Elebits

Reviewed by Marcio Guastavino
January 4, 2007

Developer: Konami Publisher: Konami Platform(s): Wii Compatible Attachments: Nunchuck Numbers of Players: 1 - 4 ESRB Rating: Everyone Website: Click Here

Screenshot from Elebits. Courtesy Konami. Click image to enlarge.

You are Kai, a ten-year-old boy whose parents are the smartest scientists in town. They're known for their study in the Elebits. Elebits are tiny little creatures that give off the power of electricity, without them anything requiring electrical power would not work. One day a bolt of lightning strikes the town and for some reason all the elebits begin to act strangely. All power to the town has ceased to be and in a stir of panic your parents are called to resolve the matter, leaving you home alone with nothing to do. With the TV unresponsive, you decide it's time to take matters into your own hands by going into your dad's lab and taking the Elebits capture gun. With the gun you can capture the Elebits and restore the power back to your home and the whole town itself.

I love Elebits, mostly because it's something new and refreshing to play. It works like a first person shooter, on the Wii this usually means that the Wii-mote is used for pointing, aiming and shooting while the nunchuk is used for movement, jumping, and crouching. The basic premise of the game is to catch a certain amount of elebits before time runs out. It starts off easy, having you catch elebits from your own room. Now, the beauty of Elebits is that you can move literally anything to find the little suckers. Your gun works almost like a Ghostbusters gun (what with the electricity and all) and can pick up objects and move them around. The gun is also used to open drawers, doors, windows, and have certain appliances turn on. Depending on your gun's current level, you can pick up only certain objects at a time and the heavier the object the higher the level has to be. The stages range from inside Kai's room, the town itself and even an amusement park! The difficulty ranges as well, as the game also throws certain conditions per level. These conditions range from having to not break items, to having to stay really quiet—and believe me, that is easier said than done. To top it all off, there are various types of elebits as well. Most raise the watts you have to collect, others power your gun, and then there are those that try to cause harm to you. While exploring you will come across items to help you like noise cancellers, homing shot, and various items to stun or attract elebits. Each level has its own challenge and will keep you coming back for more.

The look of the game isn't the most impressive, but it gets the job done, and some of the levels are huge. You'll be searching for elebits high and low, and it's surprising where they could pop up next. The music for the game fits just right, a variety of jazz and some other soothing sounds. The voice acting is rarely there, but it's not too bad. It just sounds like a storytelling kind of voice acting, which is actually what the game is about, so I guess it works. Multiplayer works a bit strangely, having one person be the one to control movement while the others just shoot to their hearts content. It seems unfair, but when you're the one doing all the moving you could have the upper hand.

The game also features an Edit mode. This allows you to create your own level from previous levels that you've beaten. Depending on what grade you received from a specific level, you get different items to play around with when building your own. For example, an A gives you more items to use, a score attack mode, and a no time limit mode. So the better you do in a level the more stuff you get for extras. Once you complete your edited room you can send it through the game to another Wii user. Of course, they have to have the game to actually play the level you create.

As far as I look at it, Elelbits is a fantastic game with much promise to the Wii's future. It's a definite must for those looking for a bit of a change and something new to play. I dare you to think this game is child's play, because once you get to the farther levels you'll be singing another tune. For 50 bucks it's one of the better games to pick up for the Wii. I give Elebits a HIGH Evolution Factor.

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