continuously felt like there have been lacking steps or if I used to be figuring issues out too slowly to maintain up with the hyperactive story and its multifaceted gameplay. What’s extra, the transition to the Switch, even with its touchscreen capabilities has solely exacerbated the sport’s core issues. There’s an awesome idea and the nice fight mechanics we all know Platinum can obtain in there, however you’ll want numerous persistence to search out them.