Spotted by a user on Reddit, documents recently filed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office reveals that PlatinumGames has acquired the trademark for The Wonderful 101 from Nintendo. The former did previously hold the rights for The Wonder 101 Remastered and the sidescrolling run and gun spinoff, The Wonderful 101: After School Hero, but this now means the Japanese developer has acquired the full trademark for The Wonderful 101 as a whole from Nintendo.

Whether that means PlatinumGames intends to do more with the IP remains to be seen, but at the very least, it does mean that The Wonderful 101’s future is now going to be decided by PlatinumGames, not Nintendo. Whether it will have a future is anyone’s guess at this point.

THE SABOTEUR

The definition of a cult classic, Pandemic Studios’ 2009 World War 2 stealth action game is one that deserved more praise than it got back in the day. Though it certainly had issues, it had more than enough strengths to make up for them, from an incredible visual aesthetic and an atmospheric setting to excellent open world action and much more.

The Wonderful 101 originally released in 2013 for the Wii U and let’s just say the response was pretty…muted. It was published by Nintendo and become one of their worst selling titles, and one they largely ignored going forward. Fast forward 7 years and developer PlatinumGames revived the game with a massively successful crowdfunding campaign for The Wonderful 101: Remastered, and it’s now among us. How does it compare to the original release?

The folks at GameXplain decided to take a comparison look between the remastered version on the Switch side-by-side with the original Wii U release. The results are mostly good with performance on the Switch evening out some of the framerate issues that first go around had. As far as visuals, while there’s an obvious resolution bump and some anti-aliasing, there isn’t a big jump there. Check it out for yourself below.

The game is also available for PlayStation 4 and PC, but no direct comparison footage is here. The game is available digitally for all three platforms now, with the physical release for both backers and retail being pushed back into next month.

The Wonderful 101 was a pretty high profile commercial flop when it first launched on the Wii U, but motivated to change the game’s fortunes, PlatinumGames decided to self-publish the game on modern platforms through crowdfunding. Its Kickstarter campaign, defying many people’s expectations, has proven to be a very successful one– but according to Platinum themselves, the campaign was never really about raising funds for the remaster as much as it was about gauging how much interest people even have in such a release.

Speaking to Gematsu, PlatinumGames studio head Atsushi Inaba said that Platinum never saw The Wonderful 101: Remastered’s Kickstarter campaign as being necessary for funding the project. Its primary purpose, as far as they were concerned, was to “bring the fans together” and “gauge interest”.

“The actual reason we decided to do a Kickstarter campaign was not for funding at all, it was more about gauging interest in The Wonderful 101,” Inaba said. “This is a game we’ve always wanted to revisit at some point in time, so we thought it would be a good opportunity to bring the fans together—to unite them—and gauge interest. And in essence, to release the game. So it wasn’t really about the amount of funding at all, it was about self-publishing, bringing fans together, and revisiting The Wonderful 101.”

But the fact of the matter, of course, remains that they are receiving funding from fans- so if that was never the purpose to begin with, what’s all the money even being used for? Inaba explained that that money is going toward the production of all the rewards that are being made for several backer tiers, as well as for the development of all the new content they’re putting into the game as a result of the Kickstarter campaign.

“First off, the money is going towards the production of all the goods,” Inaba said. “I don’t know if you’ve seen all the tiers and their rewards, but those cost money to produce. The rest of the money is going towards the additional content that will be added to the game. All that costs money, and it takes time and work to port the game to the additional platforms. I want to clarify that we didn’t do the campaign to ‘get money’ or anything like that—that wasn’t the point of it. The main goal was to bring the fans together, gauge interest, and find a good way to revisit and release the game.”

If gauging interest among fans was the primary purpose of the Kickstarter campaign, then it has to be said that it’s been a successful one, and Platinum must be quite happy with their findings. Here’s hoping that they continue to find success with this remaster- because if they do, it might just lead to a full-fledged sequel (something we would not have thought possible for this game in particular not too long ago).

The Wonderful 101: Remastered is out for the PS4, Nintendo Switch, and PC on May 19. Check out over fifteen minutes of gameplay footage from the upcoming release through here.

