Endless Ocean Hands-On

Now that the Wii has established itself as a sales juggernaut of unholy proportions, it looks as if Nintendo is starting to get adventurous in its releases for next year. The upcoming Endless Ocean for the Wii, a Japanese scuba-diving sim developed by Arika, is a game that arguably would never have seen the light of day in the US if things weren't going as well as they are for Mario's people. The game, originally released in Japan as Forever Blue, is a surreal scuba-diving sim that's big on atmosphere and mellow vibes. We had the chance to try a work-in-progress version of the localized game to see how the experience works on the Wii.

Endless Ocean casts you as a scuba diver who's been tapped to help out the Manoa Lai Oceanic Research Society in the Pelago Commonwealth. You start the game by offering up some details on yourself--gender, hair color and style--that affect your in-game character. You're then introduced to your assistant, at which point you get to work. Your base of operations is a modest but reliable vessel named the Gabbiano. The craft will serve as the game's hub and offer several different spots for you to access game features. A footlocker houses and lets you examine items you find on your travels. A radio lets you select music from an SD card to play during your dives. A lounge chair affords you the comfort to sit and look out over the ocean for quiet contemplation. The front of the ship represents your link to the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, which you can use to go virtual diving with friends. The rear of the ship lets you interact with the aquatic buddies you make, such as dolphins. You can teach them tricks using the Wii Remote and basically endear yourself to them. The ship's cabin lets you access a host of subfeatures, such as a clock to let you advance time from day to night, an encyclopedia to house all your fishy discoveries, a diary to save your game, a mobile device to check your e-mail on, and a wheel to move the boat to different locations on the map.

Endless Ocean's gameplay is probably the mellowest we've seen in a game of this generation. Your goal is to basically explore the ocean for the society. Your bosses are a pretty benign bunch and don't really task you with anything resembling a hard deadline on their requests, so you just pace yourself. Your ultimate goal is to explore the vast ocean and catalog the sea life that calls it home. As you go about your business, you'll bond with local penguins and make friends with dolphins. It's all quite relaxing really.

Control in the game relies exclusively on the Wii Remote and is basically point-and-click with the odd button press. When you're on the Gabbiano, you'll just point and click at locations around the ship. When you want to change which part of the ship you're standing on, you'll just hold down the B button and point yourself to where you want to be. The control is basically the same when you're underwater, although your cursor's context sensitivity will change depending on where you've focused your attention; if your attention's on a particular fish, the cursor will lock your view on it. When you're locked on, you can pet or feed it to increase its affection for you, which lets you earn more info about it in the encyclopedia. You'll cycle through your different tools and options using the D pad, which calls up a menu at the bottom of the screen through which you can return to the boat, feed a fish, use an underwater whistle, and so on.

Endless Ocean's audio and video complement one another and sell the game's unique atmosphere convincingly. The game's graphics are modest in scope and come in two flavors. You'll get simple but clean detail for the out-of-the-water sequences on the Gabbiano, where you'll look around the ship, interact with your partner as well as assorted critters that will show up, and gaze out at the ocean at different times of the day. Once you dive into the water, the game gets considerably prettier thanks to sharp, detailed ocean environments and richly crafted sea-life models that animate realistically. The whole package benefits from strong lighting and a rich color palette that sells the whole undersea world where you'll be spending the bulk of your time. The mellow action is further enhanced by a solid mix of modest sound effects that capture the feel of being underwater. The drone of the valves from your diving gear is at the center of the game's audio, but you'll hear the water move around you as you make your way through the ocean. Given that most of the sea life you'll encounter is a pretty quiet bunch, you won't hear a ton out of them, although you will catch the cries of dolphins and the larger echolocating critters in the sea.

The game's soundtrack is a New Agey assortment of instrumentals and vocals (courtesy of this generation's Enya, Hayley Westenra) that you'll unlock as your progress the game. You'll be able to select a track to listen to before each dive. If the game's mellow tunes don't float your boat, you'll also be able to listen to your own custom soundtrack if you drop some MP3s on an SD card and pop it into your Wii. Anyone looking for suggestions might want to get the Ecco the Dolphin soundtrack and give it a listen while playing.

Based on what we played, Endless Ocean is a unique, deliberate experience that may initially come across as being too mellow for its own good. However, if you clock some time into it, we reckon that the game's subtle charms will hook you in an Animal Crossing sort of way. There's a lot to see in the game's virtual ocean, and there's something to be said for the simple allure of exploring and collecting items. Anyone looking for a Zen-like change of pace from your average game will do well to look for Endless Ocean when it arrives in late January.