I've been playing this game for YEARS back when it released on the Wii U. I never thought in a million years that The Wonderful 101 would have an official PC release. And yet here we are. So how does it hold up?

Maybe I'm being biased here but I genuinely believe this is PlatinumGames and Hideki Kamiya's magnum opus. The combat system is extremely intricate and complex but damn does it feel satisfying to master. This is NOT a cutesey wootsey Pikmin-style adventure game. This is very much an action game that ranks up there with games such as Devil May Cry and Bayonetta (2 other games Hideki Kamiya is responsible for. Go figure.). This is a game that does NOT hold your hand whatsoever nor does it do any spoonfeeding. You're gonna get punished. You're gonna get destroyed. You're gonna get nothing but consolation prizes along the way. You're probably also gonna get frustrated with the weapon switching gimmick and say the controls are bad and that it should've stayed on the Wii U where it belongs.

BUT!

Stick with the game and spend enough time learning to master the controls and you'll tap into an experience so cathartic that it's actually really difficult for me to put into words exactly just how fun it is to discover all the cool and intricate things you can do on the fly. This is a game that ALLOWS you to be stylish provided you got the skills for it. It employs all the stuff you've seen Dante and Bayonetta pull off and then some. Juggle combos, air dashing, STINGERS GALORE.

In The Wonderful 101, you control 100 super heroes who are able to morph into different weapons by lining up into their respective shapes by drawing with the right stick. Circle for fist, line for sword, a right angle for gun, etc.etc. At first it may feel overly complex (and to be fair, it is) but drawing the shapes is a matter of doing the gesture, not about precision. If anything, drawing the shapes would be more comparable to that of inputting a command in a fighting game. It's a gimmick that is extremely well thought out because the game takes into account what shape you did and how big you did it and whether you summoned it for yourself or passed it off to another hero for support. All of the characters that represent each weapon have their own charming and adorable personality.

Due to the nature of the drawing system, you have a whole lot more freedom in the combat than most other action games. In other action games, you usually swap between weapons at the push of a button but in order to make it less confusing for players, you usually only swap between 2 weapons (Bayonetta). Or, in some cases, if you have ALL weapons available, it's a matter of tapping the button quickly to get to your preferred weapon but if you accidentally pass it, you gotta constantly tap more to get back to it (Devil May Cry). In The Wonderful 101, switching is only done by drawing. No weapon wheel, no scrolling list, no menu. Nope, if you can think it, you can draw it. This can lead to moments where you can do just about anything you want provided you are skillful enough to gesture the needed glyphs. Want to punch an enemy into the air with your fists, switch to guns for bullet juggling before coming down with the hammer to slam them down to the ground? Yeah, you can do that. Want to keep an enemy stuck in slow motion with bomb so you can switch to whip and pick them up, toss them aside and then freeze them with claws? Sure, go ahead. Have fun.

All the enemies in the game are beautifully designed too. True to Kamiya's nature, the enemies all come in a variety of agressiveness, some being so reckless you'll need to pay attention to their telegraphing, from the movement they make to the sounds they make, in order to properly counter their attacks. Enemies come in a variety of different sizes and shapes. From a walking giant robot to an armored tank to a giant metallic turtle. All the enemies can be handled with any weapons you got but they've been cleverly designed in such a way that each one's got a weakness to certain weapons that you must discover and take advantage of.

It should be noted that since this is a Kamiya game, expect to run into a lot of mini-games. And I mean A LOT. You think Bayonetta had too much? Boy, you're in for a ride. Look, there's nothing wrong with the mini-games themselves as each one lasts just long enough for you to grasp its rules and controls before getting right back to the Wonderful 101 action, but since you're constantly being ranked for these segments just the same as the main game, it can get very frustrating trying to perfect these arcade bits, especially when you set out to do a Pure Platinum run. Some of these mini games can be overwhelming and down right punishing, even on the hardest difficulty where you can die in just one hit! Good lord. For what it's worth, all the mini-games feel just like their classic counterparts. You'll be playing stuff like Punch-Out, Zaxxon, Space Harrier and Star Fox, all for the sake of trying to save the world, so prepare yourself and hopefully you got some good arcade skills to survive.

