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E3 06: Elebits Hands-On

We oppress small electric creatures in Konami's funky Wii shooter.

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LOS ANGELES--Elebits is the upcoming Wii game from Konami that tasks you with collecting multicolored critters known as elebits. The game is set in a world where there are no fossil fuels or electricity, just the elebits. It seems that the creatures are the primary power source for all things. Unfortunately, the little guys decide to bail on their duties and take off, which throws humanity into a panic. Your goal in the game is to track down the little dudes and put them back to work (whether they like it or not!). We had the chance to try out a demo of the game in Nintendo's E3 booth to see just how the game makes use of the Wii controller.

The demo level was set in a house that is chock-full of elebits. Some are kicking it out in the open, while others are hiding in all manner of nooks and crannies. The goal is to uncover the little guys and zap them in order to get them back to work. To do this, you'll have to explore the house and check everything you can to flush them out. The demo challenged us to see how many of the little guys we could find and zap in three minutes. The demo featured two colors of elebits to hunt down--green and red--and each was worth a different number of watts.

The game's control mechanics are simple. You'll have to explore a house and use an energy beam to manipulate objects to look for elebits. Once you see them, you'll have to put your crosshairs over them and zap away. The demo also featured two items that help you reach your goal. The first item is a power-up for your zapper that upgrades it to a homing laser for 15 seconds, which comes in handy when the little dudes bolt on you. The second item stuns all elebits within a certain range when triggered, which also comes in handy when dealing with a mob of the little guys running everywhere. The simple system worked well when we played the game and had a nice old-school feel.

The visuals have a simplistic, modestly detailed look that got the job done. The rooms we went through were pretty plain looking, although there was a good amount of interactivity in the environment. We were able to open cabinets, turn faucets, and move just about anything we saw. The effects for the energy beam we were using to move items around and the blasts that zapped the elebits looked all right but were still pretty modest in appearance. The power-up effects were still a little rough but looked OK. Based on what we played, Elebits has a simple old-school charm that falls somewhere in the Duck Hunt category. The simple exploration mechanic we've seen and the equally basic shooting action give the game a retro charm we're digging. The exploration mechanic seems simple and encourages you to experiment, which is cool. We'll be curious to see how much more there is to the game and how it will hold up over the long haul. Look for more on Elebits soon.

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