In The Wonderful 101, players control a horde of superheroes from an aerial viewpoint and can turn them into various objects called "Unite Morphs".

At the cost of depleting their battery meter, players can use "Unite Morph" forms to defeat enemies, solve puzzles, or traverse the environment.

To transform the horde of heroes, the appropriate symbol is drawn on the Wii U GamePad's touchscreen or right analog stick, such as an L for a gun or a squiggly line for a whip.

In specified areas, the GamePad (by default) is used to change the view to a traditional, third-person angle and better explore tighter environments, such as those found indoors and inside caves.

[8] The Wonderful 101 occurs during third war in a series of conflicts between Earth and a space aliens organized crime gang called the Geathjerk Federation that has invaded the planet.

The heroic main characters are Will Wedgewood (Wonder-Red) (Charlie Schlatter / Ryōhei Kimura), a Blossom City elementary school teacher and the leader of the Wonderful Ones, whose father Arthur is killed by Laambo; Eliot Hooker (Wonder-Blue) (Roger Craig Smith / Daisuke Egawa), a good and dedicated police detective that had an older brother is killed by Vijounne (Paula Tiso / Marika Hayashi); guns expert Jean-Sebastain Renault (Wonder-Green) (Kari Wahlgren / Orine Fukushima); fashion modeler Mariana Kretzulesco (Wonder-Pink) (Tara Strong / Yuki Uchiyama); Russian soldier Ivan Istochinkov (Wonder-Yellow) (JB Blanc / Hiroyuki Honda); ninja-in-training Momoe Byakkoin (Wonder-White) (Yuri Lowenthal / Yoichi Nishijima); and video game player and genius prodigy Krishna Ramanujan (Wonder-Black) (Kris Zimmerman / Orine Fukushima).

The supporting characters are P-Star, a robot assisting these heroes; Laurence Nelson (Wonder-Captain) (Gideon Emery / Yasuhiro Mamiya), the commander of the Centinels who was previously known as Wonder-Red; Virgin Victory operator Alice MacGregor (Laura Bailey / Tomo Muranaka); and science chief James Shirogane (Fred Tatasciore / Kenichi Ogata).

Luka Alan Smithee (Debi Derryberry / Tomoni Yamakawa) is a Blossom City Elementary School student whose scientist mother, Margarita, died working for the CENTINELS and gave her life so that the artificial intelligence, Mother Platinum, could sustain the Earth's defensive shield, named Margarita in her honor.

The last member of the Galactic Police Federation is Immorta (Stephanie Lemelin / Miho Shinada); both her and her brother, Prince Vorkken (Quinton Flynn / Sho Sudo), lived on the Roaming Comet of Rhullo, but was brainwashed by Gimme, an alien who plants a virus in the form of a bio-weapon insect named Vaaiki on Vorkken's body.

The main villain is Jergingha (Steve Blum / Kiyoyuki Yanada), the supreme overlord of the Geathjerk Federation, who is attempting to destroy Earth (known to the rest of the universe as Chi-Q) to take back the galaxy from humanity.

The expansion The Wonderful One: After School Hero introduces a new character, Sue (Jessica DiCicco / Suzuka Kamitaka), Luka's classmate.

The Geathjerk scientist Wanna (Steve Blum / Shinya Hamazoe), who appeared as a boss in the main game, acts as the expansion's primary antagonist.

At the climax of the story, Luka betrays the heroes and joins Gimme, first class officer of Geathjerk, revealing that his pendant is the key that controls the Super Reactors.

Jergingha's fortress turns into a giant robot, even bigger than Platinum Robo, but the Wonderful Ones, Immorta, and Vorkken all combine their power and destroy it, saving the world.

Set shortly before the game's epilogue, Luka begins his Centinels training using a VR simulation program managed by P-Star.

As his training continues, strange glitches begin to occur, and P-Star loses control of the simulation, trapping Luka inside.

P-Star agrees, but gives him only 15 minutes, after which the network will be shut down and they will be permanently trapped to prevent Wanna from gaining control of every computer on Earth.

Director Hideki Kamiya also doubted that the "conflicting elements" of the different Nintendo characters could be successfully "put into a consistent formula" like in the Super Smash Bros.

[citation needed] The game's design document was released by Platinum after stretch goals in the Kickstarter campaign for the remaster were met.

[11][12] The music is an orchestrated score, written by Hiroshi Yamaguchi, Akira Takizawa, Hitomi Kurokawa, Norihiko Hibino, Masato Kouda, and Rei Kondoh.

[15][16] Hideki Kamiya and Atsushi Inaba said that they had approached Nintendo, the publisher and co-owner of copyright and sole owner of the trademark, about republishing the game for a wider audience.

[20][21] The campaign concluded with over US$2.25 million raised, achieving several of the stretch goals that included a separate 2D side-scrolling game based on the adventures of Luka.

[22][23] A celebratory Twitch stream held by PlatinumGames at the Kickstarter's conclusion brought in additional donations that allowed a last stretch goal, orchestral arrangements of two of the game's songs, to be made as well.

[25] Additional downloadable content for Remastered has been released in 2021, including a free time attack mode released on June 15,[26] and "The Prince Vorkken" DLC on August 28, which allows players to control Prince Vorkken as the main character and temporarily summon enemies using "Enemy Morphs" in place of the usual "Unite Morph" abilities.

[28] While the game was successful in its funding goals, it is noted that there were some issues regarding the delivery of additional rewards to backers, such as art books, custom controllers and more.

[38][51][53][72] The Wonderful 101's length and pacing seemed a bit drawn-out to some reviewers due to repetitive enemies and boss fights,[43][66][73] while others thought these issues were unproblematic thanks to the even distribution of new moves and upgrades.

Many reviewers found that the GamePad worked fine for straight lines or circles (to make a sword or a fist), but that it sometimes interpreted more complex shapes as the wrong weapon.

[51][53][73] Reviewers agreed that the game lived up to PlatinumGames' trademark high difficulty, with some citing the controls and camera as contributing factors.