Release Date: May 12th, 2008
ESRB Rating: E
Available On: Nintendo Wii (WiiWare)
Genre: Adventure
Number of Players: 1
Strong Points: Fantastic art direction; simple and intuitive controls; creative gameplay
Weak Points: Very short play experience (roughly three hours)
Technical Score: B+
Artistic Score: A-
Final Score (not an average): A-
Moral Warnings: Fantasy setting includes spirits and creatures of a vague mythological setting
When Nintendo's WiiWare digital distribution platform launched earlier this year, LostWinds was there to start off the new service. Similar to Microsoft's Xbox Live Marketplace and Sony's Playstation Network, WiiWare promised to bring new games of all kinds to Nintendo's console at low prices. Still, few were confident that Nintendo's service would be exceptional. It would take a strong lineup of very solid games to show the gaming world that WiiWare could succeed. Fortunately for gamers, developers, and publishers, LostWinds was able to set WiiWare off to a great start with an intriguing little platformer to the service at launch.
It is especially good for gamers that LostWinds was available at the launch of the WiiWare service. The game has a deceptively simple look about it. On the surface, it looks like a fantasy-based platformer that comes at a slow pace. However, five minutes spent in front of LostWinds with a Wiimote in hand reveals that the game is nothing to scoff at. A beautifully crafted world, original gameplay elements, and great use of the Wiimote have resulted in a game that still stands as a testament to what is possible with the WiiWare service.
The game opens with a narrative in a charming fantasy environment and art direction that reminded me immediately of Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker and Capcom's Okami, and by all means, that is a good thing. The characters and the game world alike are absolutely brimming with life. The forest-like world is aglow and detailed. Plants sway in the wind, characters go about their lives in the villages. In the cave-like regions, torches light the way. Water pours down from cliffs. Enemies fly back and forth.
Indeed, the game's beauty is likely the first thing to catch anyone's eye. Artistically, the game is excellent, even if it does borrow little bits from other titles. Technically, the game is also quite surprising. I have to agree with countless others in the gaming press who say that LostWinds gives a lot of major Wii releases a run for their money in terms of graphical qualities. This is a ten dollar downloadable game, but it certainly surpasses expectations in the things it pulls off. Fluid animation, real-time lighting. smooth surfaces; the developers aimed to impress, and they hit their target.
The audio in the game also impresses. The sound effects are not exactly mind-blowing, but the soundtrack (short as it may be) is surprisingly good. Taking nods from the works of master game composers Koji Kondo (Zelda series, Mario series) and Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy series), while bringing in ideas of its own, I found the music interesting and moving. Better yet, the music perfectly suits the mood of the gameplay.
Speaking of the gameplay, that's probably what makes the game most interesting. It would be easy to look at the game on the surface and say that it's a simple platformer without a run button, but that's not really the case. In all reality, it plays more like a 2D adventure game. Strolling from one region to another, solving puzzles, looking to unravel the secrets of a mystical past, this truly is an adventure game.
The thing that sets this apart from Castlevania and other 2D adventure games is the way that you go about your quest. The key gameplay element is the use of wind. Pointing motions made with the Wiimote allow for a variety of wind-related tricks to be pulled off. The wind can be used to send fire from a torch to a nearby woodpile, suspend an object in mid-air, and many other things. Combat takes a backseat to puzzle-solving in the game, but the ways that you eliminate enemies are often creative and fun.
In every respect, the game is very solid. By far, the game's biggest shortcoming is that it is very short. A playthrough with full exploration will take a few hours at most. Those few hours will be a great few hours, and a second playthrough due to the game's beauty and design would be easy to justify, but LostWinds is still a short experience.
Morally, the game is based in a loosely mythical environment. There's nothing pertaining to any real-world occult present, and what supernatural elements that are present (like a great evil of old and spirits that possess elemental powers) are very lightweight. There is nothing to say in the way of profanity or sexuality. Violence is limited to enemies bursting into clouds of smoke after being pushed into a wall by the wind.
On the whole, LostWinds is a great game, and a great example of why WiiWare has the potential it does. The game is short, but it is interesting and a lot of fun. The artistic direction is beautiful. The gameplay is tight. Morally, there isn't a lot to complain about. All around, LostWinds is easy to recommend to gamers with ten bucks just laying around.
-Kenny Yeager (kenny@revolve21.com)
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