I’m still not sure about Elebits. The game looks great on screens, but I’m just not sure if it’ll be good. This review sounds like I’ll enjoy the game. No, I was not impressed by the original game. Yes, I played it on the Wii.

Review Here

I must say, I didn’t care for Elebits when it first came out. I played the demo, and it was crap. Still, I kept an eye out for this game (sort of), and it looks interesting enough for at least a try. The preview got my attention. Zelda with Elebits? I’m game!

Preview at N-Sider

Another Christmas has come and gone. Here in the States, once Christmas Day is over, Christmas is Dead. None of that Boxing Day or Twelfth Night crap for us. But there’s always plenty of loot to enjoy while recovering from sugar shock. Before New Year’s Eve comes around to fuzzy my intellect again, I thought I’d post brief reviews of the three video games I got for Christmas.

Elebits (Nintendo Wii, 2006) – At first blush, Elebits looks like a Ghostbusters shooter without a proper IP license. After all, you use a highly destructive beam gun to hunt down and capture fantastic creatures. But, after playing a few stages, I’m seeing a lot of Katamari Damacy influence. The game lacks Katamari’s wit and style, but it does incorporate ideas such as powering up by collecting, enabling you to move heavier objects. There’s also that frustrating clock, adding a manic pace to a game that feels like it should stand more on exploration and puzzle-solving. For one thing, the controls are not up to par for madcap action. The targeting reticule often sticks to the side of the screen, and the game levels start out in tight quarters, limiting sight and movement. But none of this is a deal breaker, and I’ve enjoyed the catharsis of leaving rooms in a heap of rubble.

Professor Layton and the Curious Village (Nintendo DS, 2008) – Level 5 is probably the hottest thing in Japanese video games right now since Squaresoft. The development house made a name for itself with the beautifully crafted Dark Cloud series of roguelikes, but really took off when it was brought in to light a fire under the chilled corpse of the Dragon Quest series. It’s own creations, Rogue Galaxy and White Night Story, have made splashes on the Playstation Consoles, and its Professor Layton series is ramping up for a third release. Here in the States, we only have the first game so far, but I am surprised and delighted to find that it drips with style and artistic talent. Aside from a few cheap puzzles and a smidgen of very bad voice acting, I have thoroughly enjoyed this quirky title. It’s well-paced and jam-packed with 120 brain teasers that, while only tangentially connected to the plot, keep you coming back for one more fix. This is the type of game that the DS was meant to play. Look for many imitators to follow.

Sega Bass Fishng (Nintendo Wii, 2008) – Cheesy announcer voice? Check. Chunky character models? Check. Amazingly lush Sega AM2 art? Check. It’s time to party like its 1999. This game is a fairly faithful port of the 1999 Sega Dreamcast title, based on the 1998 arcade machine, and, despite its age, it looks amazing. Gone is the much maligned Sega fishing controller, having been replaced by the Wiimote and Nunchuck’s motion controls. Yes, the game is puddle shallow. Yes, it was originally designed as a cheap thrills quarter muncher. But, when all the thrill of fishing is in the fight, why bother going for an accurate simulator?

More At Dengeki

I know I’ve gone missing again. But this time, after I’ve finished watching all the dvds, I’m currently addicted to Nintendo Wii’s Elebits. Zapping those little buggers are so fun! The Wii is the first game console I’ve ever owned. A got it for my birthday last year, and I’ve never really been much of a gamer, my attention span is too short and I get frustrated if I can’t pass a stage and tend to just wave it aside. I get really pissed off if the animation is programmed to snub me if I can’t get through a mission. But Elebits is really addictive… I love games where you can unlock stuff and when you have completed all the stages, you can go back and play again, and find new things. That’s what I call money’s worth!

The first console I’d ever played with was a Nintendo Gameboy (?) belonging to my cousins in the late 80s. I loved Super Mario. Someone also bought a Sega Saturn, and I remember spending Saturday afternoons playing Sonic the Hedgehog with my cousins.

