Review - Lostwinds
Lostwinds (Wiiware)
1-2 Players
3+ Hours
Easy Difficulty
$10
Lostwinds is a 2.5D platform game that just launched with Nintendo's Wiiware service. You play as a young boy named Toku who happens upon a wind spirit that was locked away with an evil spirit. The evil spirit escaped and now it's up to you to help the wind spirit recapture the evil that has gotten loose.
Unlike other platformers Toku doesn't have any inherent abilities himself. Instead he depends totally on the wind spirit and her power to manipulate objects and move Toku around. The Wiimote cursor acts as the wind spirit's presence and with it you can jump high, fly, push or pull objects, manipulate fire and more. All the puzzles and platforming revolve around your use of this wind power and it makes for a very fresh and unique experience that can only be done on the Wii. There is also sort of a 2-player option ala Mario Galaxy where a second player can control the wind but the single player is where it's at.
This game's presentation is head and shoulders above the vast majority of Wii games on retail shelves and the people who made those horrible games should be ashamed that a tiny 40 megabyte game looks, sounds and plays better than anything they have put on the Wii. This is a perfect example of a game everybody can play that does not insult the intelligence of its players or dumb things down. Overall the atmosphere of this game is enchanting and it makes you just want to jump through your TV to immerse yourself in its world.
The game is only about three hours long, but they are a great three hours. The game is pretty easy, but it makes you think. You really have to think since this game is a sort of Metroid-like world where all the rooms are connected. The only difference is there is no map to help guide you. Some see the lack of a map as a bad thing, but given the game's length I see anything that could add to the difficulty as a good thing. The game also suffers from some minor bugs. At one point I got stuck in a plant after dying, and others have even reported crashes.
Even if you don't think three hours is enough bang for your buck Lostwinds is an excellent game that absolutely trounces most of it's 3rd party competition on the Wii. There is no contest. The best part is that its only ten bucks and not a high risk investment. Everyone making a Wii game needs to take notes because this is how quality games are made.
I GIVE LOSTWINDS A 9/10 [EXCELLENT]
Value bias +
PROS:
- High quality through and through
- Unique experience only found on Wii
- Great platforming, puzzles and story
- Astounding atmosphere and music
CONS:
- Only 3 hours long
- Some minor bugs
- 2-player is nothing special
VALUE:
- I'm kind of conflicted on this one since I only payed $10, but I feel like it could have been an hour longer or $3 cheaper. There is no real replay value to speak of other than collecting all the hidden figures or just experiencing the game again (which is well worth it), but one time through is amazing as it is.
