LostWinds

I've just started playing LostWinds on WiiWare and so far I'm really impressed.

It has the same sort of economy of design that you get from a game like Portal (and I hear it's a similar length, which I welcome). What I mean by that is that there's nothing in there that seems to be done with a 'because we can' attitude. There's exactly as much stuff going on in both the gameplay and the background - like the excellent art style and minimalist story - as is needed. The basic premise is that it's a platform-ish game where you use various powers of a wind spirit (brought to life by the Wii pointer) to help the player perform jumps and tinker with the environment in various ways to solve puzzles and progress. So far, the execution of these ideas has been excellent and it doesn't look like it's going to overcomplicate itself any time soon.

It almost comes as a relief after 40 hours of GTA IV. That game, while excellent fun and easily recommendable, tries to do everything and in doing so, when you find something you can't do, it's often all the more disappointing. There is certainly a place for that kind of design philosophy but it's more the sort of thing that inspires awe ('Wow, I can do this! And THIS!') rather than respect. Portal was a game that I not only enjoyed more than I have anything else for a couple of years but one that gave me enormous respect for the developers.

I'm not sure I'll come to love LostWinds as much - but I already respect it for some great design touches. There's the button to remind you where you were going when you last played the game. There's the way that when you hit the A-button to use a wind power the game goes into slow motion - much less frustrating than having to time moves to within a split second, but much more fluid than just making the game pause in a jarring way.

I had to think for a moment about if I'd encountered any negatives, so far. Off the top of my head, perhaps a map might be helpful as progression isn't always linear but then I haven't got lost yet. Also, maybe the game ought to give a bit more feedback about whether you are in danger of being damaged or not, because a couple of times I've got hurt falling when I thought I was safe.

Those minor things aside, I look forward to finishing it and I'll probably post more then. If this is the shape of WiiWare to come, though, I suspect we're in for a treat.