When I first knew A, she was such an addict, forever playing with her PS2. I remember she was playing Clock Tower alone in her room one day, and I was doing something in the living room. Suddenly she ran out of the room screaming and telling me she was too scared to continue playing. 5 minutes later she couldn’t help herself and went back to the room to play Clock Tower again, only to keep screaming because it was scary. Sigh…

I played The Lord of The Rings with her for 3 months. That was the first time I actually completed a game with someone. It was really fun, even though I sucked. We played it so intensively that till today, when we tell people about the game, we’d talk about how we had to pause it halfway so that we could ‘Yoko Yoko’ (it’s a sort of muscle relaxation lotion) each other’s shoulders, and help me bandage my thumbs in cotton wool. At that time I still didn’t have ‘Gamer’s Calluses’ on my hands, so my fingers were getting blistered from trying to maneuver the PS controller. We would be screaming and I can remember A yelling “Babe! Babe!! QUICK SHOOT THE NIGHT RIDERS (these things with big black robes and no faces)!!” and I’d be screaming, “B!!! The black shit is coming!!” (everything was either the ‘Black Shit’ or the ‘Green Shit’ to me, depending on the colour of the enemies.)

Ahahaha…

We are geeks. But A is a hot geek. She calls those things that stick out of the PS controller ‘nipples’ and it’s kinda gross and hot to watch her frantically rotating those ‘nipples’ with her thumbs. ROFLMAO!

Okay, gonna finish my coffee, say byebye to A, and continue playing Mission 7 of Elebits. I feel so butch flinging furniture around while trying to zap those critters.

Ohhh…and counting down to Saturday, when A WILL BE HERE! (to play Elebits while I disturb her… aahhaha)

I placed my finger over the flash to lessen the glare. This photos has been filtered with the blood of my finger…muahahahaha. Happy Halloween!

A Konami anunciou oficialmente hoje a continuação de Elebits, jogo bacana e descompromissado para Nintendo Wii. Entretanto a continuação será para o Nintendo DS. O game se chamará Elebits 2: The Adventures of Kai and Zero.

Nenhuma tela foi revelada, só aquelas informações básicas de sempre, muitos puzzles, o que é um tanto óbvio, jogabilidade com a Stylus, multiplayer com o Wi-Fi do DS etc.

Eu comprei e fechei a versão de Nintendo Wii justamente devido ao Wiimote, não sei se jogaria Elebits no DS. Acho que a continuação deveria ser feita no console e não no portátil. O jeito é aguardar e ver o que vai ser.

Ah, relembre o último chefe do Elebits Wii:

CREATED BY SEAN

Click here for the official website
Mario? Zelda? Bah! When E3 2006 drew to a close last May, there walked away a faction of gamers who swore that Konami’s unique gravity-defying action title Elebits stole the show. The game’s premise was one part Half Life and one part Pikmin, challenging players to arm themselves with a gravity gun and hunt for electrified critters called Elebits. It may not have been the most original outing ever put into production, but here, finally, was a project that could only be done justice on Nintendo’s Wii console and Konami seemed fully aware of that truth. Elebits really utilized the Wii remote for some very off-the-wall and engaging physics-based gravity puzzles that had some players coming back again and again. Still, for an audience still somehow convinced that Wii could pull of visuals in line with some HD-ready competitors, Elebits’ simplistic graphics didn’t always impress.

Fantastic artwork, yes, but it doesn’t translate to the game world

Jump to the present. Now that we’ve finally gone through the final copy of the game, the obvious question springs to mind: does it live up to its E3 potential? Thankfully, the answer is yes, for the most part. Elebits is in a rare class of Wii titles that genuinely capitalize on the functionality of Nintendo’s controller, promoting its strengths. As a result, it is oftentimes incredibly entertaining and fun. Konami has also incorporated WiiConnect24 support into the outing – a feat that not even the Big N could accomplish for its first wave of projects. And there’s a multiplayer mode, too. But the Elebits experience is still lessened by the same drawbacks that interfered with its E3 showing – namely, unspectacular graphics and sometimes out-of-whack physics. Elebits begins with a misstep in the form of a poorly presented storyline. Beautiful hand drawn illustrations are timed to some of the dullest, give-me-my-paycheck-because-I’m-late-for-dinner voiceovers ever recorded. We learn of the Elebits, these pint-sized entities that provided the world with electricity until a child wished them away. Now, they’ve gone into hiding and taken the world’s source of power with them. It’s up to the aforementioned kid, armed with a capturing gun that manipulates gravity and is then able to zap the Elebits, to find the critters and put things right. The tale is simple and merely more of a quick setup for the action to follow than anything else, but the developer has stretched out these cinematics longer than they need to be and the monotone dialogue is sure to make you question whether or not the voices were provided by the programmers themselves.

