Platinum Games has launched a Kickstarter to bring The Wonderful 101: Remastered to Nintendo Switch, and, stretch goals depending, Steam and PlayStation 4.
The August 2013-launched and Nintendo-published Wii U title The Wonderful 101 released to critical acclaim, but utterly tanked in terms of sales. In spite of a glut of media attention, a demo, and even its own Nintendo Direct, the game sold very little. However, Platinum never loses its luster. With several more developed titles and a recent loan from Tencent under its belt, Platinum is bringing The Wonderful 101 to modern consoles under their own self-published banner. Who exactly owns the IP has been publicly questioned by director Hideki Kamiya himself, suggesting that this is a one-off deal by Nintendo, but it’s still a solid step towards the self-publishing future Platinum has been envisioning.
At the base funding goal of $50,000 USD, The Wonderful 101: Remastered will release for Switch, and at $250,000 and $500,000 USD, it will also come out for PC via Steam and PlayStation 4, respectively. An Xbox One version is not a visible stretch goal, but Hideki Kamiya suggested that it might emerge in an interview with Gematsu. Entirely new content as part of the stretch goals has also been teased. The Kickstarter campaign will run from February 3rd to March 6th at 3:00 p.m. ET. If successfully funded, The Wonderful 101: Remastered will launch this April (which isn’t the best time, but hey, they’ll have made their money).
At any rate, The Wonderful 101: Remastered met its initial Nintendo Switch funding goal within an hour of going live, met its PC via Steam goal in two hours, and I just watched it surge past its PlayStation 4 stretch goal. The campaign is still going, and new stretch goals will be revealed soon. You can even pay to have Kamiya block you on Twitter. It’s madness, but the good kind of Platinum madness. We’re looking forward to getting the chance to Unite Morph all over again (or, more likely, for the first time), and we’re also eager to see what the other three projects Platinum has begun teasing turn out to be. CGMagazine will update you on any major developments.