The producer and director of the cult classic game The Wonderful 101 have expressed interest in a possible sequel in a recent interview. The Wonderful 101 was originally a WiiU exclusive title that saw terrible sales figures upon release. The game got better than average reviews but was in no way a success in terms of sales. The game was originally going to star a cast of various Nintendo characters such as Mario, Link, and Samus, but was shifted to become an original IP full of unique characters. The game recently was ported to Xbox One, PS4, and Nintendo Switch after a very successful Kickstarter run by PlatinumGames to bring it to other consoles.
In an interview with GameXplain, Hideki Kamiya and Atsushi Inaba, the director and producer of The Wonderful 101 respectively, commented that they had many conflicting thoughts about the idea of working on a sequel. Kamiya, in particular, pointed out that the company is certainly open to the idea of developing a sequel to the game, but noted that any sequel would have to be "bigger and better" than the original.
"When I've made games in the past I've had the tendency to set the volume of the game, the scope of the game to let's say ten, and then as time passes through development suddenly that ten becomes an eleven, becomes a twelve, becomes a thirteen, becomes a fourteen... I feel that's how we went with Wonderful 101, and I feel just like Inaba-san is saying, we'd have to, you know, go bigger and better for the next round. So when I think of the word sequel, and I think about the size that we ended up with, with the original, it kind of scares me if we could pass that original hurdle we've set for ourselves."
Inaba, when asked about a possible sequel, was a bit more confidant than Kamiya. He expressed that he's always hoped for the chance to make a sequel to The Wonderful 101. There is apparently a lot of content left he would like to see explored, but that "it would be a challenge."
The small community that built around the original Wonderful 101 has been vocal online for years since the game's release for both a port and sequel to the niche title. The Kickstarter Platinum launched to port the game, after years of teases, was a massive success thanks to the positive word of mouth about the game.
The possibility of a sequel would no doubt make a lot of sense after getting the original off the WiiU hardware and into the hands of a larger audience, but it all comes down to the team at Platinum. It sounds as if there are some ideas about what the sequel could look like already, but hesitation on whether it could actually live up to the standards set by the first game. There may also be some concern about how it would sell after the terrible sales of the first game, but hopefully, the amount of support shown for the Kickstarter would inspire them to give it a shot.
Source: Nintendo Life