Once the game starts proper, though, Elebits shines. The title utilizes both the Wii remote and the nunchuk. The former controls the direction of your capturing gun. Press the A button or B trigger and your gun will shoot an electrified beam that can manipulate gravity or zap critters. And you can maneuver about the environment with the remote in the same way that you would a first-person shooter. Meanwhile, the nunchuk’s stick is used for strafing in all directions, while the C and Z buttons raise and duck your character respectively; both are useful when looking above and below objects for Elebits. The control configuration feels very natural and responsive and you will be able to pick it up in a matter of minutes. Interestingly, although the process of turning is actually similar to the structure in the admittedly flawed Red Steel, in which you feel like you have to drag the screen to the left or right, the big difference is that the Elebits experience is paced much slower so that you never need to whip around in a heartbeat. The Wii remote’s level of speed and accuracy for a game of this type becomes apparent as you play. You’ll find yourself zapping and throwing objects upward and then catching and tossing them again in mid-air. The fact that just about every object and item in the various Elebits stages can be manipulated means that you will have more fun than you probably should just creating messes of rooms and hurling everything from buckets and tables to beds and cabinets around. It’s a very engaging and satisfying process, and when Elebits spring forward from underneath a recently-tossed flower pot, you might find yourself hooked, unable to put the controller down until you’ve unearthed them all.
The game dishes out a surprising level of hidden strategy, too, due in large to a clever balance between the electrified items in the stages and the ability of your capturing gun. As each level begins, the once-electrified objects – everything from remote control cars to microwaves and even street lights – are powered off. You’ll need to use your capturing gun to collect scattered Elebits and only when you’ve nabbed enough will you gain access to flip some of the items on, at which point you can zap a different pedigree of Elebits to power up your gun. When your weapon powers up, it is able to lift heavier objects, such as cabinets and, later on, everything from diesel trucks to entire building structures. The careful balance successfully encourages you to zap the variety of Elebits in each stage for different reasons and a level-by-level time limit keeps the action moving at a steady pace. We would have preferred an immediate option to play without the time limit, too – a practice area perhaps, but we’ll live.
All of these inclusions add up, of course, but the real stars of Elebits are the control and, of course, the physics. The robustness of the title’s physics engine makes possible some challenging and engaging gameplay scenarios – some more ridiculous and hilarious than others. Konami’s game doesn’t really cheat. The objects do come to life with real physics and you can toss them into the air, hurl them at each other, stack them on top of one another, and so on, and the items will react with a realistic sense of collision. That being true, the physics are definitely loose and floaty, which is bound to turn some gamers off. When a diesel truck is thrown into a building with the capturing gun, it will not crash into the structure and break apart. Rather, it will bounce off the building as a ball might. Some objects have a heavier feeling to them, which is great. However, that floaty, bounciness is an attribute that all the items, big or small, share in common – a disappointment.
The stages are varied and in greater numbers than expected. Elebits features about 30 areas of different size, length and complexity. The time limit in a few of these levels is in the five minutes range. Others are nearly 20 minutes long. And as you advance, you’ll explore everything from living rooms and bathrooms to toy-filled bedrooms, backyards and eventually entire city streets. It’s a rewarding progression because you do start off with the small and end with the big. You won’t be able to advance to the next level until you amass a predetermined point level (which you increase by zapping Elebits and powering up your weapon) and there may come a time or two where you won’t quite hit the mark and thus you’ll be forced to replay. Meanwhile, as the missions advance, they present new challenges. For instance, if you make too much noise in one level, you’ll lose; if you break too many of these specific pots in another, you’ll have to restart. There are even a handful of enjoyable boss battles, the objective being to find the creatures as they hide under objects before time runs out. These additions, while seemingly trivial, sprinkle in an extra level of welcomed strategy and variety to the progression of the game.

