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Jan 14th, 2008 at 02:26:02 - Elebits (Wii) |
GAMEPLAY
The story still seems very weak. It turns out elebits around the world are acting strange. When Kai calls his dad, his dad tells him of this, and then tells him to use his ray gun for safety. I find it hard to believe that a parent would tell a kid to use a gun to protect himself instead of just coming home to protect him. It is really obvious that they did not take the time to fully flesh out the story like they should have.
The more I play, the more addicted I become. As you progress in the levels, you are able to pick up bigger and bigger objects which is really fun. I love playing with the physics engine in the game and just throwing stuff to see what happens. Not much really changed on my second play through, and I still feel the same way about the gameplay as I did my first time. There seems to be a lot more to do as you move on, which is making it more fun.
DESIGN
In my last post, I talked about "Launch Title Syndrome". When a new console comes out, companies rush to make sure they have a game out on the shelves, regardless of quality. Elebits was one of the best launch titles for Wii, but it is far from perfect. The graphics are overly simplistic and are missing the polish of other Wii games out today such as Resident Evil 4 and Super Mario Galaxy. Some may say that it is meant to be simplistic and abstract, but this completely conflicts with the art style in the story segments, which are colorful and detailed.
The first batch of Wii games all have something in common: the developers were given the challenge to create a game using a brand-new type of controller that the public has not used. Therefore, its no surprised that most of these games are hard to control. Elebits is no different. The first person controls are definately not as refined as, say, Metroid Prime 3, and it takes a good amount of time to turn around. Also, some of the twisting motions and controls where you need to move the controller forward or backward were a bit wonky. Sometimes they didn't work or I couldn't do what I was trying to do.
What really makes the game is the physics engine, even though the physics seem a bit floaty. Half the fun is just throwing stuff around the room and seeing what happens. You have no idea how fun throwing a bed across a room is until you have played Elebits.
The levels are designed pretty well, with lots of objects strewn about for you to play with. The only problem I have is that some of the environments repeat themselves, but this is only a minor gripe. When they do repeat, there is something fresh and new for you to do there so it keeps your interest.
The only things I would change about the game are the the subpar story and the controls. These elements make Elebits seem more like a tech demo than a full-fledged game. If rumblings of a Elebits 2 are true, and they fix these two elements, it could end up being an amazing game.
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Jan 13th, 2008 at 21:32:57 - Elebits (Wii) |
For my first gamelog, I decided to play Elebits, a game I have been interested in ever since the Wii was released.
Summary:
In the world of Elebits, all electronic devices are powered by small creatures called elebits. You play as a young boy Kai who is trying to watch TV during a lightning storm. All of the power goes out in his house, and he goes on a quest to collect as many elebits as he can so he can restore power using his handy ray gun.
Gameplay:
Right when the game started, the first thing I noticed was the horrible voice acting. The story is told with a series of still images and voice overs, but the voice overs completely detract from the experience. I cringed every time someone would speak. The images have a really unique art style, however, so I never skipped these cutscenes. I just put my TV on mute and I was fine.
The story seems really tacked on. Crafting a story that immerses the player is no easy feat, and I think the Elebits team missed the boat here. It's as if they made a really awesome Wii tech demo, then tacked on the story at the last minute and put it on the market. For example, the whole motivation behind finding the Elebits is to restore power to the TV so Kai can continue watching his favorite TV show. However, during one of the levels I restored power to the TV and nothing happened. The game seemed to neglect the fact that I accomplished its main goal, and I went on to the next level to collect more Elebits for no reason. Once I got past the rubbish story, I started to really get addicted to the game.
I kinda felt bad while playing this game. The main character Kai goes and steals his dads ray gun, then proceeds to throw around everything in the house hunting for elebits. At the end of one of the levels, my dresser was on top of my computer, there were boxes thrown everywhere, and I had just thrown my TV across the room. The game tries to make you be careful throwing things around by punishing you for breaking objects, however it never clearly marks which items you can throw around and which items you can't. For example, I can throw my TV across a room and not be punished, but if I throw a vase it punishes me. Hopefully the story doesn't completely neglect the fact that I'm tearing this house apart.
The gameplay is really addicting. Each level requires you to collect a certain amount of elebits to pass. When you first start out, you can barely pick up anything in the room. As you collect elebits, you are able to turn on items throughout the house depending on how many you have. When you turn these items on, yellow elebits jump out. These yellow elebits power your ray gun, enabling you to pick up heavier objects. As you move these heavier objects, Elebits are uncovered. This creates an interesting dynamic between the two types of elebits; you need more yellow Elebits to power your gun, and you need more regular Elebits to force these yellow Elebits out of hiding. It forces the player to balance between finding more elebits and powering up items throughout the house in order to complete the objective. I had a lot of fun leveling up my gun to see what objects I could pick up next. There were many times where I had enough Elebits to move on to the next level, but I stayed just to throw stuff around in the room for a couple of minutes more. Leveling up your gun is extremely rewarding, and it kept me hooked for a good amount of time.
The game seems to be plagued by what I call "Launch title syndrome", which I will touch up a bit more on during my second entry since it falls more into the design aspect of the game. I'll write more after I play for another hour or so.
This entry has been edited 1 time. It was last edited on Jan 13th, 2008 at 21:33:53.
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