Wiggles Preview

Dwarves are one of those character types that can't seem to keep themselves out of video games. Gruff but cute, this fantasy-based species often makes the best type of video game hero. Wiggles developer SEK Ost probably had this in mind when it first started developing Wiggles, a strategy game based around a tribe of subterranean dwarves.

The story of Wiggles goes something like this: The godfather Odin has chosen the Wiggles, a tribe of dwarves, to journey to the center of Earth. Once there, the Wiggles must destroy Fenris, the watchdog of Odin. A powerful dog, Fenris ran away from Odin and is now spreading terror across the globe. The journey to destroy Fenris will take the Wiggles through more than 100 quests. Accomplishing the mission will actually take decades and will involve many generations of dwarves. It's your responsibility to arrange a daily schedule for the Wiggles and determine what they'll do as they journey down to the center of Earth. Think The Sims mixed with Command & Conquer, and you'll get a fairly good idea of where SEK Ost is going with the game.

The quest takes place beneath the surface of Earth, and as such, you hardly see any daylight in the game. As you progress through the game, you'll encounter all sorts of goodies and nastiness, including enemies such as trolls, dragons, and obstacles like hot lava. You must teach your dwarves how to survive, forge weapons, cook mushrooms, raise hamsters, produce tools, and invent machines. Like people in real life, the dwarves also want to have some spare time for sleeping, playing cards, going bowling, or having a drink in a pub. And yes, male and female dwarves can also fall in love with each other, bringing new baby dwarves to the world, which is essential, as your quest will span over a number of generations. You can then raise the dwarves in a certain way to recruit your clan of builders, fighters, or inventors, each one playing an important part in the overall quest to defeat Fenris.

All in all, you will have five different clans of dwarves and nine different character types. More than 30 production facilities will produce the 20 tools that will be at your disposal, and you'll have to mine around seven raw materials to keep the factories running. Your dwarves will gather and invent 10 weapons and learn four fighting techniques, such as karate and tae kwon do. Also make sure you keep a good daily schedule, such as digging in the morning and cuddling in the evening. In total, you and your dwarves can choose between 100 work and leisure activities. Plus, you and the dwarves will travel through five historic ages.

From the looks of it, Wiggles will include gameplay similar to that of Creatures--it will simulate the lives of the dwarves. This will be combined with a basic mission task in each quest so that you need not only to take care of the dwarves, but also get them to fulfill a defined goal.

With the number of first-person shooters and real-time strategy war games being released every year, Wiggles comes as a fresh surprise and will be seeing a release on both the PC and the Xbox platform. A final release date has not been given yet, but you can rest assured that we'll keep you updated. A publisher for the US hasn't been announced yet but is very likely to surface soon.