SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 5 — Superheroes unite in style for swift April re-release; backers can get blocked by its director, if they like.
Clearing US$1 million (RM4.12 million) in 12 hours, Wii U cult hit The Wonderful 101 is to find a new lease of life on the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Windows PC thanks to an immediately successful Kickstarter crowdfunding drive.
Debuting on the Nintendo Wii U in 2013, The Wonderful 101 was an atypical action game in which players amassed a group of superheroes in order to defend the earth from alien invaders.
Aiming for an April 2020 release across Switch, PS4 and PC, The Wonderful 101 looks like it’s already found a willing and, in some cases, extremely generous community.
Released years before swarm-style titles spread across the web and mobile platforms through games like Agar.io, Paper.io, Hole.io and Crowd City, PlatinumGames’ quirky, optimistic take on action-adventure was generally well received at review.
However, it struggled to find a wide audience — the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One were just about to launch and the one-year-old Wii U was already flagging; it was inching towards 4 million sales, a milestone the PS4 then cleared within six weeks.
Enthusiasm for Platinum’s missing-in-action Wonderful 101 remains strong, if this Kickstarter campaign is anything to go by: faced with a US$49,000 goal, fans pledged over US$1 million over the course of the next 12 hours.
Launched on February 3 and running until March 6, 2020, the campaign asks for US$36 for a digital download copy of the game.
Other tiers, some much more extravagant, include a physical copy (US$41), soundtrack (US$51), keychain (US$56), t-shirt (US$102) or a limited edition red leather jacket (US$1,522) as worn by the game’s leading hero.
In keeping with the online reputation of game director Hideki Kamiya, there’s even an option to get blocked by him on Twitter.
Tiers valued at US$102 or more allow backers to voluntarily receive a tweet directed at themselves and then get blocked “forever” by the famed and forthright director of Capcom classics Resident Evil 2 and Devil May Cry.
“Not everyone has had the privilege of being blocked on Twitter by the illustrious Hideki Kamiya, but that’s all about to change,” the campaign page jests.
For PlatinumGames, it’s a first foray into self-publishing, but a subsection of the studio’s website, four.platinumgames.com, is already teasing three more mystery projects after this.
“This campaign is your chance to empower us to pursue self-publishing and take our destinies into our own hands,” part of its campaign FAQ reads. — AFP-Relaxnews
