I’ll be honest with you: after Aliens: Colonial Marines turned out to be nothing but smoke and mirrors, Remember Me managed to disappoint me narratively, and The Last of Us wasn’t as good as I anticipated (which means it was “good” as opposed to “stellar”), I was prepared to become completely jaded with The Wonderful 101. It was the game I enjoyed most at PAX East this year, and I was prepared to discover the full game just couldn’t live up to whatever I built up in my mind.

Only the exact opposite happened. Wonderful 101 managed to be more than what I was expecting, fulfilling my desires and then some. I dare say that, at this point in time, it is my favorite game to have been released in 2013.

How can that be? The Last of Us was so well written! Bioshock: Infinite was so edgy with its portrayal of racism! There are games with guns and motion capture and marketing budgets!

It’s all a matter of heart. While The Wonderful 101 is a trope-trodding box of Saturday Morning Cartoonaroni and Cheese, it is not out of failure on the developers’ part to craft an engaging story. In fact, I’d say the writing is, oddly enough, some of the best we’ve seen this year. It’s easy to try and imitate bad entertainment and expect a few laughs. It’s how films like Sharknado come about. Yet The Wonderful 101 does it with sincerity, a wink and a nod to the other grown-ups in the room.

A ten year-old sugar high mind might not catch the satire or in-jokes that fill The Wonderful 101, but an adult will. Even so, the game isn’t making fun of its inspiration. The game recognizes all of the flaws of giant monster movies and colorful super team shows such as The Power Rangers or Voltron. Yet it keeps those very same flaws going and not for the sake of a cheap joke, but because without that bad writing, without that cheese, without the corn, it’s just not the same.

So while Wonderful 101 may have a really dumb story, and each of its characters are more like caricatures, the writing turns these potential weaknesses into strengths. The stereotypical hot-shot lone-wolf second-in-command may go through the same story arc he goes through in every iteration of the trope, but his gestures, his relationships, and the very words he speaks cause him to become endearing.

It is the very same sort of cheerful writing as found in last year’s Kid Icarus: Uprising. It sits in that perfect spot where children and adults can both safely enjoy it without any sense of shame. It’s fun, and well-executed.

Which seems like a perfect time to segue into the well-executed and fun gameplay mechanics. This is the first game I played on my brand-new Wii-U, and aside from being absolutely stunning visually, the game was surprisingly easy and comfortable to play after a bit of adjustment. The gamepad is shaped a bit strangely, but it doesn’t take any time at all before it begins to feel natural in your hand.

While most action games focus on memorizing combos, Wonderful 101 shifts gears and instead focuses on shapes and weapons. Instead of memorizing whole sequences of buttons more complex than memorizing your social security number, the player must only remember relationships. Use a sword in this situation, the fist in this one, or perhaps the whip at this moment.

It actually has a lot in common with Halo, where the foes are designed with specific weaknesses or features that suggest specific types of weapons be used. In Halo, you need to take out an Elite’s shields before doing it harm. Best way is with a plasma pistol, sticky grenade, or needler. Here in The Wonderful 101, you must use the Whip in order to remove spiked armor from a rather large foe. Over time you notice a pattern, that the best way to remove that armor is to strike him as he spins into a large ball of death about to charge.

The game, which can take anywhere between twelve and twenty hours, has no shortage of weapons or foes. In fact, it’s astounding how many different enemy types they managed to fit into the game, introducing everything gradually over time. It is aware that the player will need some time to adjust to the new controls and play style, only feeding bits at a time. By the end of the game, the player will be pulling off abilities and feats that would have seemed overwhelming at the start.

Of course, the player was gated from being able to do so much anyway. The cause of the title Wonderful 101 is that the player can control a mob of up to one-hundred little super heroes fighting together. However, the player must find the permanent members of the team throughout each level. Most of the civilians picked up will vanish at the end of the stage, resetting the player to a much more paltry number. These super heroes then form up into the weapons, chosen by drawing a shape on the Wii-U’s touchpad or by using the right analog stick on the controller (the latter being the preferred method).

For many players, this will seem awkward at first. “It looks like that could get frustrating,” or “I don’t know if I could draw some of those shapes”. The game is aware of this, one of the reasons it provides two separate input options. The touch screen can be viewed as beginner while the right-stick is an intermediate and advanced device, but no matter what the world slows down when shapes are being drawn. Time is given to the player to make whatever weapon they are deciding.

Eventually, making swords, fists, whips, and hammers will be quick and reflexive. An upgrade is available to make line-drawing faster, which also seems a bit daunting at first until the player adjusts. Then making shapes is even faster and easier, even when the player has more than a half-dozen to choose from.

Perhaps that is why I fell in love with The Wonderful 101 so much. The Last of Us, Tomb Raider, and Luigi’s Mansion, while all great games, also relied on quite a bit of repetition. The same general patterns and mechanics being recycled throughout the game. Yet around every corner The Wonderful 101 was bringing in a new surprise. A brand new mechanic, a brand new enemy, and even a retro-throwback to shoot-em-ups such as R-Type or boxing matches like in Punch-Out!!.

Not everyone is going to love The Wonderful 101, but it’s a game that does so much different and yet never lets up. It may not be as crazy as Saint’s Row IV, but it has that same sense of never relenting. Platinum Games was going to stuff every possible idea they could onto the disc, and it would all be done with a platinum shine.

There are few games that ever come along that just glow with the love the developers had for their own product. When you see it, and when you play it, you can’t help but smile warmly and fall in love with it, too.