Dewy's Adventures First Look

Although Elebits was released barely two months ago, the development team that brought Konami's unique Wii title to life is hardly resting on its laurels. Producer Shingo Mukaitoge put in an appearance at Konami's recent press event to unveil a new Wii title. The tentatively titled Dewy's Adventure is set to offer another unique experience tailor-made for the Wii. Mukaitoge showed off the first trailer for the game and offered up some early details on what to expect from the new project.

The game revolves around Dewy, a droplet of water conjured by a great tree tasked with fighting off the negative effects of black water, which is corrupting the land. Though saving the land is doable, the tree has had to call in some watery help in times past--and it's a bit more of a challenge this time out, since Dewy isn't quite the powerhouse his predecessor was. Fortunately, the little guy's resourceful for a drop of water--he is magical, after all--and he seems pretty well-equipped for the challenge before him. The video showed off a hybrid style of gameplay that blends elements of Super Monkey Ball, Loco Roco, and traditional platformers.

You'll be moving Dewy around the world by manipulating his surroundings and his physical condition. You'll manipulate the world by tilting the Wii Remote and sending Dewy slip-sliding around a la Monkey Ball. You'll also be able to cause earthquakes by shaking the remote, or create gusts of winds. The twist is that, like all water, Dewy will be able to cycle through different states. His standard watery state is OK for getting around, but not great for dealing with enemies. If you lower his temperature he'll go icy and be better able to deal with foes, but he'll be a chore to handle. Finally, heating Dewy up will make him light as a gas cloud and allow him to reach new areas under his own power or via gusts of wind. It appears you'll come across various contraptions to use to advance, such as spring pads and Loco Roco-style gears that will move the tiny hero along. Dealing with enemies appears to be straightforward for the most part, as it looks as though Dewy will be able to slam into them or use various mechanisms to attack them. In addition to the single-player game, Dewy's Adventures will feature a competitive split-screen mode, an edit mode so you can create you own areas, similar to the one in Elebits, and online support for the Wii's WiiConnect24 feature, so that you can send levels to friends.

The game's presentation is diverse, brightly colored, and lighthearted, from the look of things so far. Dewy appears to be a pretty happy dude in the video, and he goes about his business in equally peppy surroundings. The game features a good sense of scale and shows Dewy dwarfed by the environments. The enemies are a ragtag assortment of the weird, which all seems to fit the art style.

Our impressions of Dewy's Adventure so far are that it seems to be a promising original title for the Wii. Its hybrid gameplay could be pretty cool if the levels and puzzles keep the action interesting. The multiplayer, edit mode, and WiiConnect24 support should all help enhance the game's appeal and offer some good reasons to keep it around once you finish it. Given the positive first impression it makes, we're curious to get our hands on the game to see how everything meshes. Look for more on Dewy's Adventure in the coming months. The game is currently slated to ship later this year for the Wii.