After a rapidly successful Kickstarter, PlatinumGames have got down to the hard graft of bringing The Wonderful 101: Remastered to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and PC. Originally targeting an April release, they’ve now settled on 19th May in the US, 22nd May in Europe and 11th June in Japan.
The Kickstarter is still live until 6th March, having only launched on 3rd February and running for the whole month, so you’ll be able to effectively pre-order the game up until then through that method. Pre-orders are also now available through retailers and PlatinumGames are already hard at work alongside Nighthawk Interactive to bring the game to these three platforms.
The game has already been backed to the tune of £1,342,070, which far outstrips the initial £37,809 goal. Thanks to this, the initial release is just the start for the game. The initial stretch goals added the Steam and PS4 versions alongside the Switch port, but following that it’s also adding a Time Attack mode and a new 2D side-scrolling adventure called Luka’s First Mission that will be completed later this year. Two more stretch goals are currently outstanding: a remixed soundtrack and Luka’s Second Mission.
Announcing the release date, Hideki Kamiya had some words to share about the game getting a second chance after it failed to gain much of an audience on the ill-fated Nintendo Wii U.
Hello, everyone. Platinum Games Chief Game Designer Hideki Kamiya here.
About seven years ago, we released The Wonderful 101. I’ve moved up to become a member of the Platinum Games executive board, but back in those days, I didn’t think very much about the business end of things (okay, I’ll admit that maybe I still don’t). I devoted all of my attention to creating games that met my own personal standards. The Wonderful 101 was the sixth game I’d directed throughout my career. Unfortunately, I can’t say it was much of a success, from a business standpoint.
But I’ve also never thought of it as a failure. I didn’t back then, and I don’t today. That’s because, to a game creator, a game is only a failure if it disappoints the gamers who play it. From the start, The Wonderful 101 didn’t quite reach a large enough audience for me to clearly call it either way.
So regardless of how The Wonderful 101 fared in the marketplace the first time around, I’m considering this a chance to show it to the world again. I’m looking forward to seeing how it measures up.
The Wonderful 101 has gotten this miraculous second chance thanks to all of you who’ve told us you wanted to play it, as well as the passionate PG staff who worked on it with me. We’re delighted to see it return on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Steam.
This isn’t just a simple port, either. We’ve tuned the controls for each new platform and made several adjustments that should make it easier to grasp and play. On top of that, we’ve improved the image quality and frame rate to suit modern hardware. On the whole, I’d say The Wonderful 101: Remastered is the definitive edition of the game!
We’ve loaded The Wonderful 101: Remastered with as much Platinum spirit as we could. I sincerely hope you’ll all play it and let us know what you think!
The Wonderful 101: Remastered was announced at the start of this month, the first project to be revealed on a teaser website with four PlatinumGames projects planned. The second of these, Project G.G. was also announced today. Coming from The Wonderful 101 and Viewtiful Joe creator Hideki Kamiya, it is a third hero-styled game, but “giant hero-esque” with hints of Kaiju battles found in the teaser trailer.
Source: Gematsu