Lost Winds comes soaring into the Wii Ware launch with flying colors. The developer, Frontier, give us a title that makes us truly appreciate what the Wii is all about. Frontier has a history of successful titles and it’s no surprise that Lost Winds becomes a hit as they have created something special. Using simple gameplay mechanics, it should come as no surprise why Lost Winds would be picked as the highlight of Wii Ware’s launch. Giving you colorful visuals and a young bright character to follow, Lost Winds should be the template for developers to follow for their future releases. At 1,000 Wii points, this is something you won’t be disappointed.

You control the Wind

Lost Winds gives you the chance to control the Wind spirit, Enril, with your Wiimote. Controlling your character is simple as you use the Nun-Chuck to move across the 2D plane. What Lost Winds does well is that its overall control quickly becomes second nature as you seemingly fly your way through the world of Mistrail. With your Wii remote in hand, you draw directional paths on the screen to enhance Toku’s jumps and to help defeat and escape your enemies.

Toku finds out that his world of Mistrails and its people are under the evil influence of Balasar. You must go on an adventure to save the people from Balasar and keep him from controlling the world. After learning the basics, you eventually get a boost in the form of a wind gust, which makes it easier for Toku to climb high ledges. With this wind gust, you begin to enter caves and find yourself climbing high cliffs.

There are various items later in the game that help you refill your health and wind gusts. Unfortunately, you aren’t in complete control of the wind. In certain places, some are obvious and others you might have to search for, there is food that you will find that you have to pull out of the ground after pressing the Z button to refill your health. There are also various stones around the levels that give you extra bursts for your wind control.

The single player campaign is disappointingly short. Players may find themselves wanting more to know more about the story and the character’s they have met along the way. Players may find themselves completing the game in around 3 hours. This makes it entirely possible to beat the game in just a single sitting. Even at only 1000 Wii Points, many gamers may be disappointed with the length of Lost Winds.

Visuals: Strikingly Beautiful

Lost Winds carries with it the most beautiful visual style you can see with the current Wii Ware launch line up. Beautiful foreground and background 3D environments make the world feel bigger than it actually is. Wind gusts affect the trees and objects around you, as well, this really helps to immerse gamers in the experience that Lost Winds offers. The opening presentation alone lets you know that you will be dealing with a high quality title. It is quite surprising that Frontier was able to fit such great graphics in a tiny package.

Sound: All clear here!

No quibbles here with the sound design of Lost Winds. You can easily hear the effort put into giving you the experience of dealing with the wind and the orchestrated in-game music. The soundtrack just adds to the overall experience and with character sounds you won’t notice any hiccups. It is always refreshing to hear the gusts of wind as you draw its directional path or even find yourself playing around with the paths on their own.

The PlasmaFactor

Lost Winds doesn’t just sit back and give you a lazy performance that you’ll likely forget. Although it has a short single player campaign, which is the only disappointment of the title, you might find yourself returning to the island of Mistrails continually amazed by the storyline and general feel of the title. With a price tag of 1,000 Wii points, Lost Winds is one title you shouldn’t be disappointed in purchasing. Lost Winds isn’t overly difficult and gives you quite clever puzzles and action sequences that make it a good time. Frontier’s effort has easily taken advantage of the 37MB cap limit, and Lost Winds can easily be considered a benchmark for future developers to follow.

Conclusion

If you’re looking for that one Wii Ware title to really give you the experience of the power of the Wiimote, than you won’t be disappointed with Frontier’s effort. They have clearly shown they are serious about creating Wii Ware titles. With more releases like Lost Winds, Wii Ware has the potential to be one of the premier download services that can easily compete with the original titles of the Playstation Network and Xbox Live Arcade. Sticking under the 37 MB cap limit wasn’t a problem for Frontier and hopefully other developers take notice and use all of this space to their advantage.