Nintendo surprised us all this morning by releasing a new, previously unseen WiiWare title, Art Style: Orbient. The game is the first in the Art Style series that Nintendo are saying combine “deep game play with atmospheric flair and simple, elegant controls that anyone can pick up and enjoy.”
Curious, I decided to hop on WiiWare and spend 600 of my own Wii Points to see what Orbient was all about. I grabbed video of the introductory tutorial that you can watch above, but the general idea involves pushing and pulling a star using gravity (the A button) and anti-gravity (the B button). You collect other stars to grow in size, and manuever around dangerous red planets to avoid collisions.
Getting used to how sensitive the gravity and anti-gravity was a slightly frustrating experience for me, as I found myself colliding into larger planets (and losing) more often than I would have liked. My wife, on the other hand, picked up the concept a bit quicker than me … she’s also smarter and much prettier than I am. But we both agree that the gravity concept and game design is neat, but we’re not particularly compelled to play it beyond the 30 initial minutes we spent with it.
Obviously, your mileage may vary, and we’d love to hear your thoughts if you’ve already forked over your six dollars for Orbient.
Two more unannonced Art Style games are set to hit WiiWare in October.
