A charming game with a decent story and controls the way the Wii meant them to be.

User Rating: 9 | LostWinds WII
I've owned a Wii since the first day it came out, and I have been luke-warm to the console really. It has quite a few great games, and the Virtual Console is great, but I was reluctant at best about WiiWare. All I can say is that LostWinds proved me wrong.

The first thing I should say about it is the value. It costs 10 dollars (1000 Wii points) and is worth every single point. The game is roughly 3-4 hours in length, so basically you're paying about 3 dollars for an hour of awesome entertainment: Much better than most single player campaigns out there on both the Wii and other consoles.

The controls in this game are pretty good. If I had to dock anything from this game, it would be a little flaw I have in how the wind registers on your character. Once every so often, fairly rarely, I would sweep right underneath the protagonist, only to find it was ineffective. Again, this happened quite rarely during my playtime, only enough for a very minor docking and a slight mention. Do not let that negative deter you however. Overall the controls are responsive and used well. The multiple uses of the remote, from hurling enemies, to propelling our protagonist, to manipulating the elements, make quite a unique game.

Onto the game itself. One of the best parts about this game was the music. It's reminiscent of wind-chimes (appropriate for the game) and a melody that is quite soothing, helping to set the mood of the mystical environment and spirits. Most of the game has a somewhat cartoony look. This is NOT a bad thing though; instead, it creates a sort of charm and appeal. The only complaint I have about the gameplay are the enemies. While I can understand what the developers were thinking when they included the little blobs, I found their appearance, or at least their abundance, to be somewhat of a hindrance. I enjoyed the focus of manipulating the wind and the elements in order to achieve my goal, but the game seemed to come to a bit of a crawl when I had to stop and make sure I had either gotten rid of or shook off the enemies. As with the controls, this is a very small gripe, one that should in no way hinder you from playing this game. The enemies can be killed by basically slamming them with wind, so they are a very minor nuisance at best.

This game is one that any Wii owner should buy. It's inexpensive and definitely sets a precedent for how good WiiWare games should be. Hopefully the fact that such a game can be made on the Wii with a decent story, decent graphics, and exceptional use of the Wii remote will get other developers to absorb these same values