The Wonderful 101

Did You Know?

• The seven main protagonists appeared as Trophies in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U.
• In September 2024, PlatinumGames fully acquired the Wonderful 101 trademark from Nintendo.

Gameplay

In The Wonderful 101, you command a crowd of superheroes from a top-down view, shaping them into different forms called Unite Morphs. As you move through stages, you search for civilians in trouble and add them to your team. The more heroes you have, the stronger your morphs become. Using a Unite Morph drains a battery meter, but you can refill it with regular attacks or by collecting batteries from fallen foes. Defeated enemies also leave behind O parts, which are used to buy upgrades, new morphs, and items. To change your group into a weapon or tool, you draw a symbol on the Wii U GamePad’s touchscreen or right stick—like an L for a gun or a wavy line for a whip. In certain spots, the GamePad switches the view to a standard third-person angle, making it easier to navigate tight spaces like caves or indoor areas. The single-player campaign is split into levels, each graded on time and damage taken. There’s also a cooperative mode for up to five players: one uses the GamePad, while the other four use Wii U Pro Controllers. The downloadable expansion, The Wonderful One: After School Hero, shifts to side-scrolling action with a single hero named Luka. He fires laser blasts from his goggles and can swap between three laser types, each with unique strengths. This expansion includes 12 stages, unlockable bonus levels, a score attack mode, and online leaderboards.

Synopsis

The Wonderful 101 occurs during the third war between Earth and the intergalactic alien armada GEATHJERK Federation. The only hope for humanity is the Wonderful 100, a group of superheroes working for the CENTINELS Planetary Secret Service, created by the United Nations. The main heroes include Will Wedgewood (Wonder-Red), a Blossom City elementary school teacher whose father Arthur is killed by Laambo; Eliot Hooker (Wonder-Blue), a police detective whose older brother is killed by Vijounne; guns expert Jean-Sebastain Renault (Wonder-Green); fashion modeler Mariana Kretzulesco (Wonder-Pink); Russian soldier Ivan Istochinkov (Wonder-Yellow); ninja-in-training Momoe Byakkoin (Wonder-White); and video game prodigy Krishna Ramanujan (Wonder-Black). Supporting characters include P-Star, a robot; Laurence Nelson (Wonder-Captain), commander of the Centinels; Virgin Victory operator Alice MacGregor; and science chief James Shirogane. Luka Alan Smithee, a Blossom City Elementary student whose scientist mother Margarita died working for the CENTINELS, joins the group and becomes Wonder-Goggles at the end. Immorta and her brother Prince Vorkken lived on the Roaming Comet of Rhullo; Vorkken was brainwashed by Gimme, who planted a bio-weapon insect on his body, making him leader of the Guyzoch space pirates.

Development

The Wonderful 101 started taking shape while the Wii was still on the market. PlatinumGames president Tatsuya Minami first proposed bringing together a roster of well-known video game characters. To avoid forcing players to control a specific character at set points, the team decided to keep every character visible on screen, letting the player switch between them freely. Early plans involved Nintendo’s own characters cooperating to solve puzzles, but Nintendo worried the mechanic might not sustain a full game. Director Hideki Kamiya also felt that mixing different characters’ conflicting traits into a consistent system, like in Super Smash Bros., would be difficult. Work paused while Kamiya focused on another project, but when that project was canceled a year later, development resumed. Kamiya then chose a Japanese henshin, or transforming, theme with five original heroes who could combine into weapons. The group later grew to one hundred heroes, and the style shifted from Japanese superheroes to an American comic book look. The game’s design document was made public after the remaster’s Kickstarter campaign met certain stretch goals. Originally planned for the Wii, the game became a Wii U exclusive once PlatinumGames and Nintendo formalized their partnership. To take advantage of the console’s features, the developers created a drawing mechanic on the GamePad to trigger Unite Morphs. The orchestral score was composed by Hiroshi Yamaguchi, Akira Takizawa, Hitomi Kurokawa, Norihiko Hibino, Masato Kouda, and Rei Kondoh. The theme songs, “The Won-Stoppable Wonderful 100” and “The Won-Stoppable Wonderful 101,” are performed by Foresta in Japanese and by Jimmy Wilcox, Rob McElroy, and Bruce Blanchard in English. A two-volume official soundtrack came out in September 2014. For the remaster, Yoko Shimomura, Keiichi Okabe, and Yuzo Koshiro contributed new arrangements.

Reception

The Wonderful 101 received generally positive reviews, with a Metacritic aggregate score of 78/100. Critics praised its innovative gameplay and deep combat system, but its hard learning curve received mixed responses, with some criticizing it and others like Nintendo Enthusiasts' Michael Nelson praising the skill requirement. Most reviewers enjoyed the ridiculously nonsensical story, characters, and humor, though some found sexual jokes out-of-place for a game with a Teen rating. The length and pacing seemed drawn-out to some due to repetitive enemies and boss fights, while others found these issues unproblematic thanks to even distribution of new moves and upgrades. The necessity of forming weapons by drawing on the touchscreen garnered mixed reception; many found the GamePad worked fine for simple shapes but sometimes misinterpreted complex ones, while others thought using the right analog stick was more reliable or that practice solved the issue. The camera was criticized for being too zoomed-out to track characters during battle but too zoomed-in to see out-of-view enemies. Reviewers agreed the game lived up to PlatinumGames' trademark high difficulty, with controls and camera cited as contributing factors. Nearly all critics praised creative uses of the GamePad's second screen, though some found gyroscope navigation clunky. The multiplayer mode was considered enjoyable but often lost track of characters, and most agreed it felt tacked on. The art style, flashy effects, set-pieces, giant bosses, voice acting, and soundtrack were well-received. Nintendo shipped 30,000 copies for the Japanese launch; the game sold 5,258 physical copies in its first week in Japan, eventually selling 27,028 physical units there. It reached 22nd place on the UK sales chart and sold 49,000 units in the US by end of 2013.