We've been having a torrid time with the Internet this month, though "without the Internet" is probably a better choice of words. Do you know what you can't do without the Internet? Download video games. Do you know what you definitely can't do, even with the Internet? Download WiiWare platformer LostWinds, an artsy little game about the wind, I imagine.
Luckily, it's been ported to the PC in the decade since that original release, and it's small enough to not require hours and hours of a stable Internet connection to download. Oh, what I'd give for a stable Internet connection...
Until then, let's see if we can chill out in this game I know nothing about.
Fun Times
LostWinds doesn't hang about and doesn't give you any menus to set your preferences. You click once and that's it, tutorials about how to move are underway. It's the A and D keys, as it happens. No W and S? Too complicated for now?
As we scurry about the starting screen, slowly clambering up ledges, I'm already wishing for a jump button, but that's not how LostWinds does things, as we soon find out when a pebble starts talking to us.
Similar to Super Mario Galaxy (a little), you control Toku here with the nunchuck, or A and D, and Enril, the Wind Spirit, locked away in a stone trying to contain the growing power of the evil Balasar, with the Wiimote, or the mouse in my case.
Whatever the wind can do, Enril can do, and what does a gust of wind do to a small child? It lifts them into the air. There's your jump button, a click and a swipe of the Wind Spirit.
It's not the greatest of control setups, with characters and mechanics feeling both weightless and weighty, right when you don't want either. Knowing how hard you can blow the wind or how close you can be to a ledge before you can grab onto it and haul yourself up, rather than fall down to the floor, does take a little getting used to, but these caves are designed for exactly that.
Until you get to a mysterious looking statue a minute later which grants you the power to gust the wind multiple times, allowing Enril to practically throw Toku through the levels instead.
While it looks like very simple platforming in these early stages, you'll catch glimpses of the kind of puzzles you'll be on the lookout for in the rest of the game. A little sprout can have water splashed on it to grow into a useful plant to spit you a great distance into the air, and flames can be spat this way and that, presumably to set something on fire.
No enemies yet, which is nice. No certain idea on the plot, either, though capturing Balasar once more makes the most sense. Outside of the cave, we bump into just the man to help us with that problem.
Unfortunately for Enril, Deo can't hear the Wind Spirit. I assume he once could, otherwise, why would Enril bother trying to talk to anybody? Anyway, because he can't hear the problem concerning Balasar's escape, our main quest actually appears to be picking up some herbs.
Sorry, spirits, but this guy definitely takes priority...
Whatever the root cause, it's done a number on the herb shop, blocking our way to the front door. I guess we'll have to investigate whatever this talking rock is banging on about instead.
It doesn't take too much effort to jump/fly around the town, heading up top to meet a bit of a character, an explorer of sorts who can actually hear Enril and knows a little about the local shrines dedicated to the Wind Spirit. I guess if we go and learn more about the spirits, we'll unlock more of Enrils' power and grow strong enough to defeat the almighty evil that threatens the land.
Or we'll be able to blow open the herb shop, who knows? Westward, we go!
Frustrations
Backtracking can take on a few different forms, many of which are often annoying. In a small game like LostWinds, backtracking allows you to reuse levels and pad out the game some more. It's taking on a little Metroidvania to keep the interest up - that route clearly looks blocked, make a note for later.
The more the game opens up, the more challenging it becomes of course. Enemies have been present for a while now, but I don't know what on Earth to do with them. Enril says to avoid the glorbs, I think they're called, because they'll stick to you, so I just fling Toku away from them as best I can with the environment I'm in.
I guess you can use a gust of wind to blow them out of the way, but to actually destroy an enemy, I have no idea what I need to do. Is it even possible? Is LostWinds trying to tell us to let nature be, even if it's evil?
In amongst this lot of troublemakers was a light puzzle to solve. A pressure plate opens a door, you can't stand on the plate and go through the door. You know what you need to do, and below is a boulder, made light as a feather by the Wind Spirit.
Sadly, it's so light that it's rather easy to fling around anywhere but where you want it to go. I had to plonk Toku on one side of the plate and use both him and the ledge to bounce the boulder off of. Evidently, Toku has an incredible ability to withstand the pain of a boulder flung into his face.
There wasn't much behind this door. Another boulder, some enemies, a collectable of some description. I'm sure it was important for me to come here, but right now, I don't know why. Let's follow the level to the next challenge.
Behind some obstacles that needed burning away and another pressure plate that needed a boulder from that same first pressure plate puzzle, there was another upgrade to Enril's skills. It was the ability to draw a slipstream through the air, which allows you more control over where your flames go, or the path which a helicopter-like seed can lift Toku through the air.
It was a little tricky to get at first, but it's just a click and drag and a hold of the mouse button. Maybe I'm getting dumber in my old age.
Final Word
I would have played a little more LostWinds after that, but I'm not sure I would have played too much. The controls weren't bad but they do take a little getting used to, and once you do you're left with the story and the graphics to pull you into the game world, and they feel just a little lacking for me.
Spirits and locked away evils breaking free. Bubbly little characters and a heroic child that will save the day. If this wasn't controlled with a Wiimote, LostWinds would be rather generic, wouldn't it?
Smaller games fall into tropes more easily, perhaps, but the control scheme actually tries to make use of the hardware and succeeds. I found Enril's pointer getting in the way of Toku too often, but then you are swiping through him this way and that to fling him into the air, so there's going to be a fair bit of obscured characters.
But what's going on with the enemies? Can I do anything with them with a gust of wind? Should I live in fear of everything that rooted to the level? I don't think it's that kind of game. Toku and Enril are a heroic duo, working together for the sake of the world. They're trying to defeat the big bad evil guy. A blob shouldn't cause any problems, but right now, they do.
Maybe I missed something, or haven't had it click in my head yet. As I say, I would have played a little more, but because I don't really care about what's going on, I'm not sure how much more. It's worth a look at because of its control scheme, certainly, but beyond that, I can't say I'm sold, not yet at least.
Fun Facts
An iOS release of LostWinds was an alternative option to the WiiWare original until an iOS update caused it to not start at all. The bug was never fixed, and it remains unplayable. Go preserve your digital media somewhere else?
LostWinds, developed by Frontier Developments, first released in 2008.
Version played: PC, 2016.