Wonderful 101 has a hero based on Kamiya, plus a secret collaboration character

The Wonderful 101 features the inclusion of a special hero. Believe it or not, it’s based on director Hideki Kamiya.

The hidden character was revealed in a newly published Iwata Asks today. Players will come across him if they “play it enough”. And according to Nintendo’s Shingo Matsushita, “he can do something a bit unique”.

Iwata: It must have been hard to debug, considering the waves of huge changes you made to the game.

Matsushita: That’s true. This may seem like an inside-joke, but there’s a character based on Kamiya-san in the game.

Inaba: That would be Wonder-Director.

Matsushita: When we were debugging at Mario Club, we were really busy as new features would be added on, creating a lot more issues that had to be verified. So everyone was on the edge. And that’s when this Wonder-Director would cause a bug.

Iwata: So this Wonder-Director is one of the hundred heroes?

Matsushita: He’s a bit of a hidden character. If you play it enough, he’ll appear, but he can do something a bit unique, so he was something to watch out for during debug. Physically, he’s very unique looking as well, and his collision detection seems a bit different than other characters.

Inaba: It’s just our creative staff’s way of showing their love for Kamiya.

Elsewhere in the Iwata Asks, a separate, “collaboration” character was teased. This character, who has been designed for The Wonderful 101’s world, also appears if the game is played enough.

Iwata: Speaking of characters, can I ask about the collaboration with “that game?”

Inaba: Please do. Kamiya put a lot of love into that.

Kamiya: This game has a lot of fun characters, so I wanted to make it an amazingly different game, and I managed to make it happen.

Iwata: This is a character whose name you can’t yet reveal?

Matsushita: That’s right. Just like with Wonder-Director, if you play enough, that character will appear as a hidden character. And “that character” has been re-designed to match the world of 101. I hope everyone will get a kick out of it.

Iwata: I’m excited to see what that character will look like when translated into the world of this game.

Kamiya: Just like the original, the character will fight with guns, and that other trademark item has been changed into a mask as well. The character will also have its own Unite Morph.

Iwata: Its very own Unite Morph?

Inaba: A lot of work’s been put in, right?

Kamiya: The specs are slightly different too, so it’s a bit of a tricky character.

Iwata: It’s what some would call ‘high specs.’

Matsushita: As you play through the game, you can use attacks where you become larger, and the part where I think you can really see all the thought that went into everything is that just like in the original game, the character won’t fight with guns in that mode but will fight with hand-to-hand combat. All the movements are carefully, carefully made.

Iwata: Those specs are really high-level for a hidden character!

Kamiya: The staff member who created the original movements worked on it. It’s the same motion animator.