The Wonderful 101 demo impressions

With Hideki Kamiya‘s Direct on Friday, we received a clearer perspective on how The Wonderful 101 will turn out later on in the game. Accompanying this Direct was a demo that players can now get their hands on when they download it from the eshop.

The demo gives you plenty of options, such as language, the control scheme, brightness, and difficult. There are three difficulties to choose from: very easy, easy, and normal. When you first start off, there’s no tutorial that you have to sit through before playing; you are immediately thrown into the action. It eases you into the gameplay with hints along the way, explaining various mechanics such as how to utilize the unite morph, how to save civilians, etc. At first it was a little confusing, as it took me a while to get used to the controls.

Once the mechanics become second nature, the game gets very addicting. The creativity that Kamiya put into The Wonderful 101 really shows. Attacks such as a giant sword, hand, and gun can be formed when you draw the shape on the touch screen or draw it with the control stick. I personally had an easier time with the touch screen, as it seemed more accurate than the control stick. There’s nothing too complex, as you just draw a simple shape such as a line to create the sword for example. You can even summon multiple unite forces at once to auto attack.

What’s also pretty cool is the ability to employ citizens into your army. Once you rescue them, they join up temporarily, and even get masks of their own to wear. Needless to say, the aesthetics were gorgeous. The city was bright and colorful, textures were smooth and detailed, enemy designs were visually pleasing; it all seemed to ooze personality and charm. The soundtrack was pleasing to the ears as well. The orchestrated heroic music was catchy and upbeat.

There are some quick time events that occur briefly throughout the game, one of them being a segment where you’ll need to jump from platform to platform in a set amount of time. If you let the time run out, you’ll have to redo the QTE again. They give you plenty of seconds to input the right commands, so it never feels like a stressful task. The unite hand morph is used quite a lot throughout the demo, as you’re pushing and pulling obstacles out of your way, using an object as a shield, and rotating gears. Some of it can be a little tedious, but not really complex or frustrating.

So far it seems that this is a solid title that Platinum Games has worked on. The Wonderful 101 will hit stores and the eshop September 15th.