This is the kind of game we all bought a Wii for. Very ambitious and promising.
You control Toku with the Nunchuk and you use the Wiimote to make gusts and slipstreams via Enril the wind spirit. The controls are very responsive and intuitive and very fun as well.
The game plays like a 2D platformer but I find it also has many Zelda'like elements such as "dungeons" and environmental puzzles. The overworld to dungeon transition is seemless.
The reason I give it a perfect ten:
First of all this is a WiiWare tille with a very limited amount of space availlable to work with. And I really believe that the game could not have been made better, given the time constraint of making lauch day and the above mentioned memory cap.
1 - Graphics:
This is a gorgeous looking game both technically and artistically. The backgrounds are all very detailled and there is a very nice blur effect in the distance as well as a ton of bloom which looks spectacular. The character models look geat and are quite detailled and very well animated. The framerate is mostly constant, I noticed very few hiccups.
2 - Sound:
Beautiful music, very relaxing, a perfect fit and quite memorable. Sound effects are loud and punchy, very well done.
3 - Pacing:
The game progresses at a great rate, and there are no dull moments. The dungeons and puzzles become proportionally more difficult.
4 - Immersion:
The game is very immersive, you just fell like exploring all the time, especially when you get a new power. The levels of so well designed, there is a lot to see and do on this tiny island.
5 - Value:
It costs 1000 Wii points (10$)
The game lasts 3-4 hours without a dull moment, and I certainly see an incentive to play throught it again. Good value, but not the best 10$ you can spend.
Conclusion:
Encourage Frontier by buying LostWinds. You won't regret it.
We will be seeing a lot more of Toku and Enril in the near future, I know it.
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EDIT: Hmm, I was debating whether or not to take this review down, or just outright redo it from scratch, but I decided to leave it as it is. It was my first review; I did not really know what I was doing, back then. I guess my approach to reviews has changed a lot over the months; indeed I have grown and developed my skills.
Looking back, this game was far from perfect. I gave it a perfect score when I first reviewed it, but it had many flaws. Back then I did not know what to expect from WiiWare, but now I see that many games have done better than LostWinds and many more will do better in the future. Here's to personal growth!