I like rayman 3 the most

Okay so I just finished
THE WONDERFUL 101
Here's a mini-review

+Fun, unique, deep-ish system (Combos are possible, but they aren't as complex as in some other hack n' slash games. There's still some tricky, advanced stuff you can do with them, though)
+Lots of secrets. There are a bunch of little things to collect, sure, but a lot of them are rewards for paying attention, like pouring your heroes into an open window in the background
+Tons of charm -- the character interactions are just a pleasure to watch, and the visuals & art style just look really nice in motion. Wonder Black cracks me up.
+CUHRAZEY action, with a legitimately exhilirating & climactic final boss
+Great length for Platinum (13h normal)
+Better difficulty balance than MGR or Bayonetta (normal is challenging and you will die a few times, but it isn't absolutely ballbusting like Bayo)
+MOST of the minigames are somwehere between "okay" and "super f*** cool"
+Drawing makes QTE sequences interesting rather than just PRESS A TO WHATEVER
+On that note, missing QTEs is often funny and I'm considering replaying the game just to see all the missed QTE animations
+The way it uses the gamepad is by having the action move to the gamepad when a player enters a building, with the outside of the building visible from the TV. This is really neat, and used for some neat puzzles, but

-Using the gyro to control the camera is stupid and it sucks and I hate it (this ONLY happens on the gamepad segments, thank christ)
-Really vague on some of its mechanics, meaning you'll probably need to experiment a bunch or look some things up online (like how to effectively fight certain enemies)
-One minigame in particular is s*** garbage and it doesn't work
-It can be hard to keep track of everything when you're only fighting small enemies, but this is really only a problem while you're first getting used to the game (and haven't yet realized the potential of a giant Unite Sword)
-Unite Hammer is disappointingly useless (it's much slower than Unite Hand, and doesn't have the extra power to make up for it)

I'm kind of conflicted about whether I think it deserves a 4/5 (good) or 5/5 (great)
For now we'll call it a "4/5 it's good!", but maybe with time/replays that will change

Is it better than Bayonetta?
I think it is. As far as the story/characters/world goes W101 is much more interesting than Bayo, which was wholly uninteresting (although that wasn't the point of Bayo). They both have a crazy sense of style, although it's more prominent in Bayo. I'm not personally interested in developing TEN BILLION HIT SSS COMBOS WHOOOAAA or practicing the game over and over until I can do the hardest difficulty in my sleep, but I realize some people are. For those people, Bayo is more their game. As someone who enjoys action games but isn't super hardcore into them, I prefer W101.

Is it better than Metal Gear Rising: REVENGEANCE?
Yeah, but not by a whole lot. I prefer W101, but I could see someone liking MGR more. Minor spoiler: One of the characters says "I'M NOT HERE FOR REVENGEANCE" at one point and it was GREAT. Again I think the world of W101 is more interesting than Rising, although W101 takes itself much less seriously. The combat isn't super deep or complicated in either game, but I find W101's combat to be more interesting. The Wonderful 101 gives players a lot more options while fighting, preventing it from becoming repetitive. W101 is also much longer than Rising. Rising will always hold a special place in my heart with its soundtrack though, and it has W101 beat there. W101's soundtrack works for what it is, but ultimately it isn't anything extremely special or memorable like Rising's.

Should I buy this game?
Can you read? Yes. It's like $30 now just do it



Addendum: It's been a little over a week since I posted this, and I've been thinking a lot about the depth of the combat system. I've played the game a few times since then and watched some high level gameplay videos and analysis videos on the Internet, and I've come to this conclusion: It's a lot deeper than I gave it credit for. Typically, when I think of "depth" in a hack n slash, what comes to mind are a wide variety of possible combos built into the game, frame-perfect guards, million hit juggles, etc. But what I've come to realize is that judging the system's depth by simply comparing it to Devil May Cry is kind of a stupid thing to do.

The player is presented with a wide variety of options in battle. Gigantic juggles are A Thing That Exists, and they're extremely impressive to watch and unsurprisingly very difficult to pull off. There are a lot of little features in the game, such as different ways to combat some enemies or bosses, that I didn't notice at all in my playthrough. When certain mechanics, such as climb attacks and team unite morphs are properly utilized, they make the gameplay unbelievably fast and hectic.

I underestimated the "depth" of the system a lot. Saying that it "isn't super deep or complicated" is probably the stupidest thing I've said this year. The skill ceiling seems to be very high, and it's honestly much closer to Bayonetta than it is Metal Gear Rising. That said I'm no expert on this genre, so those are just my impressions.

The skill ceiling is at least high enough that I didn't realize how f*** high it was in my playthrough, and I needed to see some other people show me how to actually play in order to realize how complicated the game can get. It's extremely impressive.

That was also cool as f*** but I'd love it if you removed that image

I know I would've enjoyed that part a lot more if I hadn't already seen it

I'm not going to argue that the combat in MGR is "super deep or complicated", but the way you say (type) that makes it sound (read) like you're saying it's simple

When it's really not (if you want to actually be good at it, that is)

You have to learn the proper timing to get parry counters instead of regular parries, you need to know about dodge offsetting (Unless you've already played Bayonetta), you need to know when you need to be dodging instead of parrying, you need to know about blade cancelling, etc.

And that's without the mechanics added in Sam's DLC

I'm well aware that you don't -need- to know any of that to play the game but you can't really talk about the combat unless you do

It's like saying Melee isn't complex while ignoring wavedashing

Nah, I'm not saying it's simple, just that it isn't on the same level of complexity as Bayo or DMC or something.

Some of that stuff you mentioned is really simple though (like knowing when to counter vs dodge? Come on man, that's color-coded)

Anyway yeah definitely rent/buy that b****

I didn't mean for attacks you can't parry, I meant for attacks you're better off dodging

also umm where is the watermelon cutting in DMC

Compromise

Well yeah. It goes without saying that Devil May Cry does have a very complex combat system (unless you're playing the reboot).

I've never played MGR. I'll have to get it on Steam when I have the money.

Ah, I see. Still just a little memorization, but I see what you're saying.


Thank you

Also counterpoint: The Wii U is a baby console for babies

Counter-counterpoint: Bayo2

Counter-counter-counterpoint: People want to have sex with Bayonetta and that offends me so much that I complain about it on Tumblr all the time

Counter-counter-counter-counterpoint: That is not related to the counter-counterpoint

It doesn't have to be, I am offended and that is all that matters