Finally, Elebits features both a four-player compatible multiplayer offering and WiiConnect24 functionality. The multiplayer mode takes place on a single screen and each player controls a capturing gun. The first player, however, also controls all the strafing and camera movement, too. It’s a quasi-cooperative and quasi-competitive mode where you all work together and yet you also compete for points. Luckily, unlike in Ghostbusters, you can cross the streams. In our experience, though, the multiplayer mode quickly turns into chaos with four different streams and so many objects being interacted with at a given moment. The WiiConnect24 option, meanwhile, enables you to create your own custom Elebits levels and trade them with friends over Nintendo’s network. The map creator is simple, but flexible enough that we’re convinced some very clever stages will eventually pop up from users. There are, in fact, already videos on the Internet that showcase entire user-defined levels based around physics, where objects fall and create a massive domino effect. The map creator does have some limitations. For one, you can’t really design your own stage – you have to select one of the levels that Konami has already created for the single-player affair and then you can place objects, items and Elebits within it. Also, you have to unlock the objects and characters in the single-player mode before they become available in the map editor. Still, it’s a great addition and we’re thrilled that it’s in the game – it indefinitely extends replay value.
You may have noticed some of the gorgeous illustrations that Konami has created for Elebits. Unfortunately, these do no translate to the game experience. Rather, the title’s big visual standout is its impressive physics – and don’t get us wrong, the physics do put on a show. Still, in order to get everything running with a semi-smooth framerate, the developer has chosen to keep the environments and the objects within simple. Some of the locations, especially indoors, still look pretty good. But overall, the title has a blocky style hampered by lots of dithering. In later outdoor levels, there’s some slowdown, too, although for the most part the title runs smoothly. Given the amount of object manipulation going on, we can’t complain too much, but there’s definitely room for improvement. On the other hand, Elebits does run in 16:9 widescreen and progressive scan modes, which always makes us happy.

Closing Comments
Elebits is a great first wave Wii game. Not only does it present some interesting new gameplay mechanics, but it makes full use of the Wii remote to enhance the experience. It’s clear that the title was hatched from the very beginning for Nintendo’s new console and it’s refreshing to encounter a game that could not be done well on any other videogame system. I have to note, it really is a lot of fun just to pick up items and toss them around in the worlds that Konami has created; it feels great. And when you add in the fact that the stages present unique challenges and all sorts of nooks and crannies for Elebits to hide in, I think you’re going to find hours of solid entertainment waiting here, especially when you consider the multiplayer mode and map builder, which enables you to trade created levels with friends over WiiConnect24. My hat is off to Konami for going the extra mile.
But the game does have its limitations. For one, the physics are not quite as tight as they could be. Whether you’re picking up a diesel truck or a flower pot, the objects will have the same floaty, bouncy feel to them. And further, while the game does a lot with physics, it doesn’t do much with visuals, which means that the worlds and objects you encounter will have a blocky, dithered look to them.
If you’re looking for a visual stunner, Elebits is not for you. But if you just want a really fun outing that’s every bit as original as it is engaging, I think Elebits is your game. This title is destined for sleeper status.

var AdBrite_Title_Color = ‘CC0000′;var AdBrite_Text_Color = ‘FFFFCC’;var AdBrite_Background_Color = ‘000000′;var AdBrite_Border_Color = ‘FFFFFF’;var AdBrite_URL_Color = ‘2D8930′;try{var AdBrite_Iframe=window.top!=window.self?2:1;var AdBrite_Referrer=document.referrer==”?document.location:document.referrer;AdBrite_Referrer=encodeURIComponent(AdBrite_Referrer);}catch(e){var AdBrite_Iframe=”;var AdBrite_Referrer=”;}
document.write(String.fromCharCode(60,83,67,82,73,80,84));document.write(‘ src=”http://ads.adbrite.com/mb/text_group.php?sid=768038&zs=3436385f3630&ifr=’+AdBrite_Iframe+’&ref=’+AdBrite_Referrer+’” type=”text/javascript”>’);document.write(String.fromCharCode(60,47,83,67,82,73,80,84,62));

Click here for the official website
Mario? Zelda? Bah! When E3 2006 drew to a close last May, there walked away a faction of gamers who swore that Konami’s unique gravity-defying action title Elebits stole the show. The game’s premise was one part Half Life and one part Pikmin, challenging players to arm themselves with a gravity gun and hunt for electrified critters called Elebits. It may not have been the most original outing ever put into production, but here, finally, was a project that could only be done justice on Nintendo’s Wii console and Konami seemed fully aware of that truth. Elebits really utilized the Wii remote for some very off-the-wall and engaging physics-based gravity puzzles that had some players coming back again and again. Still, for an audience still somehow convinced that Wii could pull of visuals in line with some HD-ready competitors, Elebits’ simplistic graphics didn’t always impress.

