The Wonderful 101 Review - One Hundred Tiny Annoyances

Zeldias

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Oct 5, 2011
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I just found it really clunky. And the flashiness of the presentation combined with the camera made it hard for me to figure out what the hell was going on where, and I say that as a lover of Dynasty Warriors and Bayonetta. Found the combo system to be kinda clunky and the drawing shapes thing to be infuriating to do with the right analog and impossible to decently utilize during fights with the touch-screen.

I want to practice with it a little more and see, because I'm still kinda drawn to it, but I must say that it was pissing me off when I first tried the demo.
 

lowkey_jotunn

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Feb 23, 2011
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Agayek said:
DaViller said:
I disagree, the hypest moments in the game where the boss finisher QTE moments. The final showdown is top contender for my all time hype moments.
Yes, but when it's a QTE, you're distracted from all the awesome by worrying over/looking for whatever button prompt comes next.

It really detracts from the experience to be forced to ignore most of the background occurrences so that you don't miss the correct prompt and lose horribly.
Wasn't an issue for me in this game, because the QTEs were exceedingly simple, and announced in advance.

I wasn't just like a Triangle appeared onscreen and you have 1 second to press it. A character will start yelling "UNITE ...." during a cutscene, letting you know a QTE is about to start. Plus you already know what shape to draw by the sound of their voice (surfer dude - straight line ; cap'n tightpants - circle ; Twilight Sparkle - draw an S) Then they call out their shape, and then you get five full seconds to draw the shape.

To me, it wasn't ever any more difficult than just watching a cut scene, but it made you feel like YOU actually did the thing. *I* made the sword and dueled that boss. *I* made the hammer and crushed the floor. I made the fist to ... um ... tickle the giant robot so he would let go.


That's not to say the game is perfect... the whole shape drawing thing is finicky at best. I somehow manage to screw up "draw a straight line" with alarming regularity. Drawing a circle makes a fist, unless it's a circle around people, then it's a rainbow ... or if it's around hidden things, which you don't notice because they're hidden.

Blocking in general is an exercise in futility. Some attacks you can block with "Unite Guts/Fruitcake" some are simply unblockable and will crush right through your jello mold self. No indication (that I noticed) of which ones's which until after you've been crushed. Some attacks are telegraphed so that you can block them, but the telegraph comes about 3 weeks in advance. Your block only lasts a few seconds before it automatically relaxes, so I ended up blocking and having it wear off before the attack landed, often more than once (attack incoming *BLOCK* ... *wears off* *BLOCK* ... *wears off* attack lands)

All in all, I'd put the game in a similar category with Mirror's Edge. It tried something fun and new, wasn't exactly perfect, but I enjoyed the game, and applaud the creators for trying something outside the box. I would much rather have a game that's fun but flawed, instead of something perfectly formula, even if it executes that formula well.