The Wonderful 101 stands as one of PlatinumGames’ most unique games, but sadly, it’s also among the most under-appreciated. When it came out on the Wii U, though there was quite a bit of praise for the game, it ended up being a commercial flop for the developer and for publisher Nintendo. That failure would ultimately drive Platinum to the upcoming The Wonderful 101: Remastered, which, thankfully, has been seeing a lot of success with its crowdfunding campaign.

And if the game should go on to see similar success following its release as well, that might prompt Platinum to do a sequel as well. Speaking in an interview with Nintendo Everything, The Wonderful 101 creative director Hideki Kamiya said that he’s had ideas for a sequel since before the game even came out on the Wii U, but those ideas had to be put on hold when the game didn’t sell well- something that he hopes will change if the remaster proves more successful.

“Back when we were making the Wii U original, I had a lot of hopes for the game before its release,” Kamiya said. “I knew we made a really incredible game, so I felt confident that a lot of people would play it and it’d be a big hit. I was dreaming things up left and right – I had ideas like, ‘Oh, what would it be like if we did a sequel where Wonder Blue was the leader?’ All of these creative and exciting ideas were flowing, and then the game released and I saw the numbers and was like, ‘Wait, what?!’ So, I hope I get to have those aspirations again in the future.”

Studio head Atsushi Inaba also spoke about a potential follow-up, being open to the idea, but admitting that without support from fans of the property, it might not be possible.

“In regards to a sequel or something, we can’t make one if there aren’t any fans of the series in the first place,” Inaba said. “So if fans support this and things go really well for The Wonderful 101, then I’d say it’s pretty natural that we’d want to make another game in the series.”

It’s all hypothetical for now, of course, but the way the Kickstarter campaign for the upcoming remaster has been going does give plenty of hope that the game itself will see some success as well. If there does end up being a sequel, it’ll be interesting to see what it launches on. The property is co-owned by Nintendo, who only agreed to the remaster releasing on PC and PS4 because Platinum would be self-publishing that- it’d be interesting to see if the two could agree on something similar for a sequel as well.

The Wonderful 101: Remastered is out in April for the Nintendo Switch, P4, and PC. It will be playable at PAX East later this month.

Even though it wasn’t something a lot of people expected, but the Kickstarter campaign for The Wonderful 101: Remastered, which PlatinumGames will be self-publishing, has been going extremely well. It has continuously hit stretch goals, while Platinum keep adding new ones as it funding increases as well.

It’s surprising, of course, because The Wonderful 101 was deemed a pretty major commercial failure when it first launched on the Wii U back in 2013, with the eccentric action title only ever managing to sell a few thousand copies. Given that, in fact, Platinum’s decision to go with a crowdfunding campaign for a remaster of the game is even more curious. So why exactly did the decide to go down this route?

According to game director Hideki Kamiya, the decision to remaster the game was motivated by its failure on the Wii U.

“We first released The Wonderful 101 back in 2013 on Wii U, and for various reasons it wasn’t a successful business endeavor for us,” said Kamiya in an interview with Nintendo Everything. “[Studio head Atsushi] Inaba and I have since lamented that not many players were able to experience the game.”

Kamiya explained that PlatinumGames and Nintendo – co-owners of the IP – had discussions about the project, and ultimately both signed off on it, finally letting it come to life.

“I’m not really sure when we first started talking about bringing the game over to new platforms, but we had to consult with Nintendo first,” said Kamiya. “When we sat down with them, we explained our situation: how the game wasn’t successful upon release and how we wanted to bring it to modern consoles.

“I mean, it was really disappointing for us, you know? We worked so hard to make this high quality game and we were hoping a lot of gamers would play it, but that didn’t really pan out. So as a result of our negotiations, the kindness of Nintendo has made both the ports and this campaign possible.”

The Wonderful 101: Remastered is due out on the Nintendo Switch, PS4, and PC in April.

The Wonderful 101: Remastered’s Kickstarter campaign has performed exceedingly well since the minute it got off the ground. Within 24 hours of going live, PlatinumGames added two additional stretch goals, with the higher one – at $1.5 million – being for a new “2D adventure”.

That stretch goal has now been achieved. The Wonderful 101: Remastered’s campaign current stands at over $1.53 million, and PlatinumGames will thus be adding “Luka’s First Mission” to the game. As Platinum describes it, this is “a side-scrolling action spin-off game” where players will get to play as Luka. As per the developer, this side game will feature “a completely different style from the main game.” It should be interesting to see how this shapes up.

