First game of the year down! I was rearranging my collection all day, making room for the few console collections which are still growing, and while moving the Wii games I grabbed a title I've been meaning to return to for some time.
1. Elebits (Wii)
I was one of the lucky ones who was able to get a Nintendo Wii at launch back in late 2006. The reason I was lucky was, a) they were hard as hell to find, and b) I was a broke ass college student who had no business spending the limited funds I had on a hot new game console. Regardless, I picked up Twilight Princess with my Wii and devoured that game over the following weeks. However, once I beat Twilight Princess and had extracted all the enjoyment i could out of Wii Sports at the time, I decided to use a Best Buy gift card I had burning a hole in my pocket to pick up a brand new game that was among the best to show off the Wii's then revolutionary motion controls. That game was Elebits.
It's been nearly 20 years since I last played and beat Elebits and in that time period I've been meaning to go back and replay it. Having finally done so, I can say that this game does a pretty good job with not only showing off the versatility of the Wii's motion controls, but unfortunately does so in a game that has some fundamental design issues and gets way too repetitive way too fast.
The basic premise of Elebits is you need to explore various confined environments to track down the chubby creatures whom the game gets its namesake. The Elebits are essentially beings made of electricity and the more you collect, the more you're able to explore and interact with various other parts of each stage, thereby allowing you to find and capture even more Elebits. As you progress through the game's 30 stages, new elements are introduces including new types of Elebits, new obstacles and hazards to contend with, new puzzles, and of course, new environments to explore. Unfortunately, the game does recycle stages, which is a shame since there aren't a ton of them to begin with, and many are just extensions/variations of others you've previous played. Aside from the recycled stages, all this might sound like this game remains fresh and interesting throughout, however the more this game adds, the worse it gets.
For example, there are stages where you are not allowed to break any objects like dishes or glasses, or you can't make too much noise while overturning furniture and other objects in search for Elebits. The games controls combined with the stage and time constraints you're required to contend with just don't mesh well enough for you to get through them in a matter than isn't either tedious and boring, or needlessly frustrating. With all that said, this is not a difficult game. It is also worth noting there are several Elebit bosses you have to fight throughout the game as well, and beating them requires some sort of unique action or strategy. Unfortunately these boss battles are somewhat half baked and don't make the game really any better, or I suppose worse either.
Elebits was a pretty good looking game for its time. Environments are fairly detailed and have many objects to interact with. This extends to the game's physics which are pretty fun and decently implemented. It's fun to use your Elebit capturing gun to throw objects like lamps, chairs, electronics, and all sorts of other things around a room like a manic lunatic in search of the colorful little creatures. The game is actually most fun when you just get to go insane on the sage environments and the objects within them. Unfortunately, these moments are too seldom and instead you are required to take a much more tedious, restrained approach to complete most stages. But anyhow, this game looks pretty good for what it is and certainly one of the better looking early Wii games.
Finally, there's Elebits' soundtrack which is surprisingly good, albeit not mind blowing by any stretch of the imagination either. There is a decent amount of voice acting too, which is all pretty terrible and wooden. Sound effects of objects being thrown about of the squeaks and cute noises of the Elebit creatures also help give this game a distinct, lighthearted identity as well. The overall sound quality of this game is good, just not amazing...other than the voice acting of course, which is fairly trivial regardless.
I have to admit, I am a tad disappointed I didn't enjoy this game more upon replaying it. I'd forgotten most of my impressions of this game from back in 2006, but do at least remember feeling more positive about Elebits than negative. Unfortunately my new opinion screws slightly more towards the negative side of things, mostly due to how limiting the gameplay can be and also how repetitive this game gets despite its best efforts to avoid that. Elebits served its purpose in late 2006 and Id say even through some of 2007 as one of the best showcases of the Wii's motion controls, however there are far better games that would do this in the years that followed during the Wii's lifespan. Still, this game isn't without its charm and it's certainly a decent little FPS game that you coiuld also play with young kids if you wanted to. (1/2/26) [29/50]
