When Nintendo announced the WiiU Launch Date and pricing, they also unveiled a few other things. The title for Platinum Games entry onto the console was one of the biggies. The Wonderful 101 looked to be pretty funny from the video shown at multiple conferences, but the airstream showed me what it was truly capable of.
Imagine if you will being able to recruit any citizen in the city to your cause, your groups “superness” being so influential that they themselves will don a mask and begin fighting crime by your side. Your group has 2 methods of attack at their disposal, method 1 is your standard punching and kicking where your group en mass will dive at opponents, option 2 is a little more complex. The player will draw a shape on the wii U tablet signifying the attack they’d like. You can draw an “L” shape to give the leader a giant gun, a horizontal line to turn the entire group into a sword, or circling everybody up turns them into a big angry fist. These moves of course require energy, and that energy is gained by smashing baddies with normal attacks. Your group also has a dodge button “RT” which turns the group into a sort of snake that then dives over the attack coming at them. That is a basic rundown of the combat system, it’s pretty simple to begin but definitely unfolds as you level up your team, and get further into the story line.
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| The circle brings a fist! |
While recruiting citizen’s there are certain ones that become “SPECIAL HEROES”, the good folks at Nintendo wouldn’t go into too much detail on exactly what the heroes do, but having them seems to unlock content, and make your team more powerful.
I find it tough to describe the game play exactly, but the closest comparison I could find was Marvel Ultimate Alliance meets Pikmin. Your heroes combine to fight together, and they definitely have combo attacks, but they travel in a pack very similar to the creatures in Pikmin, and unlocking different heroes that add new abilities to your crew allow you to progress further. My biggest surprise was how fluidly the game controlled through the touch screen and analog stick. The tablet control fell into my hand like any controller would, and it wasn’t challenging to reach to the touch screen and draw the desired shape, before returning to my normal buttons. It also saves the previous shape drawn, so if for example, the fist is your thing, you can simply press the super power button and the fist will form up, you would only need the touch screen to change attack styles.
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If this game makes it out at launch, I imagine it will be one of the top seller’s. Among Indie games and DLC, which are looking to be the biggest category for the first few weeks. Nintendo hasn’t given us any specific details as to which titles will be available in just over a month, but this one will be here before the end of March 2013.
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