Elebits is the best example yet of the relatively few games that have been genuinely designed for the Wii from the ground up. The ease with which the Wiimote controls have been implemented and the sheer amount of thought and invention on display in this title is testament to Konami's design team and a fascinating signpost of things to come.
The wiimote controls the direction of your capturing gun, just like in any normal FPS. The nunchuk's stick is used for strafing in all directions, while the C and Z buttons raise and duck your character respectively; both are useful when looking above and below objects for Elebits. The control configuration feels very natural and responsive and you will be able to pick it up in a matter of minutes. Of course, what takes moments to learn can often take a lot longer to master and Elebits is no exception.
The first level offers a gentle introduction to the game’s mechanics. In a nutshell, it’s your job to search the house for Elebits and then zap them when they appear. Some Elebits wander around in the open whereas most of them hide behind or underneath household objects. Pointing at an object while keeping your finger on the A button allows you to pick it up. Once this has been achieved, you can shake it to unearth the hiding Elebits. When they drop to the floor, you need to zap them, which will then add their power to your gun’s energy meter.
Many objects cannot be lifted up at first as they are too heavy and it is necessary to capture more and more Elebits in order to charge up the power meter. It’s a simple pyramid power-scheme whereby many lighter objects need to be shaken and their Elebits captured before you can move up to bigger pieces of furniture. Although you start off most stages shaking nothing bigger than a vase, by the end of some you can be throwing beds around the room and trucks around the street!
There are two main types of Elebits: one group increases your electricity meter to help you gain enough watts to complete the stage and the other group increases the power of your gun. Both of these groups are split into several different colours of Elebits, each with their own distinct hiding places and power boosts and knowing when to capture them is key. Pick up too many of the low power ones too soon and you will never have enough watts to complete the stage.
As the game progresses, the Elebits become harder to find and it is crucial to recognise when to best utilise the various power-ups available. Many stages cannot be completed if too much noise is made. Finding the noise reduction power-ups on these stages is essential and often results in a frantic treasure hunt. Combining the necessary patience with a ticking clock can often lead to a sweating brow and an initially pedestrian stage can soon turn into a nail-biting climax.
As your power increases, you also have the ability to open doors and access new areas of the house. This gives the game a strategic edge as it is often necessary to move from one room to the next and then back again to achieve the power total necessary to complete the stage. Judging how long to stay in each room searching for the last few Elebits can make or break the level and gives the game a welcome frantic atmosphere at times.
Electrical items in the house are a major source of Elebits. Objects from vacuum cleaners to microwaves can be switched on once you have the required power in your gun. These objects then release more and more powerful Elebits that enable you to turn on bigger and more powerful electrical items. There is no set way to progress in many of the stages and how you achieve the necessary power is always down to the individual. Even replayed stages feel slightly different each time you play them and this gives the game a unique sense of longevity.
After a few hours play, it’s easy to think that the novel game play has begun to wear a bit thin. Thankfully, the developers have been wise enough to see this possibility and have made future stages super devious to compensate. On early levels, it’s a simple case of finding as many Elebits as possible before the time limit runs out. Capture enough Elebits in the required amount of time and it’s on to the next. However, later stages include a sound meter: break too many objects and it will soon be game over. This means that the unbridled carnage of previous stages has to be readdressed and an altogether more stealthy approach is necessary for success. The Elebits also start to fight back. Some stages have toy tanks and other mini-dangers that will fire on you. Get hit too often and your energy meter will drain, resulting in game over. To help overcome these hurdles, the game includes a number of power-ups. These range from cookies that will attract the Elebits to shields and sound reducers that allow you to wreak havoc without suffering the consequences. It’s very well balanced and some stages that initially appear to have a surfeit of power-ups soon reveal them selves to be almost impossible if you are too greedy too quickly.
Although it is essentially a single player game, there is a multiplayer mode which takes place on a single screen with each player controlling a capturing gun. The first player, however, also controls all the strafing and camera movement. It's a quasi-cooperative and quasi-competitive mode where you all work together and yet you also compete for points. Unfortunately, the multiplayer mode quickly turns into chaos with four different streams and so many objects being interacted with at a given moment.
The WiiConnect24 option, meanwhile, enables you to create your own custom Elebits levels and trade them with friends over Nintendo's network. The map creator is simple but does have some limitations. For one, you can't really design your own stage - you have to select one of the levels that Konami has already created for the single-player affair and then you can place objects, items and Elebits within it. Also, you have to unlock the objects and characters in the single-player mode before they become available in the map editor. Still, it's a great addition and it indefinitely extends replay value.
There is a joyous amount of interaction to be found in Elebits: clothes can be put in the washing machine; CDs in the stereo; food in the microwave and bread in the toaster. Every cupboard can be opened, taps turned on, toilets flushed, every electrical appliance switched on and just about every object in the game can be picked up and thrown around at some stage. It’s a deviant’s dreamscape brought to life.
What could have been little more than an extended tech demo has actually turned out to be one of the finest Wii games to date and certainly the most novel and interactive. Nintendo’s consoles have always been a home for those developers with a keen eye for invention where graphics are not top of the agenda. Gamers looking for something different would do well to pick up Konami’s latest offering.