As someone who hasn't played many new games relatively close to their release dates for some time now (not counting Bravely Default's demo), it best compares to Pikmin. Both games see you controlling one character who, in turn, controls a large team of other characters. The difference being that in The Wonderful 101 these other characters aren't individually weapons, but instead act together with you to become a weapon.
In The Wonderful 101's demo, the weapons available are a hand (menacingly flexing like Master Hand from Smash Bros. when still), a sword, and a gun. You can also use your team to form scalable chains up the sides of buildings or enclosures called Wonder Circles that do things like revive wilted flower beds and recruit citizens to your ranks.
So, again, as in Pikmin, you use your group of characters to interact with the environment. But, instead of just doing so by throwing them at things, you choose a mode (the aforementioned hand, sword, or gun) and see what it will do to your surroundings. These interactions range from using the hand to open locks, to using the sword to reflect laser beams. Given the number of characters you meet in the Demo (about 30 or so of the game's boasted 100), the variety of modes in the full game must be far larger.
However, the way the game is displayed makes it difficult to control a large group. Its 3/4 perspective puts parts of the areas in which your missions take place in behind buildings, under overhangs, or behind walls. Since getting hit sends your team members flying, recovering them all can be tricky when they aren't all visible. Not to mention the fact that enemy projectiles can be fired from off screen.
Although the demo offers what looks like just a snapshot of the full game, there's challenge in it for the curious. Particularly because the controls are easy once they've been learned, but doing so can be a series of "of course!" moments.
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