Despite its paltry length, LostWinds is worth the $10 admission.
Set in the quaint island of Mistralis, you play as a Toku, a young villager of the island. You're chosen by Enril, the Wind Spirit, to help defeat and stop Balasar, a spirit who hopes to rule over the island as the one true god of the Mistralis. The story starts as typical, by-the-numbers plot and it never really goes beyond that. It merely acts as a backdrop and provides the reason to your actions, instead of being a integral, compelling aspect to the game. LostWinds doesn't lose anything from its weak narrative, but it's still a shame more wasn't done. The game does present some of the story with storybook cut-scenes in two instances. They look great and the game could've benefited from more.
The gameplay more than makes up for it, though. Enril will follow you throughout the entire game and is displayed on the screen as a cursor. And seeing as how Enril is the Wind Spirit, LostWinds has you utilizing the mighty power of wind. It's the game's unique bent and it's one that's executed rather well. You'll draw lines upwards to give Toku a gust upwards, so he can reach platforms that wouldn't be reachable by just mere human effort. Soon, you'll earn new powers, like the slipstream, which allows you to guide water and fire to your desired destination to solve the game's fun puzzles. You'll earn a nice handful of wind-related abilities throughout the game, opening up the world piece by piece. It makes LostWinds very Metroid-esque in design, because you'll find yourself revisiting areas and realizing you can delve further into the game's various cave dwellings and idyllic landscapes.
The utilization of wind never feels gimmicky or tacked-on; it feels like an integral part of the game. You'll be calling up gusts and slipstreams quite often and it's almost always intuitive and responsive. All it takes is a simple press of the A-button and gesture to which ever way you want the wind to blow. This works 90% of the time. In the other 10%, it goofs enough to become a nuisance. The collision detection is mostly at fault here, as you'll see Toku getting stuck on a wall or a piece of the environment. This is most evident when you're using the slipstream to hover over a gap in a ceiling; Toku will get stuck and refuse to move, forcing you to try to be more accurate with your motions.
Again, these instances are rare, so it doesn't hurt the overall experience to any major degree. Once you get over the occasional problem, LostWinds is incredibly fun. The puzzles don't really evolve beyond burning a wooden blockade by slipstreaming fire to it or pulling a lever, but they're satisfying. One issue with the puzzles is that they reset the moment you step into a new area. It's a mild annoyance, but you rarely have to revisit an area more than once. The same goes for enemies, who respawn when you head off into a new area. Yes, there's combat and it's relatively simple -- throw out a hearty of gust of wind to send the enemy into the air and then unleash another gust downwards, so they explode upon landing. It's fun and new enemy types are introduces throughout the game, which makes you slightly adjust your base tactic. You can just as easily avoid them, too. Either way, they're fun to fight, but if you're in a hurry or you simply don't care, brushing them off also works.
Visually, it looks better than almost every single Wii game on the market. Whether that's a compliment or not is rather hard to tell, but LostWinds really is one of the best-looking games on the Wii, joining the ranks of Super Mario Galaxy and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption in graphical prowress. Even in comparison to the visual offerings from the 360 and PS3, LostWinds still looks good and tangible. The game looks its best when you're running or flying by the game's foliage-filled areas. LostWinds' artistic direction and attention to detail is what makes it look so great; plants sway with the wind (that includes your personal input), villagers react to your wind gusts realistically and comically and simple but charming character designs and architecture gives Mistralis its unique, definable look. Even though the gameplay is played on a two-dimensional plane, there's a lot of depth to the look of Mistralis, because of the game's detailed backdrops. Many of its cave dwellings look great too, thanks to the power of science. Luminescent fungus provides interiors with an ethereal blue glow and floating particles passing by add to atmosphere. The game looks its worse when it decides to stick to boring color palette of browns, but even then the game still looks good. LostWinds just goes on to prove that, once again, Wii games can look more than "good enough" with enough effort.
LostWinds' soundscape isn't as strong, but holds its own. The soundtrack mostly consists of very mellow and ambient wind instruments, only racking things up with simple percussion when combat occurs. There's not a lot of music in the game, you can count the number of tracks on one hand, but it never gets repetitive, because of how the music doesn't have much structure to it, making any loops almost indiscernible. There could've been more music though, because some moments lack the appropriate impact. This is especially true for the last moments of the game. The sound effects are handled rather well; plants and trees rustle from the wind appropriately and the yelps and grunts from villagers are cute. Overall, LostWinds has great audio.
LostWinds is insanely short, about 3-4 hours in length. It's a game that can be finished in one sitting and after the first playthrough, there isn't much of a reason to play the game again. However, in its short runtime, LostWinds delivers a unique, one-of-a-kind experience that could've only worked on the Wii. For $10, LostWinds is a steal and deserves a spot in the limited storage of every single Wii. With the Wii still getting loads of shovelware, LostWinds' greatness only sticks out that much more. Give the game a shot, you'll have fun.