 Review By: Andrew Joy |
Developer: | Frontier Developments |
| Publisher: | Frontier Developments | |
| Genre: | Adventure | |
| ESRB: | Everyone | |
| # Of Players: | 1 | |
| Online Play: | No | |
| Accessories: | Nunchuk | |
| Buy Now: |   |
As the action button for Toku, Z gets quite the workout in LostWinds, used to interact with objects (picking them up or eating them), talk to people and, later in the game, using your cape. Toku’s movement is, of course, handled by the analog stick. When it comes to using Enril, you can simply wave the cursor underneath Toku to slow his descent or revive him, use A to make a gust (which can provide extra lift for Toku, move items, create a vortex to suspend them and, most importantly, kill enemies) or B to create a slipstream for a more controlled flow of wind (which Toku can ride to greater heights). If you get lost, Enril can remind you of your current objective by pressing Minus, Plus will pause the game and up and down on the directional pad will make the camera zoom in and out (respectively).
While some games just can’t seem to help becoming a confounding mess, making use of every button available in addition to the motion sensing, LostWinds takes the road less traveled. As well as having no motion controls, the game also fails to use at least three buttons (five if you count left and right on the D-pad): C (on the Nunchuk), and 1 and 2 (on the Wii Remote). Apart from being refreshingly simple – so much so, in fact, that I’m sure even non-gamers could easily play it, even if they may not appreciate it as much as the hardcore – this may also have something to do with why the controls that are used feel that much more polished. Honestly, so long as there are no obstructions between you and the sensor bar, this game works flawlessly. Already having fluid gameplay, even the upgrades in the game are of such a natural progression that they’ll still be like second nature even as you advance. Unfortunately, it is a short-lived experience, though, thankfully, for entirely different reasons.
The very nature of episodic gaming is difficult for some people to accept, and understandably so. More than just being short, episodic titles can often end rather abruptly, leaving you feeling like you just played (and often times paid for) an extended demo. And that’s how it is with LostWinds. When you beat the game’s one and only boss and that final cutscene rolls, it is somewhat disheartening to think that you could be asked to wait and pay for another ten parts. Although we don't know how many installments there will be, there are 12 spirits in all, including Enril and Deo from this game and the evil Balasar. Apart from story elements, there are also abilities we haven’t seen yet: the oft-mentioned "raging tornado," for example, never makes an appearance (though we’ve seen what the developer had planned for it, and it looks intriguing, to say the least).
Even for the lazy adventurer, this game is short...like three hours short. (Unless you count the time added by a few reportedly game-crashing or memory-corrupting bugs, which I don’t. But nice try, Frontier. Nice try.) Given that, 1,000 Wii Points (or $10 USD) may seem a little steep, but once you do the math, you’ll see it is in-line with, if not better than, what’s being asked for the average store-bought title. Still, LostWinds may come off as a little unfulfilling to some, as there’s little to do outside of the story: You’ll come across most of the Melodia Idols just playing the game (save for a few you really have to go out of you way for) so there’s little replay value and the multiplayer (which is along the lines of Co-Star Mode in Super Mario Galaxy) is less helpful than it is confusing, with a second, identical cursor floating around controlling the wind.
Though I wouldn’t say it really ruins the experience, I think it is worth mentioning that the last quarter or so of LostWinds does come off feeling a bit rushed. Considering the aforementioned story elements and abilities yet to be tapped, I’d imagine it has more to do with Frontier running out of space (the max size for a WiiWare title is around 40 MB) and wanting to find a good stopping point than them running short on ideas. But, whatever the reason, there’s quite a bit of backtracking as you search for Deo’s memories. Of course, with the attention paid to every other detail in the game, the quality of the overall product is far from being greatly affected. While, sure, there might be quite a bit of unfinished business, being hungry for more can hardly be considered a bad thing. And make no mistake: devouring the future adventures of Toku and Enril is going to be a breeze.
Bottom Line:
Almost any problem I have with LostWinds can be chalked up to its length. Price seems a little high? Well, that’s because the game lasts only three hours. Story seems to end rather abruptly? Well, that’s because the game lasts only three hours. Game lasts only three hours? Well...okay, that one’s a little redundant, but I think you get the point.
However, you may never find a more perfect example of the old quality over quantity adage – what LostWinds lacks in length, it makes up for almost everywhere else. It has clever level design (the last little bit notwithstanding), detailed and beautiful graphics, fantastic music and sound effects, and controls that not only avoid feeling gimmicky but are polished to a level rarely seen outside of first party titles. Put simple, if you own a Nintendo Wii and have ten bucks to spare, you owe it to yourself to "clean out the fridge."
| Pros: | Cons: | Final Score: |
|---|---|---|
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| 8.5 |
Posted: 2008-06-11 18:42:01 PST