Science/Technology

Enjoy the Winter Season with LostWinds

For those who are looking for a great game to download from the Wii’s online WiiWare service, download LostWinds: Winter of the Melodias for only ten dollars. The game is a sequel to the original LostWinds, which is also worth it to spare ten bucks, and features the same greatly implemented controls, beautiful presentation, and satisfying puzzles from the original.

The game follows the story of a young boy named Toku who is aided by the wind spirit Enril to stop the evil Balasar. In the sequel, Toku travels high into the mountains and finds his mother poisoned and must find a cure. The mountains have been locked in an eternal winter; however, Toku later gains the ability to switch seasons from winter to summer to help accomplish his goals.

The game is a two-dimensional adventure game involving platforming and puzzle-solving gameplay. The player uses the Wii Remote’s pointer function to control the wind. The wind can be used to help Toku leap higher in the air and move inanimate objects. There are several enemies in the game. However, the wind can be used to slam them into the ground and a vortex can be used to temporarily trap them. Those who played the first game will find that all those great controls are present in the sequel.

A new mechanic introduced is the of course the ability to switch between summer and winter. The environment changes depending on which seasons like villagers will appear at summertime and bodies of water are frozen in winter time. Some puzzles in the game require a certain season. An example is when Toku needs to stand on a tile to open a door however once he steps off the tile, the door closes. A vortex can be created to drop snow onto the tile allowing for Toku to pass through the door.

The presentation in the game is fantastic. The graphics is by far one of the prettiest for WiiWare games and maybe even standard retail Wii games. Serene and peaceful music scores often play in the background to compliment the beautiful scenery.

A major con given to the original LostWinds is the short running time; the player can beat the game in around three hours. Winter of the Melodias is a few hours longer, but the game is still short. Nevertheless, it comes down to probably being one of the best WiiWare games of all time. The game scores a nine out of ten and hopefully, developers Frontier Developments will continue the LostWinds series.

© 2010 The Daytime.