Wonderful 101: Remastered Kickstarter surpasses goal in 30 minutes

The Wonderful 101 is one of the few Wii U exclusives still stuck on that system, but it potentially won’t be exclusive for long. Developer PlatinumGames just launched a crowdfunding campaign to release The Wonderful 101: Remastered for Nintendo Switch. The project goal is $50,000, and it has already surpassed that threshold in the first 30 minutes after it went live.

Nintendo published and released The Wonderful 101 for Wii U in August 2013. The game has players controlling a crowd of superheroes who have the ability to fuse together into giant objects. These “Unite Morphs” include enormous fists and other offensive tools. Many Wonderful 101 fans consider it to have one of Platinum’s deepest combat systems ever.

But while Nintendo published Wonderful 101 for Wii U, it seems like it’s not going to do the same for a version on Switch. That has left it to PlatinumGames to do it on its own. That’s where the crowdfunding campaign comes in.

At $50,000, PlatinumGames plans to bring the game to Switch. But it’s planning to support other platforms if it goes significantly over base target. At $250,000, the studio will also port a version to Steam. Then PlayStation 4 will get The Wonderful 101: Remastered, but only if the crowdfunding campaign reaches $500,000.

Why The Wonderful 101: Remastered needs a Kickstarter

This move to bring back The Wonderful 101 comes just weeks after Chinese megacorporation Tencent invested an undisclosed amount in PlatinumGames. But while that investment likely injected cash into the studio, Platinum is still looking for help from fans.

That might strike many people as an odd request. Afterall, Kickstarter is typically for smaller more independent projects. But PlatinumGames addressed that point in a FAQ on the campaign page:

“Although PlatinumGames has been able to grow over the years thanks to the players and our fans, we still haven’t been able to fully realize our long-time dream of self-publishing our own IPs. With your support, we hope not only to bring The Wonderful 101 to a wider audience on a variety of platforms, but also to add some content that will enhance the experience even more! This campaign is your chance to empower us to pursue self-publishing and take our destinies into our own hands.”

And a good guideline for crowdfunding is that if you don’t think something deserves your support, then don’t support it.