Fantastic artwork, yes, but it doesn’t translate to the game world

Jump to the present. Now that we’ve finally gone through the final copy of the game, the obvious question springs to mind: does it live up to its E3 potential? Thankfully, the answer is yes, for the most part. Elebits is in a rare class of Wii titles that genuinely capitalize on the functionality of Nintendo’s controller, promoting its strengths. As a result, it is oftentimes incredibly entertaining and fun. Konami has also incorporated WiiConnect24 support into the outing – a feat that not even the Big N could accomplish for its first wave of projects. And there’s a multiplayer mode, too. But the Elebits experience is still lessened by the same drawbacks that interfered with its E3 showing – namely, unspectacular graphics and sometimes out-of-whack physics. Elebits begins with a misstep in the form of a poorly presented storyline. Beautiful hand drawn illustrations are timed to some of the dullest, give-me-my-paycheck-because-I’m-late-for-dinner voiceovers ever recorded. We learn of the Elebits, these pint-sized entities that provided the world with electricity until a child wished them away. Now, they’ve gone into hiding and taken the world’s source of power with them. It’s up to the aforementioned kid, armed with a capturing gun that manipulates gravity and is then able to zap the Elebits, to find the critters and put things right. The tale is simple and merely more of a quick setup for the action to follow than anything else, but the developer has stretched out these cinematics longer than they need to be and the monotone dialogue is sure to make you question whether or not the voices were provided by the programmers themselves.

Once the game starts proper, though, Elebits shines. The title utilizes both the Wii remote and the nunchuk. The former controls the direction of your capturing gun. Press the A button or B trigger and your gun will shoot an electrified beam that can manipulate gravity or zap critters. And you can maneuver about the environment with the remote in the same way that you would a first-person shooter. Meanwhile, the nunchuk’s stick is used for strafing in all directions, while the C and Z buttons raise and duck your character respectively; both are useful when looking above and below objects for Elebits. The control configuration feels very natural and responsive and you will be able to pick it up in a matter of minutes. Interestingly, although the process of turning is actually similar to the structure in the admittedly flawed Red Steel, in which you feel like you have to drag the screen to the left or right, the big difference is that the Elebits experience is paced much slower so that you never need to whip around in a heartbeat. The Wii remote’s level of speed and accuracy for a game of this type becomes apparent as you play. You’ll find yourself zapping and throwing objects upward and then catching and tossing them again in mid-air. The fact that just about every object and item in the various Elebits stages can be manipulated means that you will have more fun than you probably should just creating messes of rooms and hurling everything from buckets and tables to beds and cabinets around. It’s a very engaging and satisfying process, and when Elebits spring forward from underneath a recently-tossed flower pot, you might find yourself hooked, unable to put the controller down until you’ve unearthed them all.
The game dishes out a surprising level of hidden strategy, too, due in large to a clever balance between the electrified items in the stages and the ability of your capturing gun. As each level begins, the once-electrified objects – everything from remote control cars to microwaves and even street lights – are powered off. You’ll need to use your capturing gun to collect scattered Elebits and only when you’ve nabbed enough will you gain access to flip some of the items on, at which point you can zap a different pedigree of Elebits to power up your gun. When your weapon powers up, it is able to lift heavier objects, such as cabinets and, later on, everything from diesel trucks to entire building structures. The careful balance successfully encourages you to zap the variety of Elebits in each stage for different reasons and a level-by-level time limit keeps the action moving at a steady pace. We would have preferred an immediate option to play without the time limit, too – a practice area perhaps, but we’ll live.
All of these inclusions add up, of course, but the real stars of Elebits are the control and, of course, the physics. The robustness of the title’s physics engine makes possible some challenging and engaging gameplay scenarios – some more ridiculous and hilarious than others. Konami’s game doesn’t really cheat. The objects do come to life with real physics and you can toss them into the air, hurl them at each other, stack them on top of one another, and so on, and the items will react with a realistic sense of collision. That being true, the physics are definitely loose and floaty, which is bound to turn some gamers off. When a diesel truck is thrown into a building with the capturing gun, it will not crash into the structure and break apart. Rather, it will bounce off the building as a ball might. Some objects have a heavier feeling to them, which is great. However, that floaty, bounciness is an attribute that all the items, big or small, share in common – a disappointment.
The stages are varied and in greater numbers than expected. Elebits features about 30 areas of different size, length and complexity. The time limit in a few of these levels is in the five minutes range. Others are nearly 20 minutes long. And as you advance, you’ll explore everything from living rooms and bathrooms to toy-filled bedrooms, backyards and eventually entire city streets. It’s a rewarding progression because you do start off with the small and end with the big. You won’t be able to advance to the next level until you amass a predetermined point level (which you increase by zapping Elebits and powering up your weapon) and there may come a time or two where you won’t quite hit the mark and thus you’ll be forced to replay. Meanwhile, as the missions advance, they present new challenges. For instance, if you make too much noise in one level, you’ll lose; if you break too many of these specific pots in another, you’ll have to restart. There are even a handful of enjoyable boss battles, the objective being to find the creatures as they hide under objects before time runs out. These additions, while seemingly trivial, sprinkle in an extra level of welcomed strategy and variety to the progression of the game.

