Kotaku
Frontier's WiiWare effort LostWinds may not be grabbing headlines, especially in the midst of releases like Grand Theft Auto IV and Metal Gear Solid 4 on the horizon, but it may be the WiiWare title with the most potential. Arguably the prettiest of the digitally delivered offerings from Nintendo's answer to Xbox Live Arcade, LostWinds lets players take control of two characters at once, big-headed boy adventurer Taku and, well, a gust of wind.
Taku can only progress through the game with the help of the wind, displayed on-screen as a pale blue cursor, a sentient being whose motions are controlled by the Wii Remote. The nunchuk is used to control Taku himself—his motions are quite limited—with the two working in tandem to lift the wee protagonist to high ledges and across wide gaps.
The wind in LostWinds can be used to manipulate more that just Taku, as stiff breezes can move fire, water, even rock to other locations on the map, lighting torches, watering plants and weighing down levers respectively. Players will, however, find themselves moving Taku to and fro with the help of a strong gust and the little boy's cape.
LostWinds looks to be rich in puzzle solving and platforming, a winning combination that doesn't seem to be represented elsewhere on WiiWare. Add to that solid gameplay mechanic a gorgeous artistic design that evokes warm memories of Ico, The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker and various Square Enix classics, and Frontier may very well have a hit on their hands.
LostWinds is innovative, especially easy on the eyes and the clear product of high production values, making it one of the most high anticipated titles to appear on Nintendo's system, regardless of how it's being delivered.
Comments
Winning combination? Don't you mean wiinning combination?
Eh? EH!?
...ok that was terrible..but i'm still pressing the "submit" button.
Lost Winds looks like a definite purchase. I don't know what anyone else feels, but I get the impression small developers want to do more with Wiiware than with Live. It's quite exciting.
I'll just play the dem...
Oh, wait.
This game looks like incredible. It should be great fun, I like the concept and I can already see it becoming a series, based on the rich little world it seems to represent in those few screens and how good you say it is.
@Jnas: I wouldn't of.
@juliopalio: I wouldn't have hit submit on yours either ;) Ahem. Enough silliness from me.
I didn't really get what this title was beyond the name and basic concept of wind manipulation. Now it looks really cool. A definite purchase when I finally do get a Wii.
Not really original but i think i'll give it a try...
Oh right i sold my Wii...
Hmm, together with Okami Wii port this looks like two games that might actually make me buy Wii one day.
Gosh, prematurely called the most original gaming console, and there is nothing on it that would capture my attention. OK, maybe that Metroid game...
But then again, I am PSP fanboy, so I guess this makes me not very credible now, does it?
After reading the EDGE special on it, I sure am looking forward to this one. :)
This game looks pretty good and sounds interesting. I miss colored platformers like Jak. I'll be keeping my eye out for this.
Looks good, definitely going to have to pay attention
Wiiware needs more games like this.
Glad to hear that it is coming along well. This is THE WiiWare game that I've been looking forward too - the guy gave us Elite...'nuff said.
The only Wii game I'm intending to buy on day of release. This looks fantastic, I just hope it is sold at a reasonable price so that it does well for Frontier. I don't see £15 games selling well on WiiWare, as the casual gamers seem to rely on TV ads to let them know about games for their Wii and I doubt this will be advertised anywhere except magazines/websites.
Wow, I haven't heard of this game until now and I think it looks fantastic. The screens of the outside area makes me think of a mixture between Wind Waker and Okami. Excited, I am!
sounds neat
this and eternity's child will be my sure to get wiiware titles
OK, I'm interested.
Beautiful. I wanna play!
Huh. McWhertor makes the gameplay actually sounds very reminiscent of Zack and Wiki... if an easy mode existed (and we should all know that I don't mean that as an insult).
If this game is similar to Zack and Wiki, and succeeds, I wonder if we can hope to see a Zack and Wiki sequel delivered on WiiWare. Would anyone else want to see that?
I look at the concept art, and it makes me smile. Even the gameplay footage looks great.
Jesus. Looks better than most disc based Wii games. *sigh*
I'll probably get it, assuming reviews are friendly.
