16 Sep 08
LostWinds Gaming
'WiiWare' are a collection of downloadable games for the Wii. Unlike the previously mentioned Virtual Console, WiiWare are new games specifically designed and developed for Wii. One such game which has received almost universal praise is Frontier Developments' LostWinds.
In this exploration-based platformer you take control of Toku, a little poncho enveloped chap who you guide around the magical island of Mistralis using the Nunchuck. By making sweeping gestures with the Wii remote, you become Enril the wind spirit, directing gusts of wind to help Toku jump up to high ledges, defeat enemies by sweeping them up out of your path, and solve puzzles. Between them, Toku and Enril set out to explore the island and release the curse of the evil shadowy figure Balasar.
LostWinds feels like a 2D platformer, you can Toku up and down, left and right but features full 3D foregrounds and backdrops which expand to take in huge panoramas of cliff-top villages with huge windmills, and contract to tight atmospheric underground caves. The feel and style of LostWinds is similar to the cel-shaded look of Nintendo's Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, and for a game that fits inside the 43-megabyte file constraint of WiiWare games it is clearly the product of high production values, the subtly of design are gloriously detailed, and wonderfully inventive. Each of the different areas to explore are beautiful and unique. The environments are thoroughly tactile, the entire game world reacts to the Wii Remote's cursor. As the wind spirit you can become anything from the gentlest breeze to a raging tornado, sending cherry blossom drifting through the air, patches of grass bend and sway as you pass, droplets of water can be blown from a waterfall to irrigate plants, and flaming torches can be slipstreamed to burn through wooden blockades.
This is a great little game, the kind of thing that the Wii desperately needs. The controls are quickly picked up after only a few minute's play, and although it has been widely reported that the game can be completed at around the three-hour mark this somewhat misses the playful, charming and childlike adventure. Such is the success and critical praise it has received that that Frontier Developments has already announced it is working on a sequel.
LostWinds is available exclusively on WiiWare and costs 1000 Wii Points.