The Nintendo Switch has no shortage of great remasters available on the eShop that bring portability to quality titles. However, few are so deserving as Wonderful 101: Remastered, a title that was broadly ignored by the public during its original time on the Wii U, but possesses a measure of innovation and excellence that qualifies it as one of the best (if not the best) remasters on the Nintendo Switch.
Plenty of remasters on the Switch allow older titles to undergo a revitalization. Whether players pick them up just to revisit an old favorite or to experience something they missed out on, the Switch has a plethora of remasters, ports and re-releases for almost any gamer. For the most part, these tend to be very popular releases like Dark Souls Remastered and the upcoming Super Mario 3D All-Stars, both of which were fairly mainstream games before their remaster. They're titles that sold extremely well when they originally came out, and almost didn't need remasters to fill a major portion of people's collective memory. For that reason, Wonderful 101 could be considered a more potent remaster for the Switch console. Due to a combination of being in a niche genre, and the overall lackluster sales of the Wii U, Wonderful 101 never quite got the attention it deserved despite being one heck of an action game.
Wonderful 101's quality almost comes as no surprise given that it comes from the Japanese developer PlatinumGames. Since the studios' first few titles, it has gained a following due to a reputation as one of the industry's finest designers of action games. This level of quality definitely carried over to Wonderful 101. It even resembles Bayonetta in many aspects. Despite this, Wonderful 101 actually breaks the Bayonetta mold in several ways that make it one of the most unique and innovative action games to ever hit the market. Even better, the remaster makes some small changes that can greatly improve the experience.
Wonderful 101 Is The Most Underrated Wii U Title
Like many great titles on Nintendo consoles, Wonderful 101's innovation was spurred on by hardware development. PlatinumGames did their best to incorporate the Wii U gamepad as much as possible for the original release. As a result, many of the game's mechanics hinge on the Wii U's touchpad and the second screen. Most prominently, Wonderful 101 has players switch their weapons differently than any other action game before or since.
Instead of a button, players switch weapons by drawing different shapes on the gamepad or the right stick. This mechanic combines beautifully with the game's Pikmin-esque team size. Rather than controlling a single character, the player controls dozens to hundreds of tiny characters that fight in conjunction with each other and combine to create various shaped, including weapons. Each weapon has its own unique uses, and their size/damage depends on how many new members players collect over the course of the game. This results in a completely unique combat system where players are juggling attacking, defending and drawing to stylishly beat the snot out of their alien opponents.
It should be noted that due to the size of the player's team, the camera is often zoomed out quite far, and it can be difficult to keep track of some of the action when each characters are so tiny. This aspect can be accounted for with a careful eye and some practice, however. Besides, these small negatives are more than made up for with the game's lovable setting, story and tone. Wonderful 101, on top of being a spiritual successor to Clover Studios' Viewtiful Joe, is one massive homage to the Japanese sentai genre of shows. Players ostensibly play as a team of Power Rangers defending the planet from an evil conglomerate of alien menaces, with all the ridiculous, absurdly action-packed moments that come with such an outrageous story.
While the camera difficulties are generally left unaddressed by the game, Wonderful 101: Remastered does several other things to remedy some issues the original had. For instance, the player's defensive options are available in the move shop from the game's beginning at almost zero cost, encouraging their purchase from the onset. Furthermore, other moves, such as such as Team Unite Morph (an important ability that often gets overlooked by new players) are also made available in the shop. In general, small improvements like these make Wonderful 101: Remastered the definitive version of a game that was incredibly underappreciated during its initial release. It is such a unique take on the stylish action genre, with new ideas that bring an air of freshness to a classic formula, that it outshines practically every other Switch remaster in terms of originality.