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When WiiWare was first announced, small developers jumped for joy at the thought of being able to develop a low-cost game for such a popular console. Now that WiiWare has launched worldwide, it's made quite an impact: some games, such as Dr. Mario & Germ Buster, have been the subject of much praise, whereas others have been branded either poor or utterly pointless. However, there is one WiiWare game that has managed to split players' opinions more than any of the others: LostWinds.
LostWinds takes place in Mistralis, a world which was created by legendary Guardian Spirits. One of the spirits, Balasar, wanted more than to create Mistralis: he wanted to rule over it. In light of this, the rest of the Guardian Spirits tried to imprison Balasar forever inside a Spirit Stone, created purely for this purpose. As Balasar resisted, one of the Guardian Spirits - the Wind Spirit, Enril - used the last of her power to force Balasar into the Spirit Stone, but she too was imprisoned inside. After many years, Balasar managed to break the Spirit Stone, causing fragments of it and himself to spread around the land. Enril, however, remained trapped inside, which is where the story of LostWinds begins.
As soon as you start the game, you begin to understand just how important the power of the wind is going to be. Toku, the game's protagonist, is lying asleep under a tree, and your first act is to wake him up. This is simple: use the Wii Remote to point at the screen and quickly brush it over Toku several times to wake him up. Once Toku is awake and has stumbled across the shard in which Enril is trapped, after which point you're able to use the wind much more effectively, the game really starts to progress: you're able to move enemies around, move Toku to higher places, use fire and water to your advantage, throw rocks about, and even have some fun with waterwheels in the nearby village.
There are also a few "upgrades" for you to find which will allow Enril to aid you further. One of these is the Vortex ability, which allows you to draw a circle around an item (such as a rock or an enemy) after throwing it upwards and temporarily suspend it in mid-air. You can use this to bring enemies back to earth with a bang or to suspend rocks in mid-air before throwing them at gates to break them. You can also use the Slipstream feature to control fire and water with more freedom, as well as other items that you'll find later in the game. The way the wind has been utilised is unique and well thought-out all the way through the game, which is the joy of the game itself - had the wind elements been poorly done, LostWinds would be a worse experience for it.
There are a couple of issues with LostWinds, however. The lack of any sort of map is a minor disappointment, but since this part of Mistralis isn't that big it isn't too much of a problem. There is a slightly more pressing matter: by a core gamer's standards, LostWinds is short. Playing the game for the first time, any player will be able to beat the game in around three hours and, if you want to hundred-percent the game by collecting the 24 Melodia Idols scattered around Mistralis, it'll take about the same time if you've played through the game a couple of times already. It's up to you if you take this as a good thing or a bad thing: the game costs just 1000 Wii Points, considerably less than any Wii retail game, and in our opinion is excellent value for money. Anyone looking for a pick-up-and-play title will certainly find LostWinds does the job nicely, while gamers looking for a longer experience should still be able to enjoy playing the game over and over again.
LostWinds also makes great use of sound effects and music by using as little of it as possible and only using it where necessary. The game's setting is often very calm and the lack of music (or the use of very soft sounds) in places is a brilliant reflection of this tranquility, especially when you're outside in places like the village: the music here is refreshing and composing, leaving the impression that minimalist use of music was a fantastic idea.
LostWinds is an early favourite on WiiWare and a perfect example of the type of game that can really benefit from such a service. Despite the minor grievances about the lack of a map and the length of the game, it is still an absolute gem and fantastic value for money, regardless of whether or not you find the length to be an issue. It's fair to say LostWinds is considerably better than many full-priced retail titles available for Wii and the smaller price tag will hopefully coerce more people into giving it a go. If you only buy one of WiiWare's launch titles, make sure it's this one.