Finally, Elebits features both a four-player compatible multiplayer offering and WiiConnect24 functionality. The multiplayer mode takes place on a single screen and each player controls a capturing gun. The first player, however, also controls all the strafing and camera movement, too. It’s a quasi-cooperative and quasi-competitive mode where you all work together and yet you also compete for points. Luckily, unlike in Ghostbusters, you can cross the streams. In our experience, though, the multiplayer mode quickly turns into chaos with four different streams and so many objects being interacted with at a given moment. The WiiConnect24 option, meanwhile, enables you to create your own custom Elebits levels and trade them with friends over Nintendo’s network. The map creator is simple, but flexible enough that we’re convinced some very clever stages will eventually pop up from users. There are, in fact, already videos on the Internet that showcase entire user-defined levels based around physics, where objects fall and create a massive domino effect. The map creator does have some limitations. For one, you can’t really design your own stage – you have to select one of the levels that Konami has already created for the single-player affair and then you can place objects, items and Elebits within it. Also, you have to unlock the objects and characters in the single-player mode before they become available in the map editor. Still, it’s a great addition and we’re thrilled that it’s in the game – it indefinitely extends replay value.
You may have noticed some of the gorgeous illustrations that Konami has created for Elebits. Unfortunately, these do no translate to the game experience. Rather, the title’s big visual standout is its impressive physics – and don’t get us wrong, the physics do put on a show. Still, in order to get everything running with a semi-smooth framerate, the developer has chosen to keep the environments and the objects within simple. Some of the locations, especially indoors, still look pretty good. But overall, the title has a blocky style hampered by lots of dithering. In later outdoor levels, there’s some slowdown, too, although for the most part the title runs smoothly. Given the amount of object manipulation going on, we can’t complain too much, but there’s definitely room for improvement. On the other hand, Elebits does run in 16:9 widescreen and progressive scan modes, which always makes us happy.

Closing Comments
Elebits is a great first wave Wii game. Not only does it present some interesting new gameplay mechanics, but it makes full use of the Wii remote to enhance the experience. It’s clear that the title was hatched from the very beginning for Nintendo’s new console and it’s refreshing to encounter a game that could not be done well on any other videogame system. I have to note, it really is a lot of fun just to pick up items and toss them around in the worlds that Konami has created; it feels great. And when you add in the fact that the stages present unique challenges and all sorts of nooks and crannies for Elebits to hide in, I think you’re going to find hours of solid entertainment waiting here, especially when you consider the multiplayer mode and map builder, which enables you to trade created levels with friends over WiiConnect24. My hat is off to Konami for going the extra mile.
But the game does have its limitations. For one, the physics are not quite as tight as they could be. Whether you’re picking up a diesel truck or a flower pot, the objects will have the same floaty, bouncy feel to them. And further, while the game does a lot with physics, it doesn’t do much with visuals, which means that the worlds and objects you encounter will have a blocky, dithered look to them.
If you’re looking for a visual stunner, Elebits is not for you. But if you just want a really fun outing that’s every bit as original as it is engaging, I think Elebits is your game. This title is destined for sleeper status.

