Platinum Games have added a free side-scrolling mode to The Wonderful 101
Promised as a stretch goal during the Kickstarter campaign
Ten years after its initial release - and about three years after it came to PC - former Wii U exclusive The Wonderful 101: Remastered is getting some much deserved love. Platinum Games bought their mini superhero game to PC through crowdfunding, where backers blew past several stretch goals including one that promised a future DLC drop. Today, the game received its first bit of free new content in the form of a side-scrolling shoot ‘em up called The Wonderful One: After School Hero.
The Wonderful One: After School Hero is being split into two parts - one half is out today, the next half releases on May 26th. There's an Arcade Mode that tells the origin story for schoolboy Luka before he became the goofy superhero Wonder Goggles. Then there's an extra Challenge Mode, so you can test your newfound laser-blasting powers.
That’s quite a departure from the main game which had you controlling colourful tiny heroes each with their own unique abilities. The twist came with the “unite action” that let you draw shapes, merging one hundred heroes together to create powerful weapons. Smaller versions of the Power Rangers then, but they instead turn into swords, fists, and paragliders.
Edwin Evans Thirlwell had some reservations about those drawing controls in his The Wonderful 101 review. “But then that preposterous theme tune kicks in,” he wrote, “sweeping your misgivings away for a precious handful of minutes… you feel like you can do anything - even draw a circle correctly on your very first try.”
The Wonderful 101: Remastered is available on Steam for £40/€45/$40. The Wonderful One DLC is free to download, meanwhile, there’s also a free demo available for the base game that lets you play as the wicked witch Bayonetta. She’s tiny here too, of course.