61 Frames Per Second : lost winds

Whatcha Playing: Bubbles, Bubbles, Bubbles!!!

Derrick Sanskrit — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 19:00:00 GMT

It's always a curious thing when games are sold exclusively at one chain of stores. I can understand if, hypothetically, Big Box Store shells out big bucks to have the exclusive sales of Frat House FPS Sequel. The built-in fanbase will want the game and rush to the nearest Big Box Store, that store makes enough money to profit from their initial investment, and the publisher still got their game out there to the masses and made some extra cash while they were doing it. What bothers me is when smaller, somewhat unknown or niche games are exclusive to one store, making it harder to find and less likely that curious gamers unfamiliar with the property will give it a chance. I was worried when this happened last year with the long-awaited Chibi-Robo: Park Patrol which found its way exclusively to Wal-Mart shelves, but thankfully that game turned out wonderfully. And so now, some three months after its release exclusively to Toys R Us, I have finally gotten my hands on a copy of Soul Bubbles for the Nintendo DS. I can't say whether it was worth the added trouble of having to go find it, but I can say that so far it is one of the most enjoyable DS titles I've played in months.

First off, check out this beautiful opening screen that welcomes you when you start the game.

I already like this third-party developer.

The gameplay itself so far feels like a wonderful mix of LostWinds and Locoroco. Transport a bubble or series of bubbles containing spirits around an obstacle-filled labyrinth using the incredible lung capacity of a floating mostly naked kid (he wears a scarf). The controls really utilize the DS hardware remarkably well. I keep imagining playing Soul Bubbles with dual analog sticks and, while certainly possible, its just not as fun or intuitive. The art direction is downright impressive, with lush landscapes and beautiful particle effects. As demonstrated in LostWinds, when a game's play mechanic is based around wind and blowing, it is imperative that every element in the environment react naturally with the breeze or the fourth wall is broken, and in this regard Soul Bubbles is an astounding achievement. The farther along I venture into this world, the more it seems every individual element has been carefully considered. Much like in Boom Blox, I am often miffed when something doesn't move the way I want it to, but accept that hey, that's realistic physics and I just kind of suck.

I'm only about halfway through the game right now, having cleared the fourth of eight worlds, and only recently has the game really started to demonstrate its nefarious environmental challenges. Slime is sticking my bubbles to walls as angry bees attack or wind tunnels are shooting my bubbles wildly into mazes of sharp thorns and puffer fish. I was particularly smitten with one recent puzzling section where it was required to capture lake water in a bubble, run it along a path and into a thorned vine, releasing the water below onto a rock that split the water into two streams to put out two fires, and later another lake that was closed off by vines, so I had to pop the bubble and then quickly form a new bubble to catch the water that fell through the vines. Despite the steady increase in difficulty, though, there is never a sense of urgency or of real imminent danger, which is much appreciated in a portable game. The levels so far have ranged from two to twelve minute playthroughs on the first try, perfect for on-the-go adventuring, and every stage has a healthy smattering of hidden objects to collect.

Completing a stage presents you with how many souls were safely delivered, how much hidden stuff you gathered, and your time, meaning Soul Bubbles should have a healthy chunk of replay value to collect everything, especially for speedrunners. Rapidly devouring all of my DS playing time, Soul Bubbles is easily the most casually hardcore game I've played since Eden.

Previously on Whatcha Playing:

The Thirst For Adventure, Pointing At Things, and Not Knowing What to Say
Cleaning House, Finding Roots
How Does Your Garden Grow?
The New Adventures of the Nintendo DS
Fallout (Metaphorically Speaking)
Loving/Hating Mario Kart Wii

WiiWare: Nintendo, Babe, It Just Isn’t Working Out

John Constantine — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 19:00:00 GMT

Nintendo has been on my mind over the past few days. Not as a corporation in the business of making video games. More like a singular anthropomorphic entity. This is how Nintendo exists in my head these days, so when I see them making business decisions, my psychosis interprets those decisions as being made by an individual. You know, as an affront against me personally. For example, I look at the abject madness that is Skip’s Captain Rainbow and then I remember that it will never come out in the US. Sure, WarioWare comes out, but do we get Mother 3? Tingle’s Rosy Rupee Land, a game that’s actually available in English? Nintendo doesn’t bring their weird games here, so Captain Rainbow, with its legion of obscure, z-list Nintendo characters, will flounder away on an island nation half the world away. Nintendo does things like this to spite me. Like my first experiences with WiiWare this past weekend.

