LostWinds is short. I mean, really short. I beat it in two and a half hours, lacking only 2 of 24 available collectibles (that do nothing, by the way). Amazingly, via the magic that is WiiWare, I don't feel cheated! To the contrary: LostWinds was a delightful little game-nugget with an impressive amount of polish.
Think Metroid meets Kirby Canvas Curse, basically. Toku, in his quest to unlock the titular LostWinds, makes his way through 2D environments in a fairly aimless fashion. Characters will give you a hint of where you need to be, but there's no map or any real direction given to your objectives beyond "east or west of [insert landmark]." You're encouraged to simply wander throughout the game world which, while occasionally disorienting, isn't large enough to get spectacularly lost in.
Toku himself can't do anything but walk, depending utterly upon Enril, his companion wind-spirit, to assist him throughout the environments. This is where the Canvas Curse similarity comes into play. Enril is represented by the Wii Remote cursor, and embodies the very winds themselves. Merely moving the cursor around the screen will cause the various foliage that peppers the landscape to sway and rustle, which is a satisfyingly tactile diversion in itself. The real meat comes in drawing distinct lines or paths in tandem with the A or B buttons to gust Toku, and other various inanimate objects, through the air.
Most of the environmental puzzles you will be forced to contend with are less about moving Toku himself around, but rather maneuvering rocks, seeds, or other miscellanea into positions that can assist in Toku's progress. This is accomplished, as with all things, by blowing them around with appropriately drawn gusts of wind. You can also control the path of environmentally-native fire or water with said wind, affecting your surroundings appropriately. There's nothing that will leave any veteran gamer stumped, but the puzzles are clever enough in their own right. Some are even solved by utilizing the glob-like enemies that lurk in many locales as bludgeons, hurling them into surfaces that demand a little elbow grease.
While the gameplay itself is indeed refreshing—pointer-assisted platforming is something I'd like to see more of in the future—LostWinds really shines in the overall aesthetic presentation. The game is gorgeous, featuring some of the strongest visuals in the entire Wii library, which sounds like a ludicrous proposition for a downloadable game. It may say more about how little effort other developers put into their Wii games than anything. Regardless, the environments in LostWinds brim with life and motion, especially when you prod them with the cursor. The music is also quite suitable, if a bit minimalistic, combining with the visuals to create an almost zen-like experience.
It's great to see developers putting actual effort into WiiWare games, even when the overall experience is so brief. That said, LostWinds is only the first chapter in a continuing story, and a sequel has already been announced. Concept art found on developer Frontier's web site hints at a bevy of as-of-yet unexplored wind and puzzle possibilities, so I'm looking forward to seeing where this fledgling series goes.
Think Metroid meets Kirby Canvas Curse, basically. Toku, in his quest to unlock the titular LostWinds, makes his way through 2D environments in a fairly aimless fashion. Characters will give you a hint of where you need to be, but there's no map or any real direction given to your objectives beyond "east or west of [insert landmark]." You're encouraged to simply wander throughout the game world which, while occasionally disorienting, isn't large enough to get spectacularly lost in.
Toku himself can't do anything but walk, depending utterly upon Enril, his companion wind-spirit, to assist him throughout the environments. This is where the Canvas Curse similarity comes into play. Enril is represented by the Wii Remote cursor, and embodies the very winds themselves. Merely moving the cursor around the screen will cause the various foliage that peppers the landscape to sway and rustle, which is a satisfyingly tactile diversion in itself. The real meat comes in drawing distinct lines or paths in tandem with the A or B buttons to gust Toku, and other various inanimate objects, through the air.
Most of the environmental puzzles you will be forced to contend with are less about moving Toku himself around, but rather maneuvering rocks, seeds, or other miscellanea into positions that can assist in Toku's progress. This is accomplished, as with all things, by blowing them around with appropriately drawn gusts of wind. You can also control the path of environmentally-native fire or water with said wind, affecting your surroundings appropriately. There's nothing that will leave any veteran gamer stumped, but the puzzles are clever enough in their own right. Some are even solved by utilizing the glob-like enemies that lurk in many locales as bludgeons, hurling them into surfaces that demand a little elbow grease.
While the gameplay itself is indeed refreshing—pointer-assisted platforming is something I'd like to see more of in the future—LostWinds really shines in the overall aesthetic presentation. The game is gorgeous, featuring some of the strongest visuals in the entire Wii library, which sounds like a ludicrous proposition for a downloadable game. It may say more about how little effort other developers put into their Wii games than anything. Regardless, the environments in LostWinds brim with life and motion, especially when you prod them with the cursor. The music is also quite suitable, if a bit minimalistic, combining with the visuals to create an almost zen-like experience.
It's great to see developers putting actual effort into WiiWare games, even when the overall experience is so brief. That said, LostWinds is only the first chapter in a continuing story, and a sequel has already been announced. Concept art found on developer Frontier's web site hints at a bevy of as-of-yet unexplored wind and puzzle possibilities, so I'm looking forward to seeing where this fledgling series goes.