The game's visuals aren't exactly the most amazing thing you'll see. The visual aesthetic employs a heavily inspired American Golden Age comics of the 1950's with the Japanese Tokusatsu action, ranging from Power Rangers (Super Sentai) to Kamen Rider with a chibi artstyle that heavily resembles Viewtiful Joe (yet another game Hideki Kamiya is responsible for. Go figure.). The game feels like you're peeking into a world made of toys, with the characters having a shiny plastic look to them, with the camera using a tilt shift effect to sell that look altogether. The texture aren't the most amazing thing here. In fact, given how this is a game that originally came from the Wii U, there's a whole lot of blurriness everywhere (even some text and screenshots) and it's a bit baffling that they'd be calling this a Remaster when it really is just a straight port. To be fair, I wasn't asking for the game to be remade but you'd think the Remastered title would imply that the game was given an extra amount of polish, which it doesn't.

For the PC port, I personally haven't had much issues experiencing the game however I've seen how it runs for other folks. Depending on your rig and resolution settings, you'll probably encounter some weird, unintended hiccups. To somewhat quote someone here on Steam, this port feels like it's being held together with Elmer's Glue. It makes me extremely sad that my most favorite game in the universe has a very shoddy port and while I am one of the lucky few to have a game that runs without any problems, this really falls into the "your mileage will vary" category.

As of this review's posts, the bugs that I've encountered include enemies ignoring bomb/hero time effects, the multiplayer camera being extremely buggy and input commands not behaving properly. Another big issue is the game being locked at 59fps. Now, for me, 59fps is a GODSEND because the original Wii U version ran soooo poorly, I would've been OK with the game just being locked at 30fps. 59fps is, no joke, the best thing the game could ever have BUT I know 60fps would've been a million times better and it actually does make me upset that PlatinumGames promised a locked 60fps experience when that's not entirely the case. Thankfully we do have fanmods that fix this little problem and I only hope that PlatinumGames will eventually patch this game to run exactly how it was intended to run.

Final verdict: Listen, I love this game a lot. There is nothing that's gonna keep me away from enjoying it. I only hope that if you do decide to jump in, you keep an open mind. This is not a game where you can just pick up and start getting Platinums right off the bat. It's a game that requires time, practice and patience to nail the combat system and if you're willing to go the distance, you'll find a game that gives you a whole lot more in return.

