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What a title - and The Wonderful 101 knows it. Every loading screen displays the logo prominently, and each time a different member of the voice cast gives it their all: "The Woonnnnderrfullll ONE-OH-ONE!" The first time the game loads, the attract screen talks of the Wonderful One Hundred, before it flips around and flashes an irresistibly cheesy grin: "I knew we forgot someone... YOU!"Platinum Games' Wii U debut is a thrilling game, the kind that has so much energy and variety it can leave you open-mouthed. In style, it's a love letter to classic children's television. The presiding spirits are shows from Britain and Japan: Captain Scarlet, Thunderbirds, and of course those Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers.
These shows aren't bad, but that they're the kind you look back on with amusement; to an adult's eye, the wires and costumes and tight budgets are all too obvious. This feels like the driving impulse behind The Wonderful 101, which fetishises every aspect of its inspiration. It is, on the one hand, about superhuman feats of derring-do in OTT settings, and then it is also a story full of daft names, running gags and deliberately overlong explanations of how fantasy technology works. Is there a meta-theme here - the Wii U exclusive thumbing its nose at the slick entertainments of the next generation while flying by on wires, looking fabulous? You'd like to think so.
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