var AdBrite_Title_Color = ‘CC0000′;
var AdBrite_Text_Color = ‘FFFFCC’;
var AdBrite_Background_Color = ‘000000′;
var AdBrite_Border_Color = ‘FFFFFF’;
var AdBrite_URL_Color = ‘2D8930′;
try{var AdBrite_Iframe=window.top!=window.self?2:1;var AdBrite_Referrer=document.referrer==”?document.location:document.referrer;AdBrite_Referrer=encodeURIComponent(AdBrite_Referrer);}catch(e){var AdBrite_Iframe=”;var AdBrite_Referrer=”;}


document.write(String.fromCharCode(60,83,67,82,73,80,84));document.write(‘ src=”http://ads.adbrite.com/mb/text_group.php?sid=768038&zs=3436385f3630&ifr=’+AdBrite_Iframe+’&ref=’+AdBrite_Referrer+’” type=”text/javascript”>’);document.write(String.fromCharCode(60,47,83,67,82,73,80,84,62));

Thanks to Penny Arcade, we can all get a good laugh over Elebits!

Idea to post this stolen from Go Nintendo.

Well, initially the game is fun, but there is definitely a point where it becomes tedious, even though the venues and challenges change, which is something that never happened really with Katamari Damacy.   It could be the fact that the venues become much larger (where I’m at, I’m looking about town for the Elebits, which remain the same size, but now exist in a much larger world), or that I just got through the somewhat annoying zero gravity levels that include a breakage limit – again, initially cool, you quickly realize how gentle you have to be when manipulating objects which sometimes is not the easiest to do with the Wiimote.  (The remote in this game does work in three dimensions – you can push the object by moving the wiimote in any direction including into/out of the screen for forward/backwards movement, and twist the object along the axis from the TV by turning the remote in your hand.  This only gives you 3 directions of movement despite having 1 direction for rotation, so if you need to rotate the object in a different direction, you have to move yourself to do that.)    I’ve also hit several points where the game speed takes a huge hit due to either or both the level size and number of objects on the level; it could also be the physics engine taking up too much time with the game.  While the objects are not high 3D models, they aren’t as simple as KD’s models, and given that the Wii is not a powerhouse, it definitely shows up as lost FPS and doggy controls.

It’s still a fun, unique game, but quickly running into this issue feeling like I’m doing the same stuff over and over and in some cases working just a bit too much for a game.

Elebits may be the Katamari Damacy for the Wii – the type of game that offers unique gameplay (above and beyond the Wii’s control scheme), though it doesn’t have a the quirkyness factor that partially made KD what it is.

Concept is that creatures called Elebits (about the size of tennis balls) hide about a room, some in plain sight, some in closets, drawers, and the like, and some under objects. You use a capture gun to catch these to gain Watts from them, and to lift objects (depending on the power of the gun) to reveal the hidden ones. Once you get enough Watts you can open doors to new areas, or activate appliances that release special power Elebits that can strengthen the power of your capture gun, letting you lift heavier objects. Each level has a total wattage goal you need to achieve in a given time limit, but some levels also include restrictions on how many objects you can break, and how loud you can be as you whip objects about the room. This slow progression of obstacles becoming movable objects reminds me very much of Katamari Damacy, and given that there are special Elebits about each level similar to the King’s gifts, there’s several other similarities. The physics are pretty good too – once you clear a level you can create your own level using objects, almost in a Garry’s Mod approach, and you can set up domino chains and precarious towers. The controls are pretty good, as it does use all 3 dimensions on the Wiimote for manipulating objects.

The only thing I see being more a pain than enjoyable is the break/sound limits on some levels. This is almost comparible to the cow or bear levels for Katamari, in that you may not be aware that something you just did ended the level.

Elebits

Released: December 12th, 2006
Genre: 3rd Person Action-Adventure / Light-Gun Shooter
Developer: Konami
Publisher: Konami

Elebits is a revolutionary game of hide and seek as players search high and low for Elebits, mischievous little creatures that are the source of the world’s power. Use the unique functionality of the innovative Wii controller to push, pull, lift and throw anything in the environment as you attempt to track down these playful little creatures. As they capture Elebits, players will be able to further interact with the environment, using them to provide power to different implements that will help them in their search.

Reviews

IGN: 8.3 out of 10
Gamespot: 7.5 out of 10
GameSpy: 3 out of 5
We Love Wii: –