LostWinds

Yes, Wii Sports is seen as the perfect example of what the Wii is about, but not all of us are grandparents and/or trendy lifestyle folk who live in Ikea homes. Some of us like our games to be hardcore, or at least a bit more 'traditional'. LostWinds not only delivers a more traditional type of game to the Wii, it does it in a way that is perfectly suited to the platform in both style and execution.

At under 50MB in size the game deals with the constraints of the WiiWare platform perfectly. The pseudo-2D/3D side-scrolling look is both beautiful and simple with vivid and vibrant colours laid out as far as the eye can see. The trick comes in when you realise it is all side-scrolling. The game has a pretty simple premise, you are the good guy and you have to fight the bad guy. Whilst it isn't going to win any awards for a cerebral plot it does contain a nice and sometimes vaguely amusing story that keeps the game plodding along at a ponderous and calm pace.

You control Toku and, somewhat ingenuously, the wind spirit Enril as you battle your way past the forces of evil to free the people of Mistralis. The game works on a rather simple premise, by using the Wii Remote to control the wind. In doing this you can attack enemies, do amazingly long and or high jumps and even open doors and pick up boulders to throw around. For such a simple mechanic the results are really varied and you'll find yourself running around playing with the wind. What's even better than this is the upgrades you get to your powers. You get different ways to control the power of the wind and you even get a cape, which might just be one of the coolest 'power ups' in a videogame ever.

 

The control system works perfectly allowing you to move around the environments with an ease and a style that is unique to the Wii. Up swipes with the Wii Remote will move Toku upwards, and eventually you'll find yourself drifting upwards to precarious ledges and even gusting up and round ledges to land on platforms above. Stringing together a perfect gust or two is really satisfying and whilst a little tricky to perfect it is simple once mastered. Get bored of doing it alone and you can also get a friend to control the wind as well with a second remote, Mario Galaxy star bit-shooting stylee. Try not to think of it as a proper attempt at a co-op mode and more of a nice little extra to play around with.

The game is basically one great big living puzzle. You have a task to complete and in order to complete it you have to manipulate the wind and the environment around you to progress. Most of the enemies are about as threatening as a bag of flour with a hole in it and can be dispatched with ease, so it is the environments that provide the real test for your noggin.

We've only really got two complaints about this game. One is that everything always seems to be based either to the east or the west of where you are. This makes for a lot of walking back and forward, which gets a little confusing (especially as the game has no map), and whilst floating around is fun it is a bit slow. Our other complaint is the length. Yes, Frontier have come out and said that it is better value than some full-price Wii titles, which is true, but those games are probably terrible and not worth playing. LostWinds is a mini-masterpiece that, for us, was over in just over two and a half hours. That isn't very long at all.

But we really can't moan too much. Everything about this little offering is just about perfect. The graphics are beautiful and the music is so calming it makes you want to go and try and summon the power of the elements yourself by running around outside in a cape and gown (alas, this doesn't work). The controls are absolutely spot-on and a demonstration of what can be done with both WiiWare and the Wii if a developer is willing to put in the effort and has a good enough idea. This is what the Wii is about and it is, without a doubt, one of the best offerings on the system to date.