Ten years after its initial release – and roughly three years after its PC release – the former Wii U exclusive The Wonderful 101: Remastered gets the love it deserves. Platinum Games has bought their superhero mini-game for PC through crowdfunding, where supporters exceeded a few simple goals, including one that promised an upcoming DLC drop. The game received its first free new content today in the form of a side-scrolling shootout called The Wonderful One: After School Hero.
The Wonderful One: After School Hero is split into two parts, with one half out today and the other half out on May 26. There is an arcade mode that tells the origin story of schoolboy Luke before he became the goofy superhero Wonder Glasses. Plus, there’s an optional challenge mode, so you can test out your new laser blast abilities.
This is a major departure from the main game, where you controlled colorful, tiny characters, each with their own unique abilities. The twist came with the “merge action”, which allows you to draw figures, combining a hundred heroes together to create powerful weapons. So smaller versions of the Power Rangers, but instead they transform into swords, fists, and paragliders.
Edwin Evans Thirwell had some reservations about the drawing controls in his Review of The Wonderful 101. “But then that silly tune comes on,” he wrote, “which sweeps away your fears for a few precious minutes…you feel like you can do anything—even get the circle right on the first try.”
The Wonderful 101: Remastered is available on Steam for £40/€45/$40. The Wonderful One DLC is free to download, and a free demo of the base game is available, allowing you to play as the evil witch Bayonetta. She is also tiny here, of course.