On Saturday morning, I decided that, given my overwhelmingly positive experiences with original content on PSN and Xbox Live Arcade in recent weeks, it was time to give WiiWare’s offerings a shot. I loaded twenty dollars worth of Wii points onto my account and went to download Strong Bad’s Cool Game for Attractive People and David Braben’s Lost Winds. I was then promptly informed that there was not enough space on my Wii to download either title. My Wii does not get frequent use, so this was the first time I had to “clean out my fridge”. At first, I figured I would back up my Virtual Console titles to the SD Card I purchased two years back, but after fifteen minutes and only backing up five VC classics, it hit me that backing up everything was going to take up most of the day. I had to delete most everything to make space for just two WiiWare titles. It took over half an hour before I could even play them. Strong Bad and Lost Winds turned out to be okay, fun but fairly insubstantial after spending five hours total to complete both. The whole experience was, for lack of a better word, annoying.

When things like this happen between Nintendo I start to feel like the Big N is an ex-girlfriend with whom I had a messy break up but am now trying to be friends with. We're polite to one another and able to be at social functions at the same time but there's a smoldering bubble of bitterness under the pleasant small talk. Sometimes that bitterness boils to the surface.

“Well, if you would broaden your horizons we'd still be together! Try Wii Play or try not downloading so many things!”

"Well, maybe if you didn't start making such subpar software, maybe if you actually released your more interesting games in a language I can understand, and actually kept your word sometimes, I wouldn't have had to leave! Why don’t you support USB hard drives!"

“I don’t even know why I bother talking to you!”

“Go make another crappy Zelda or some Brain Training crap!”

*Door slams*

Okay, well, maybe that got a little weird. WiiWare is a chore to use and needs better games. Probably could have just said that.

Related articles:

Where is Wii's Disaster: Day of Crisis?
Trailer Review: Captain Rainbow
Many Colors in the Hardcore Rainbow
This Week in Shrieking Annoyances
Quickies: Homestar Ruiner
Whatcha Playing: Lost Winds

Watcha Playing: Lost Winds

Amber Ahlborn — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 17:00:00 GMT

Lost Winds is my first and presently only WiiWare title, but it has already set the bar pretty high. When I first booted up this lovely little game and started playing with the wind, I was immediately put in mind of Okami. Directing the wind is a lot like drawing with the Celestial Brush, except the wind works in real time, rather than pausing the game while I draw. Lost Winds is a whimsical title and a promising start for WiiWare.

The game itself focuses on environmental puzzles and wind assisted two dimensional platforming. Toku, the main character, can only run and climb up small ledges. Luckily, he's a small boy and can easily be carried by Enril, the Wind Spirit. The wind is controlled via simple lines drawn with the remote's pointer. With easy gestures, I can use the wind to move Toku, flatten enemies, and knock the hero silly with boulders if I'm not careful. All of the action takes place in a beautifully realized world.

As an artist myself I take a keen interest in the art styles used in video games and I really like what's been done in Lost Winds. The visuals are colorful and fanciful without being sugary sweet. The geometric designs and story stills put me in mind of native South American art though I also note a lot of oriental influences in the setting. It's always nice to see an original style standing out from the current pack of games attempting realism. It's a standout title that has received quite a bit of appreciation from gamers.

Lost Winds has already garnered a lot of review praise along with one oft repeated criticism. It's too short. I disagree. The game thus far will only take a few hours, perfect for an evening of relaxed gaming. It's priced to match and ends with a “to be continued”. I've enjoyed what I've played thus far and am looking forward to the next chapter.