Published by: Konami
Developped by: Konami Elebits is an exclusive game built from the ground up for the Wii by Konami and could be best described as a first person hide and seek shooter game.
STORY: You play Kai, a young boy who has been left at home, alone while his parents are investigating the strange behavior of the local Elebits, those little creature that provide electricity. Because Kai can't watch his favorite TV show, he goes on to get his father's capture gun and starts to hunt down Elebits.
To be honnest, the story itself is not what you will be playing the game for. The story unfolds through a few scenes where you are presented with synopsis of what is going on. The only thing to look forward to is actually the beautiful drawings that are shown during those scenes. The artwork is absolutely mindblowing, which is far from the case when it comes to the voice acting of the different characters, namely Kai and his parents.
GAMEPLAY: The controls work amazingly well. Use the nunchuck to move around, crouch (using the lower Z button) and raise on your toes (using the upper C button). Use the wiimote to look around (by aiming close to the edges of the screen), to pick up and move object (by pressing the A button and sometimes by pulling, pushing or twisting the wiimote), and to aim at and capture Elebits (by pressing either the A or B buttons).
It is worth mentionning that the game includes a tutorial mode in which you will gradually learn the new controls needed for the upcomming stages. You can always go back to the tutorial later on if you forgot about certain tricks.
Aiming and capturing Elebits is surprisingly accurate. You will be able to target distant Elebits that are moving and capture them without second thought. Of course capturing Elebits gets easier when using certain items, especially the vacuum and homing lasers which allow you to capture numerous Elebits at once.
The action takes place in a variety of stages, both inside your house and outside in your neighborhood, including the local theme park. Each stage varies in difficulty, raising the bar as you move on. You will need to clear stages within a set time period by capturing enough Elebits to provide the number of Watts specified, and sometimes without breaking more than a certain amount of objects or without making too much noise. All of that while being subjected to a powerful physic engine (not all stages feature the same amount of gravity!).
Except for the boss stages, each stage plays pretty much the same way: find and capture Elebits that yeild Watts, which in turn will power up certain appliances, which when turned on will release power Elebits, which will increase your capture gun's power, allowing you to lift bigger objects, thus finding even more Elebits that yeild Watts... and so on until you clear the stage.
The game also feature a multiplayer mode where up to 4 players can play at once. In multiplayer, one of the player controls the movement and camera while everyone tries to capture the most Elebits. May the best shooter win!
GRAPHICS: This game has a very nice artstyle, especially in the story scenes. The stages feature an incredible amount of different objects, from pencils, to computers, trophies, lawnmower, vegetables, all the way to bulldozers and theme park rides. All of these are a mix of cartoony and realistic artstyle that give a special feel to the game. I like games with unique artstyles, and this game has that.
SOUND: Each stage features it's own musical background. However, you will be so caught up in the action that you will barely notice it's even there. The sound effects however are varried and will complement the gameplay, you will probably even wince when you notice you broke yet another vase in one of those stages where you shall not break too much stuff. Also, pay attention to the Elebit noises, they will give you a clue that there are Elebits around that you might not see.
VALUE: This game features 29 levels, including the boss fights. This might seem short, but fear not, you will not stop there. There are so many unlockables in this game that it's crazy and it will have you play and replay numerous times just to unlock them, and then you will replay again to use those unlocked modes and items!
First, there's the Edit mode which allows you to create and share (through Wiiconnect24) stages. You will need to get a score of C or better in order to be allowed to use the stage setting in edit mode, then you will need to get a score of B or better in order to unlock an object package to be used in edit mode (note that these objects can be used in any stage you made, not just the one in which it was originally unlocked).
Then there are the three pink Elebits hidden in each stage (excluding the boss fights). Capturing these will unlock different play mode for each of the stage namely score attack mode, eternal mode, and challenge mode.
This game has crazy replay value, especially if you know a lot of other people who own the game and you are all going on an edit more/sharing frenzy.
As a closing word, I would say that Elebits is a great game which couldn't have been done on any other system and the Wii controls definitely have made this game an amazing experience. I recommend this game to anyone who like to play something new, as this game definitely stands out of the croud, in a good way!
