I didn't fall for the Nintendo Wii hype. Too gimmicky. Too childish. Too few buttons on the controller (which wasn't even shaped like a controller) and not enough horses under the bonnet to put on a good show, the Wii didn't raise any interest from me, and a great many of its must-play games are unknown to me.
Games like Elebits, a first-person shooter of sorts where you play as young Kai, a kid hunting for Elebits hidden inside cupboards and under desks. Hmm. Not exactly a thrilling description, but it sure fits the family-friendly approach of the console it was developed for.
How good are we at hide and seek? Well, we only need the seek part, really. How good are we are finding stuff? Let's find out.
Fun Times
The story of Elebits goes like this. In this world, elebits power everything. If it runs on electricity, it actually runs on elebits. They came from lightning, and Kai doesn't like lightning. Not because he's a kid and gets scared, no. Because his parents care more about researching the elebits than they do about looking after their own child.
A power outage causes his parents to rush off to their lab, leaving him home alone. "No worries," thinks Kai, "I'll just watch some TV. Waaaait a minute..." he realises. The elebits power the TV. There's no power to anything. He needs to catch some elebits and put them back to work.
How to catch the little rascals? With his dad's gravity gun, of course. And that's all the plot you need to know for Elebits. Let's get shooting.
No mouse and keyboard, no dual analogue sticks, the Wii has you navigate Elebits using the Nunchuck stick to move around your invisible feet and the Wiimote to point the camera in the right direction. I'm emulating Elebits, so have a Frankenstein-like set up involving the mouse and an Xbox controller. It's not perfect, but it'll do, and it's tweakable should I want to stick around to play more.
The gameplay is simple. Little elebits are hiding around the room, skiving from work. Pressing the A button brings your gravity beam to life, where you can suck up elebits for two purposes, charging up the electricity meter and picking up heavier stuff with your gravity beam.
Basic elebits provide you with power to turn on all kinds of electronic devices, which then spray out a bunch of advanced elebits to power up your gun.
When you've captured enough to turn the lights on, you'll see what a mess you've made of this place in your hunt for elebits. The contents of shelves and cupboards get scattered all over the floor as you fling them out of the way. Elebits like to hide behind, under, and inside all sorts of things. The more you look, the more you'll find. The more you find, the more stuff you can turn on. The more stuff you turn on, the more you can lift with your gun. The more you can lift with your gun, the more elebits you find.
Each level tasks you with finding a certain amount of elebits within the time limit, and that's pretty much the gameplay loop.
You will find items scattered around the levels which may help you out, though. From cookies that coax elebits out of their hiding spots to supercharged auto-targeting weapon upgrades, you usually have to throw them into walls or smash them on the floor to get them to work.
No, really. You've got to make use of the motion controls somehow, right?
Frustrations
I know my cobbled-together set up is not representative of the actual Nintendo Wii, but it's good enough. To make the motion-controlled gimmick work, it's put to use in Elebits with manipulating objects, especially by twisting the Wiimote, as though you are turning a door handle. Combined with a flick of the Wiimote to actually swing the door open, you'll be groaning at any message that points out that a door has now been unlocked.
Not only do you have to shamble your way over there using the Nunchuck and Wiimote, but you'll have to grab the handle, twist the knob, pull the door... What's behind this one?
An electric toilet. Good Lord. Wasn't expecting that. Annoyingly, as soon as you walk through a door, it shuts behind you. Instead of just backing up through the doorway, now I have to struggle to turn around before faffing with the door handle again. All while the clock ticks down.
The first level in the bedroom was a nice introduction. The second level in the hallway was much more of a problem to navigate, and rather dull at the end of the day. I gave Elebits one more level before deciding whether I'd seen enough. We're venturing into Mom & Dad's room...
It was absolutely packed full of stuff to fling around and electronics to turn on, including product placement from EPSON. Weird. But was it enough to keep me playing Elebits?
Final Word
No, it wasn't. It's a fun little distraction to fling around objects you know won't get damaged and you won't have to put back afterwards. For a sandbox, it's alright. But it's not a sandbox, it's a game of hide and seek, with light puzzle-solving in terms of the order in which you tackle something to be efficient with your time.
Does it give you an interesting thing to do with the Wiimote? Yes. Does it get boring over time? It did for me.
There is mention of making your own levels, though, so should you get through the storyline there's still fun to be had. How much fun you can have with Elebits I don't know. I've seen what I want to see, and I'm not bothered if I've missed anything. I'm done with it. I don't need to touch it again.
Was it a must-play? Eh, I suppose. You can't compare it to physics sandboxes on the PC, for example, because this is a game about hunting elebits, not about playing with physics. It's the family-friendly Garry's Mod, with ready-made levels and goals. Nothing wrong with that. Nothing remarkable, either.
Fun Facts
Not surprisingly, Half-Life 2 was an inspiration, and efforts were made to give a sense of weight to the objects in the game so that manipulating them felt right.
Elebits, developed by Konami Digital Entertainment, first released in 2006.
Version played: Nintendo Wii, 2006, via emulation.