Sure, a new Pikmin and Mario title is nice, but there was a severe lack of big name announcements at E3. That’s what makes Project P-100 such a nice surprise.
Platinum Games is no stranger to Nintendo consoles, having developed both MadWorld back on the Wii. With Project P-100, they’re bringing a unique approach to the beat-em-up genre: instead of controlling one hero to wreck havoc, you’re controlling an entire group. A group that can form into various weapons, such as a fist, sword, or gun, to help bash their way to defeating an oncoming alien assault.
While we did get plenty of hands on time with other titles using the Wii U‘s game pad, no other Nintendo would feature such button mashing or quick reflexes. See, the pad itself is incredibly lightweight and extremely comfortable, despite how wide the thing looks. Thankfully, my massive hands didn’t break the thing in half, nor did the lightweight design hamper my experience, which proved to be surprisingly challenging.
My time with the game was brief, as the demo was limited to just a short seven minutes, but the gameplay is simple enough that I grasped things pretty quickly. Your hero, or group of heroes if you want to be exact, has a battery charge that powers their special attacks. This is filled up by performing basic attacks, meaning you’ll have to mix in both if you want to be successful. Combine that with the need to dodge oncoming attacks from stronger enemies and you’ll get an experience that seems similar to a Ninja Gaiden type title, only without the near impossible difficult the series is known for.
That’s no to say that Project P-100 is easy; don’t let its charming visual style fool you, as simply button mashing won’t guarantee success. You’ll need to be careful, otherwise you’ll end up like my first play through and meet defeat.
Project P-100‘s concept is simple, yet addictive. The game combines button mashing with score tracking for each boss, as well as mixing up the action with the occasional platforming puzzle, some of which take place on the Wii U’s game pad, to help bring something new to look forward to for the system’s launch later this year. Here’s to hoping we learn more about the title in the near future, as well as just what heroes named “Vending Machine Man” and “Toilet Bowl Man” are capable of.
