I am always happy to see games that couldn’t find much of an audience get a second chance at finding new players. When The Wonderful 101: Remastered was announced on Kickstarter I was ecstatic for this very reason. This was one of the more unique Wii U games to be released near the beginning of the systems life cycle but due to the poor sales of Nintendo’s system, it didn’t find much success. The Kickstarter smashed through all expectations as I am sure many players were happy to finally get a chance to try the game for themselves without having to track down a Wii U. Well except for Xbox One players who were oddly left out in the cold again…
One thing that concerned me about the Kickstarter was that it had a delivery date set for April, just one month after the Kickstarter ended. While I know the game’s development was pretty much already done prior to the Kickstarter such a short turnaround time still seemed a bit extreme. Of course, there was a slight delay to that original April date as we are now in May and the first copies of the Wonderful 101: Remastered are being sent out. Apparently, this new remaster isn’t as wonderful as we had all hoped it would be.
Today our friends over at Digital Foundry released a new video analyzing the Switch, PS4, PS4 Pro, and PC versions of the game. While all versions offer up visual improvements to the original Wii U experience each has its own setbacks keeping it from being perfect for its respective platform. On Switch, the game has been bumped up to 1080P resolution but the performance suffers heavily for it with results lower than the Wii U original. Even in hand-held mode where the Resolution is dropped to 720P see the game delivering sub Wii U performance.
On PS4 things are better with 1080P resolutions and much better performance. There are still dips on base PS4 hardware but nothing compared to Switch. PS4 Pro though is a confusing one as that version of the game also is stuck at 1080P resolution instead of boasting something higher like 1440P or even 4K. The one solid benefit to this choice though is that the game runs great and doesn’t see dips like the other versions. PC unsurprisingly turns in the best results being able to do a full 4K and maintain 60 FPS if you have the right hardware. The one downside to the PC version for many will be the lack of graphics options to really fine-tune your experience.
Overall it is a mixed bag on this release of The Wonderful 101: Remastered as I like I am sure many others out there really expected to see a solid upgrade over the Wii U original, especially on Switch. Unfortunately, unless you sprang for the PC or PS4 Pro version you won’t be getting that. Be sure to check out Digital Foundry’s video for a more comprehensive breakdown!
How are you all feeling about this release of The Wonderful 101: Remastered?
