The Wonderful 101: The Kotaku Review

kotaku:

The Wonderful 101 is a frustrating game, a confusing maelstrom of aliens and superheroes that seems to punish players for all the wrong reasons.

The controls make no sense, the action is disorienting, and the camera is a mess.

And then…

Then…

Somewhere during the first two hours, something clicks. Everything changes. Control schemes that were once incomprehensible suddenly start to feel like natural extensions of your hand. The pitch of combat swings from dissonance to harmony. You find yourself switching powers and weakening enemies and losing yourself to the satisfying, exhausting rhythm of saving the world from space aliens.

Now let’s try that again.

[Summons75]

"The Wonderful 101’s biggest flaw is that it is terrible at telling you what to do. It makes no attempt to teach you how to shape-shift on the fly or properly weaken the very-challenging enemies that GEATHJERK will send your way. It won't guide you through the occasional obscure puzzle. It won't tell you to buy those helpful dodge and block abilities in the shop, even though they're a must. (Buy them.)"

and this is why kotaku is crap.... Puzzles too hard? not reading tutorials so they don't know how to play the game? Kotaku is the reason why have games holding our hands through games, because they're morons who can't learn to play a game themselves.

Once again, Story Quality: WTF? Like this website: (HELL) No

[jwk94]

Yes, another person overreacts to the opinions of someone else.

[Summons75]

Opinion! is the key word in your statement. A review isn't suppose to be someone's opinion of a game. It's suppose to be an information source on what the final game contains, how well everything works together so someone can make an informed decision on whether to buy or not.

[jameson12345]

The difficulty is why games like this aren't suited for the gaming media to formally critic. It takes time to be good at games like this. It takes actual skill you have to build up over many sessions, not just 6 or 8 hours.

[Summons75]

True but the author states he played for 15 hours....basically he just sucks. I played the demo once with hardly any challenge and was fine and improved when I played it again because I already knew some stuff. 90minutes tops for pure platinum, though its just a demo and more tricks are in the game than given. After 15 hours you should have a good knowledge of the game and shouldn't have a problem.

[--Onilink--]

re·view noun \ri-ˈvyü\
: an act of carefully looking at or examining the quality or condition of something or someone : examination or inspection

: a report that gives someone's opinion about the quality of a book, performance, product, etc.

A review IS an OPINION...

I know its ok to hate on Kotaku, they have given plenty of reasons to do so, but this review really isnt one of them, its actually quite positive.

Its actually their 1st and main point, that it takes a while to get used to some stuff due to the lack of any clear indications but once you get the hang of it, its a really great game.

Now if we base ourselves on your (quite wrong) definition of review, why in the world wouldnt they list the lack of proper explanations/guidance as part of "...an information source on what the final game contains, how well everything works together so someone can make an informed decision on whether to buy or not."

If anything, if a review is what you say, the more reason for them to speak about it. Same way they spoke of the overabundance of guidance in a game like Mario & Luigi. It is a part of the game, so it should be mentioned, wheter you see it as a positive or negative is entirely up to your OPINION

Now for example, IGN's review, there i can agree that its a very poor review not even because of the score, but because she pretty much only complains about the same thing over and over again and never really seemed to move on from the issue

[Abdou023]

I gree with the paragraph you quoted, the game learning curve and tutorial is terrible, it's the worse i have ever seen in a game.

First boss fight ( the pick-up vehicle ) i got my ass kicked so many times, trying to dodge doesn't work, everything else doesn't work. Untill i watched some youtube videos and realized that you can purchase stuff !!!!!!! Ehy the hell din't the game tell me about that ?!

[Abdou023]

@ gamingsins

Would a casual gamer even buy this game ?!
You absolutely have no idea what you talking aout.

[deafdani]

What? The game does, in fact, tell you that you can buy stuff as soon as you clear the first stage. The Wonderful Mart opens, and it tells you to go take a look there.

YOU didn't pay attention. Not the game's fault.

There are certain things that the game doesn't mention, and it's done on purpose, because it wants you to find out by yourself. But the game definitely doesn't fail to explain basic and important stuff.

The truth is, we're so accustomed to games telling us MULTIPLE TIMES how to do something. That's why so many people fail to pay attention the first time, and that's how Wonderful 101 goes about things: it tells you ONLY ONCE, and leaves a lot for you to discover yourself.

I don't see that as a flaw, not really. We've been softened enough by modern gaming as it is, so it actually makes me glad that there are a few games that doesn't treat their audience like they were stupid. Wonderful 101 definitely is one of them.

[deafdani]

A review isn't supposed to be someone's opinion? What? That's exactly what a review is, an opinion, and because of that, it's always going to be subjective.

And yes, you're overreacting. You quoted that part of the review and made a big deal out of it when in fact, Kotaku's review made it clear these are minor nitpicks on a game that was clearly a superb experience for the reviewer. The content of the review is mostly positive, yet you choose to complain because they pointed out a couple of flaws in the game.

Calm down.

[Shnazzyone]

You didn't actually read the review did you. Kotaku rated it a buy and likes it. Admitting it's difficult at the start because 101 doesn't really give much of a tutorial. Which is probably why they unleashed the demo. That way everyone can get the idea before jumping in.

[BOWZER35]

Alright review.

[N4g_null]

Im glad they finally got it... welcome to the true meaning of hardcore gaming kotaku! Get your skills up guys the real gaming is about to begin!

[Jagsrock]

All these reviewers have gotten so used to the same old FPS's with quick time events that they have forgotten how to actually learn and play a new game with different gameplay mechanics and puzzles. Difficulty should be a plus when it comes to games these days because it's so hard to come by.

[deafdani]

Read the review before commenting...