@Jnas:
There's no shame in a horrible but well executed pun.
Is it written with co-op in mind? This might be one of those rare games I could get my wife into.
Where, o where can I save these wii ware titles?
This actually looks pretty great, I can't believe it is a download and not a full game.
Now if I can only find my Wii, I think I put it away about an hour after I finished Twilight Princess
Puzzle solving and platforming? And the art direction doesn't make my eyes bleed? Consider this purchased once it's out.
@Raian1: Yes I'm quite surprised how promising wiiware is looking lately.
Dear Nintendo - BIGGER HARDDRIVE! GEEZ!
Anyway, wow, that looks good. So far WiiWare is shaping up really nice.
HMmmmmmmmMM this somehow reminds me of LittleBigPlanet
Don't ask me why :P
@Cchrist: does it make you feel good to say that?
This sounds very interesting. I've thought of the Wii as nothing more than a mediocre console whose main appeal is retro and familiarity (not that that's a bad thing), but I found that the controls were gimmicky at best, especially with the current library. I didn't think it did anything to improve or innovate how we currently interact with games. But this is the kind of concept that gets me optimistic. You couldn't really do this with a standard controller, probably with a keyboard and a mouse, but this takes the cake.
Wait, can we still talk about cake?
I'm wondering... I know this has been brought up before, but I haven't seen a clear and clean answer, where the heck are we going to store these games on 512 MB of flash memory? I'm guessing an SD card? Does the Wii support SDHC by any chance? lol.
Motion blur always does wonders for these games. I'm thinking of the Metroid or Mario Kart screens I've seen that look blocky like this. I'll bet it looks fantastic in motion though.
I want to see an expanded versino of Crayon Physics as a Wiiware title.
This is going to be a def buy for me. I have a feeling WiiWare titles are going to end up being more innovative and exciting than traditional titles.
This looks like a must buy :) Any idea of what the price is? I'm just curious if it's around the price of Squeenix's Wiiware title or any less.
Hrm, this will be a nice reason to turn on my Wii again...that is, in between my Wii Fit sessions...
When do I get to buy it?
Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles used to be my most anticipated game on WiiWare but LostWinds has replaced that.
This was in Edge an issue or two ago. Looks great, here's hoping it'll be a worthwhile purchase.
Wow this looks awesome. It's hard to believe that this is wiiware instead of a stand-alone game. If I had a Wii, I definitely would pick this up.
This does look very interesting, sadly WiiWare doesn't support demos. The Big N just wants your money.
the fart jokes write themselves. this looks cool!
So...pretty...I'm suckered in.
This game interests me. It is an original Wii game. There are not many of those, with new characters and stories. The graphics look serviceable. The controls sound like fun.
@Rebochan: We shouldn't be asking for a bigger hard-drive, we should be askig for A hard-drive, that flash memory is gonna suffer when wiiware goes live.
And no, I'm not bashing here, my only console right now is a Wii (and an Atari 2600) which I love, but a hard-drive would come in handy.
@Trowble (XBL/PSN): It's not that it doesn't support demos, it just doesn't mandate them.
This looks great!
@ForgotMyKeys:
Then you aren't buying the right games. Godfather, Scarface, Resident Evil 4, Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles, Okami, Twilight Princess for starters.
Some people just cannot get the controls because guess they don't seem to realize that like with button controls you have to make the motions at a proper time and circumstance.
All the wii does is replace certain button moves or makes a button replacement that would have involved the use of several buttons at once as well as joystick moves. It's a simplied user interface that can make games more immersive such as with the strangle moves from godfather.
@Torgen got his apology faceplate but not his fixed GH3 disc:
And that is a good thing. Demos should come after the game is released so they don't interfere with the game development and the resources aren't split. A proper demo takes a lot of time and effort hence why most demos of good to great games are utter garbage unless they come out much later after the game release.
Plus certain games you can do the entire freaking game expierence in the demo which often has multiplayer to boot so why buy the game at all? This why shadowrun and several other games didn't sell but lots of people play the demos.