It was already heavily rumored to be in the works, but today Platinum Games officially launched a Kickstarter campaign to port their cult-classic Wii U game The Wonderful 101 to Switch, Steam, and PS4. Platinum is only asking for $50,000 to bring the game to Switch, a goal which was hit within about 15 minutes, but they’ll need a bit more to bring the game to PC and PS4 – Steam is a $250k stretch goal and PS4 is $500k. Update: Both the 250k Steam goal and 500k PS4 goal have been hit.
Haven’t played The Wonderful 101? It’s basically a more action-oriented Pikmin, with the player doing battle with groups of citizens they can transform into giant weapons. The original version of the game relied heavily on the Wii U’s touch screen as you had to draw shapes to activate certain moves, and according to a recent interview translated by Polygon, that will continue to be the case, at least in the Switch version. That said, tweaks will be made to make Easy mode more accessible and work around some of the dual-screen gimmicks, and some new modes will be offered if certain stretch goals are hit. Here’s a quick official description of how The Wonderful 101 plays:
In The Wonderful 101: Remastered, you don’t just control a single superhero. You control a whole team, united to face off against the forces of evil. As you travel around the city, you’ll rescue civilians, who will then join your cause, bolstering your ranks. The Wonderful Ones have more than just numbers on their side. To solve puzzles and smash evil, the Wonderful Ones can perform a “Unite Morph”, combining together to create fists, swords, bridges and other incredible constructs. Together with Wonder Red, Wonder Blue, and the rest of the Wonderful Ones, it’s time to save Blossom City, and the rest of the world!
Beyond the Steam and PS4 ports, Platinum is promising to reveal a number of a “amazing extras” as new hidden stretch goals are hit. Platinum is also offering a “social media challenge,” entitled Defense of Blossom City, with promises of more extras if all the challenges are completed. The first challenge is for fans to simply retweet the Kickstarter announcement 1010 times.
It's been confirmed The Wonderful 101: Remastered is one of four projects recently teased by the mysterious Platinum 4 site. The other three projects have yet to be revealed.
No word on when The Wonderful 101 ports will arrive exactly, but delivery of some awards is listed for April and Platinum says they want to deliver the game “as soon as possible.” What do you think? Are you excited to try out this underappreciated game?
