E3 2013: Bayonetta 2 and The Wonderful 101 Impressions

Platinum Games’ titles for the Wii U are coming along nicely, Bayonetta 2 looks and plays fantastic while The Wonderful 101 is an odd game that’s like a mix between Pikmin and Viewtiful Joe.

Bayonetta 2’s presence at Nintendo’s booth this year was a little odd. The entire booth is bright and colourful and charming. Over on one side there’s this one game with a half naked woman slaughtering things. There was also a model there dressed up as Bayonetta, sporting her new short hair cut as well (which I like). It’s decidedly very un-Nintendo like and its possible even more risque than the last game.

And it’s a good thing.

Bayonetta 2 isn’t a game Nintendo could possibly ever make, at least not anymore. The fast paced killing action, the gratuitous crotch and butt shots and the over the top violence. However, not all of the game is entirely un-Nintendo like. In addition to the standard combat controls for the game there’s been a touch screen mode added which allows you to jump, attack and dodge all with the stylus. Your poor touch screen is going to get totally messed up after a couple of hours of play, however, as you feverishly attack everything the game throws at you. The touch controls open up a game which is decidedly ‘core’ at it’s nature to a much wider audience.

The games graphics remain totally over the top, if a little rough. However this is E3 and with a release closer to next year’s E3 event than this one. All of the the insane monster designs Bayonetta is known for return, with enemies bigger than buildings, as well as enemies that now fly in the air along with Bayonetta herself.

Not demoed at E3 was the games new two player mode, which Platinum Games says will be revealed at a later date.

The Wonderful 101 is a strange game, having been thrown into the deep end, it took me at least 5 minutes to figure out what I was meant to be doing and how to do it.

The Wonderful 101 doesn’t have a main hero, instead you have a team of odd but funny wanna be super hero civilians who join your team throughout the course of the game. The more people you have on the team the more powerful your attacks are. As a large group you can attack with just physical moves but the Unite powers are where the real power comes together.

You collect people by drawing a circle around them on the screen, the weapons are also activated this way  with simple shapes or letters that can spawn a giant gun, a sword or even a whip. For example to get the gun you drawn an L shape, a squiggle of some sort will do to get the sword.

Boss battles in the demo were over the top but the time limit on the demo meant that I wasn’t able to play them all, battles went for some time, as you slowly weakened the enemy and figured out which weapon was required to defeat him. After each stage you are awarded a ranking, the higher the ranking the more you unlock.

The game looks much better graphically as it did 6 months ago, however with so much happening on the screen at once it’s not the best looking game the Wii U has right now. There was also a multiplayer mode with up to five players however I was unable to get the time to check it out.