I've been playing this game for YEARS back when it released on the Wii U. I never thought in a million years that The Wonderful 101 would have an official PC release. And yet here we are. So how does it hold up? Maybe I'm being biased here but I genuinely believe this is PlatinumGames and Hideki Kamiya's magnum opus. The combat system is extremely intricate and complex but damn does it feel satisfying to master. This is NOT a cutesey wootsey Pikmin-style adventure game. This is very much an action game that ranks up there with games such as Devil May Cry and Bayonetta (2 other games Hideki Kamiya is responsible for. Go figure.). This is a game that does NOT hold your hand whatsoever nor does it do any spoonfeeding. You're gonna get punished. You're gonna get destroyed. You're gonna get nothing but consolation prizes along the way. You're probably also gonna get frustrated with the weapon switching gimmick and say the controls are bad and that it should've stayed on the Wii U where it belongs. BUT! Stick with the game and spend enough time learning to master the controls and you'll tap into an experience so cathartic that it's actually really difficult for me to put into words exactly just how fun it is to discover all the cool and intricate things you can do on the fly. This is a game that ALLOWS you to be stylish provided you got the skills for it. It employs all the stuff you've seen Dante and Bayonetta pull off and then some. Juggle combos, air dashing, STINGERS GALORE. In The Wonderful 101, you control 100 super heroes who are able to morph into different weapons by lining up into their respective shapes by drawing with the right stick. Circle for fist, line for sword, a right angle for gun, etc.etc. At first it may feel overly complex (and to be fair, it is) but drawing the shapes is a matter of doing the gesture, not about precision. If anything, drawing the shapes would be more comparable to that of inputting a command in a fighting game. It's a gimmick that is extremely well thought out because the game takes into account what shape you did and how big you did it and whether you summoned it for yourself or passed it off to another hero for support. All of the characters that represent each weapon have their own charming and adorable personality. Due to the nature of the drawing system, you have a whole lot more freedom in the combat than most other action games. In other action games, you usually swap between weapons at the push of a button but in order to make it less confusing for players, you usually only swap between 2 weapons (Bayonetta). Or, in some cases, if you have ALL weapons available, it's a matter of tapping the button quickly to get to your preferred weapon but if you accidentally pass it, you gotta constantly tap more to get back to it (Devil May Cry). In The Wonderful 101, switching is only done by drawing. No weapon wheel, no scrolling list, no menu. Nope, if you can think it, you can draw it. This can lead to moments where you can do just about anything you want provided you are skillful enough to gesture the needed glyphs. Want to punch an enemy into the air with your fists, switch to guns for bullet juggling before coming down with the hammer to slam them down to the ground? Yeah, you can do that. Want to keep an enemy stuck in slow motion with bomb so you can switch to whip and pick them up, toss them aside and then freeze them with claws? Sure, go ahead. Have fun. All the enemies in the game are beautifully designed too. True to Kamiya's nature, the enemies all come in a variety of agressiveness, some being so reckless you'll need to pay attention to their telegraphing, from the movement they make to the sounds they make, in order to properly counter their attacks. Enemies come in a variety of different sizes and shapes. From a walking giant robot to an armored tank to a giant metallic turtle. All the enemies can be handled with any weapons you got but they've been cleverly designed in such a way that each one's got a weakness to certain weapons that you must discover and take advantage of. It should be noted that since this is a Kamiya game, expect to run into a lot of mini-games. And I mean A LOT. You think Bayonetta had too much? Boy, you're in for a ride. Look, there's nothing wrong with the mini-games themselves as each one lasts just long enough for you to grasp its rules and controls before getting right back to the Wonderful 101 action, but since you're constantly being ranked for these segments just the same as the main game, it can get very frustrating trying to perfect these arcade bits, especially when you set out to do a Pure Platinum run. Some of these mini games can be overwhelming and down right punishing, even on the hardest difficulty where you can die in just one hit! Good lord. For what it's worth, all the mini-games feel just like their classic counterparts. You'll be playing stuff like Punch-Out, Zaxxon, Space Harrier and Star Fox, all for the sake of trying to save the world, so prepare yourself and hopefully you got some good arcade skills to survive. The game's visuals aren't exactly the most amazing thing you'll see. The visual aesthetic employs a heavily inspired American Golden Age comics of the 1950's with the Japanese Tokusatsu action, ranging from Power Rangers (Super Sentai) to Kamen Rider with a chibi artstyle that heavily resembles Viewtiful Joe (yet another game Hideki Kamiya is responsible for. Go figure.). The game feels like you're peeking into a world made of toys, with the characters having a shiny plastic look to them, with the camera using a tilt shift effect to sell that look altogether. The texture aren't the most amazing thing here. In fact, given how this is a game that originally came from the Wii U, there's a whole lot of blurriness everywhere (even some text and screenshots) and it's a bit baffling that they'd be calling this a Remaster when it really is just a straight port. To be fair, I wasn't asking for the game to be remade but you'd think the Remastered title would imply that the game was given an extra amount of polish, which it doesn't. For the PC port, I personally haven't had much issues experiencing the game however I've seen how it runs for other folks. Depending on your rig and resolution settings, you'll probably encounter some weird, unintended hiccups. To somewhat quote someone here on Steam, this port feels like it's being held together with Elmer's Glue. It makes me extremely sad that my most favorite game in the universe has a very shoddy port and while I am one of the lucky few to have a game that runs without any problems, this really falls into the "your mileage will vary" category. As of this review's posts, the bugs that I've encountered include enemies ignoring bomb/hero time effects, the multiplayer camera being extremely buggy and input commands not behaving properly. Another big issue is the game being locked at 59fps. Now, for me, 59fps is a GODSEND because the original Wii U version ran soooo poorly, I would've been OK with the game just being locked at 30fps. 59fps is, no joke, the best thing the game could ever have BUT I know 60fps would've been a million times better and it actually does make me upset that PlatinumGames promised a locked 60fps experience when that's not entirely the case. Thankfully we do have fanmods that fix this little problem and I only hope that PlatinumGames will eventually patch this game to run exactly how it was intended to run. Final verdict: Listen, I love this game a lot. There is nothing that's gonna keep me away from enjoying it. I only hope that if you do decide to jump in, you keep an open mind. This is not a game where you can just pick up and start getting Platinums right off the bat. It's a game that requires time, practice and patience to nail the combat system and if you're willing to go the distance, you'll find a game that gives you a whole lot more in return.