This (at the time of writing) independent game studio was formed from the remnants of Capcom’s Clover Studio, who were known for releasing acclaimed duds such as Okami, Viewtiful Joe, and God Hand. Under their new company name, they basically became the kings of the action genre under several different publishers in both the East and the West, even though there were plenty of bumps along the way.
Out of all the publishers Platinum has worked with, Nintendo has far and away offered the company the most creative freedom with their projects. And they have pretty much all been universally acclaimed as a result, with maybe one glaring exception which I’ll touch on in a bit. Here are all of their most notable collaborations with Nintendo so you can get a better picture of them and their output:
**1. [The Bayonetta series](https://youtu.be/3SxJGDofOfo):** The first one, which released for HD consoles in 2009, was Platinum’s first big hit for the company. It’s basically an evolved take on Devil May Cry that features the titular heroine tackling demons and angels alike with over-the-top S&M combat. The first sold well and reviewed well, but publisher Sega was going through some changes and thus weren’t interested in publishing the Bayonetta sequels. Thus Nintendo swooped in and saved the series, making them all Nintendo exclusive until this very day. With Nintendo’s full support, Bayonetta 2 became the #1 most acclaimed action game until Devil May Cry 5. The titular character also appeared in the Super Smash Bros. series where she was considered one of the most broken characters in 2016. Here’s hoping Bayonetta 3 keeps that hype train going when it comes out this Halloween.
**2. [The Wonderful 101](https://youtu.be/wvlcVFLdEFk):** Considered a spiritual successor to Viewtiful Joe, this sentai-inspired romp lets you control a giant group of tiny superheroes to battle hordes of hostile alien life forms. Originally conceived by Hideki Kamiya as a Nintendo All Stars action game for the Wii, Nintendo advised him to make it original and move production to the forthcoming Wii U, under the code name Project P-100. Being originally a Wii U exclusive, this game unsurprisingly sold pretty dismally, selling roughly 10K copies and being unceremoniously swept under the rug afterwards. But hope was not lost, for in early 2020 the game got a new lease on life in the form of a remastered port for Switch, PS4, and PC through a Kickstarter campaign. This would also be Platinum’s first time entering the world of self-publishing, so they managed to get the rights from Nintendo and any money made by the remaster goes directly to the developer.
**3. [Star Fox Zero](https://youtu.be/kexWqX34E7w):** This is the one Nintendo-published Platinum game that didn’t see the same level of acclaim as the rest. Even though it was co-directed by the same director as Bayonetta 2, Nintendo for all intents and purposes had complete control over the project and handcuffed the studio into doing what they were told. Platinum were basically just doing the gruntwork for Nintendo to ensure that the game released on time, but even then it wasn’t enough to help sales and reception. 2016 and early 2017 were a dark period for the studio as a whole, but all of those bad omens would be assuaged with the company’s next title: Nier Automata.
**4. [Astral Chain](https://youtu.be/brmmV3g4qqo):** Announced and released in 2019 exclusively for the Switch, this was a completely new action game IP from Nintendo and Platinum. In it, you control a futuristic police officer and their robot alien buddy called a Legion in stylish tag team combat scenarios. It sold quite well for a new IP in this genre, clearing the 1 million mark by a decent margin. It even got a shoutout during the [second Bayonetta 3 trailer](https://youtu.be/bUAtX8Ox7eI). And given the existence of Homunculi in Bayo 3, maybe we’ll see more of Astral Chain in the future.