Well, heeding the advice of the omnipotent Colette Bennett, I went ahead and picked up Lost Winds. One of the first titles available on the new WiiWare channel it cost me $10 and about 3 hours of my life.

I have to say I didn't know what to expect after making my purchase. Colette is typically reliable in her assessment of games, but since she is into RPG's and I'm more of an Adventure/FPS fan I didn't know if her flavor of gaming greatness would match up with my own. Needless to say I wasn't disappointed.

*imaginary JUMP*

I had just gotten home from work and was hungry. So I decided to heat up the grill outside and prepare some Brats for cookin by dunking them in a pan of beer (if you haven't tried this then you're doing it wrong).

I went back inside and found my download had finished. Eager to tryout my new game I dove right in and was surprised by my first impressions. The music in this game is very mellow, incorporating wooden flute sounds and smooth synth textures to create a very Zen world to explore.

Lost Winds is basically a side scrolling 2D adventure game with great perspective backgrounds that make it almost feel 3D. The main character is a small boy, with a very large head, who you move by using the control stick on the Nunchuck.


cool looking artwork

However another way to move the little guy around is by harnessing the power of the wind spirit Enril that you discover early on in the game. By pressing and holding the A button you drag in any direction and move things in the environment around. This is really the best and most efficient way to get around.

After finding powerups you find yourself able to drag your character up in the air multiple times and eventually able to coast around and glide through air. The Air spirit can help you by pulling fire off of torches from across the room to burn down doors and more.



After I had been completely immersed in this game for about an hour I realized I was feeling kinda hungry. I thought maybe some chips and salsa would hit the spot. Of course thats when it dawned on me that I had left those damn brats on the grill ages ago.

Those brats had been reduced to crumpled shells of their former selves and were completely inedible. They were on fire. I basically decided to just turn off the gas and leave the brats to melt further into oblivion while I went back for more Lost Winds.

I highly recommend you pickup this game, for 1000 Wii points is a real bargain, just make sure you have snacks close by and not on the grill.