The Wonderful 101: Remastered has received a free DLC update, shadow-dropped by PlatinumGames today. Available now, The Wonderful One: After School Hero Part 1 is an additional game mode that was promised as a stretch goal for the game’s 2020 Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign, originally announced under the working title ‘Luka’s First Mission’. You can see some gameplay in the trailer below.
Part 1 will be followed by The Wonderful One: After School Hero Part 2 next week, on May 26. Part 2 was originally promised as the Kickstarter stretch goal ‘Luka’s Second Mission’. A trailer for Part 2 will be released the same day.
The DLC focuses on protagonist Luka Alan Smithee from the original game. As he sets his sights on becoming a member of The Wonderful 100, first-grader Luka appends his elementary school education with after-school training missions, showing a side of the character players haven’t seen before.
Unlike the 3D action of the main game, the new DLC mode is a side-scrolling action game with stick-shooter elements. Players proceed through screens filled with enemies and collectibles, making use of Luka’s weapon the Stingy Eye, which are goggles on his forehead that shoot lasers. Players can fire in 360 degrees, controlled with the right stick, and a set of three of different lasers with distinct abilities give players the freedom to conquer each screen in their own way.
While the base difficulty level in Arcade Mode will pose a moderate challenge, the DLC comes with a Challenge Mode to make progress considerably more difficult, plus a five-minute survival attack mode called Caravan Mode where players aim for the highest possible score before time runs out. Access to Caravan Mode requires first beating all of the Arcade Mode stages in Part 1 and Part 2 of the DLC.
The Wonderful 101: Remastered was released back in mid-2020, and IGN’s review called it every bit as good as the 2013 Wii U original. It is available on Switch, PlayStation 4, and PC.
Ryuichi Kataoka is a freelance writer for IGN Japan.
