LIT WiiWare Nintendo Review

True to its name, LIT tasks you with setting out a safe passage of light for your character, Jake, to follow. Jake has found himself caught up after hours at his school, where everything is pitch black and monsters lurk in every patch of darkness. Through the use of his torch and wit, Jake has to make it through each room to get to his girlfriend Rachel, who is trapped elsewhere in the school, and communicates via a phone in certain rooms. Just the right setting for a horror-puzzle game, then.

To get through each of these rooms, you'll need to use every tool Jake has at his disposal. At first you only have a flashlight and catapult, though through most areas you'll find TV remotes, cherry bombs, and pellets for your slingshot. This may sound like an odd assortment to aid survival against a legion of lurking creatures in jet-black enclosed areas, but each item helps provide the one thing these monsters fear: light. A typical puzzle for a room involves breaking a window with a slingshot pellet or a cherry bomb to create a bridge of light, or turning on a TV, computer or lamp somewhere for more safe passage. The flashlight is used to plan ahead for the route you'll take and which light-providing electricals you'll switch on. Each room has a meter which gauges power use; too many appliances on at once, and they'll all short circuit, allowing the monsters to roam free for a Jake Burger or two.

As you could imagine then, restrictions like these create a considerable amount of trial and error gameplay. Thankfully WayForward seem well aware of this, and so you have infinite retries when you die (which you'll be doing a lot of) and instant saving between each room. The controls at your convenience are very helpful; analogue stick for movement, while the d-pad takes care of the camera for zooming-in on those tight paths, which is very useful as the default camera can be a nuisance for precision. B switches the item you have selected, Z on the nunchuk switches the third person overhead view to a behind-the-character Resident Evil 4-style perspective for easy aiming, and C is the button for switching lamps, computers, etc., on and off. Reportedly one of the reasons LIT took so long for release in Europe is that the developers wanted to fine-tune the controls, and aside from some twitchy moments with movement, it seems they have done so, as the button layout is no hindrance here.

LIT uses gothic undertones for the environment and atmosphere in the game, particularly for its main character, who doesn't seem as repulsed as we would be at the thought of monsters crawling around in the dark. This creates both an ironic instance where someone surrounded by darkness in personality needs light to survive, and a tense feeling of helplessness. The music complements the visuals enormously, with one of many slow pacing tunes in the background, along with the snorts, squeals, and scratching of those that lurk in the dark for that extra ominous feel. The backing tracks can get fairly repetitive as there are only few of them, though, and having to hear them restart every time you mess up a level can grate.

Upon first play, LIT looks like a game that would offer a 'short but sweet' burst of gaming enjoyment, judging by the almost instant start and visible lack of options in the main menu. The main game itself, due to the fiendish later levels and the tricky bosses between every five classrooms, will last a single player a fair while. The unlockable Dark Mode will challenge even the most die-hard gamer, as you are put on a timer to complete each re-arranged room. Not only that, there are alternate endings - based on how many of Rachel's phone calls you managed to answer - and an unlockable character at the end ensure that LIT's 800 point requirement are worth their weight, if not for group play. The age-old stereotype of a single gamer gazing transfixed at a television screen in a pitch-dark room is surprisingly apt here.