What did I just play?
“What the hell is Project P-100?” I thought to myself.
“Why is Anthony making me play this obscure Wii U game that wasn’t even important enough to be announced at the press conference?”
And then… “Why is watching this making my pants tighter?”
Probably because Platinum Games is the developer, and that was enough to make this crazy Wii U launch title my personal favorite game of the show this year. But alas, it’s one of those games that are impossibly difficult to describe, especially in the small amount of space I have here. The simplest way I can put it is that it’s a mashup of Pikmin, Katamari, and Okami glued together with Platinum’s trademark over-the-top style.
Imagine that you control a small superhero from an isometric perspective battling a huge invading force of aliens. Imagine that you can recruit all the civilians you pass and add them to your growing mob of angry humans who charge recklessly at any alien or robot you command them to attack. Imagine that you can draw shapes on the Wii U tablet to create living swords, guns, fists, hang gliders, ladders, chains, blobs, and slinkies out of your devoted followers.
Now take everything you imagined and throw it out the window, because it doesn’t do the game justice. But if the rabid dog named “Platinum” were to take all of those ideas you just threw out the window, chew them up, and spit them back out on your doorstep, the resulting mass of awesomeness just might be close to the real thing.
Some examples: To unlock gates I had to draw my people into a large glove that could turn the dial to open them. To scale huge buildings I had to draw a line up the side of them to form human ladders that I could scamper up. To cross from one of the giant robot boss’s fists to the other, I had to bridge them with a people-chain… after which I whipped out my people-sword to smash the hands' weakpoints before making a people-glove to unscrew the arm from the torso.
I’m exhausted just from trying to adequately give a sense of what it’s like to play this game, and I think I’ve done all I can. Just keep tabs on it, because this is definitely a launch title to look out for (and remember, Project P-100 is just the working title).