In addition, they have also added a new stretch goal, for $2 million, which will see Platinum also working on “Luka’s Second Mission”, which, as the name suggests, will be “a brand new adventure featuring Luka.” This is in addition to the $1.75 million stretch goal for a remix sound track.

The Wonderful 101: Remastered is out in April for the PS4, Switch, and PC.

PlatinumGames’ Kickstarter campaign of The Wonderful 101: Remastered has been going much better than most would have expected. Continued inflow of funding has seen the studio adding new stretch goals to the campaign on two occasions now, while at the moment of writing, it stands at over $1.3 million. Recently, they updated its FAQ page, and revealed some important details about the upcoming remaster.

PlatinumGames are confirming that on the Switch, when playing the game with the console docked, The Wonderful 101 will run at 1080p at target a frame rate of 60 FPS, while in undocked mode, though the frame rate will remain the same, the resolution will get knocked down to 720p (which is what the original Wii U version ran at as well). Meanwhile, the base PS4 will have a 1080p resolution, while the PS4 Pro version will sport an enhanced resolution of 2160p, with both versions targeting a 60 FPS frame rate. Finally, the PC version is confirmed to feature ultrawide support.

The Wonderful 101: Remastered is out on Switch, PS4, and PC in April.

PlatinumGames’ decision to crowdfund a remastered version of The Wonderful 101 might seem unusual, but it’s proven to be very successful for the Japanese developer as it looks to take its first steps into self-publishing. They started off with the goal being set at $50,000, with PS4 and PC releases (sorry, Xbox) being set at $250k and $500k respectively, and both of those were achieved within mere hours, with Platinum then adding two more stretch goals to the campaign (with the highest one – a 2D adventure – being at $1.5 million).

And it’s showing no signs of stopping. In less than 24 hours, the Kickstarter campaign crossed the $1 million mark, with PlatinumGames’ Twitter posting a video of their staff (including director Hideki Kamiya) reacting to the moment when it crossed 100 million yen (which would roughly translate to about $915k).

In fact, the campaign’s funds have even crossed $1.1 million. To be more precise, at the moment of writing, that figure stands at over $1.14 million (over 124 million yen). PlatinumGames have even added another new stretch goal for the $1.75 million mark, which would see them adding a remixed soundtrack, with “a secret special guest.”

The Wonderful 101: Remastered is out on Nintendo Switch, PS4, and PC in April. The Kickstarter campaign’s announcement was the first in a series of new reveals, with three more announcements coming soon. Could one of these be a brand new IP? If it is, don’t expect it to be crowdfunded again.

Wow! Tremendous thanks to the over 13,000 Kickstarter backers who've pledged over 100 million yen to The Wonderful 101: Remastered! Watch us celebrate the moment. #ALLFOR101 #Platinum4 pic.twitter.com/CBIpjm4mxH

— PlatinumGames Inc. (@platinumgames) February 4, 2020

PlatinumGames seemingly have a busy few days (or weeks) ahead of them. Recently, they launched a new “Platinum 4” teaser website, the purpose for which remained a mystery for a short while. This was followed shortly afterward by them announcing a Kickstarter campaign for The Wonderful 101: Remastered, which seems to be going very well. Now, an update to the aforementioned teaser website has made things much clearer (and more exciting).

The teaser website’s name – Platinum 4 – is very literal, as it turns out. The Wonderful 101’s recent announcement was just the first in a series of new announcements. The page confirms that the remaining three of the promised four new announcements will be “coming soon.” It doesn’t provide a timeframe in which to expect any of them, but hopefully “soon” means… well, soon.

PlatinumGames promised at the beginning of this year that 2020 would be a big year for them, and the capital investment they received from Tencent means they’re primed to deliver on that promise. As for what these new announcements could be, it’s anyone’s guess- though it’s likely that at least one of them will be about a new game that Platinum might be self-publishing, thanks to the aforementioned capital investment.

Platinum does have several unannounced games in development, and one of these supposedly “truly is unlike anything else”. Meanwhile, people have also been looking forward to hear more about Babylon’s Fall, or hear about a concrete release date for Bayonetta 3.