Eledees (Wii) Review
Elebits or Eledees?
Elebits has finally arrived, albeit under the scope of a different name, that of Eledees. One of the more quirky titles from Konami, Eledees sees you set to explore areas in the midst of a blackout in search for tiny electric critters that are strangely enough, called Eledees. With much of whats special about the game related to Wiimote control is Eledees a gimmick or a romp that lasts the test of time?
Suck em up!
In a nutshell, the objective to any stage in Eledees is to capture enough of them to meet certain conditions in a set time limit. Sounds fairly easy, but in fact searching every nook and cranny is not quite so. With a simple tap of the A button you can fire a beam that can be used to both capture stray Eledees and manipulate objects in the environment. What such manipulation comes down to can be anything from twisting a door knob to sifting through a bookshelf to scare out anything hiding within. There are a huge number of objects that can be manipulated as well, and at some point youll find yourself displacing almost every piece of furniture in sight.
The game is a little more structured than that however. Initially your beam can only be used to manipulate under objects of a weight. As you collect more Eledees you can gain enough energy to activate certain appliances in the house. These will spit out special Eledees which can be used to power up your arsenal to move heavier gear. Throughout a level youll cycle through these processes repeatedly, however the huge distribution of different types of objects to manipulate in different ways along with multiple types of Eledees and a large collection of items to assist in your Eledee hunting, the repetitiveness is more bearable. The arcade style of the game makes it difficult to resist and with solid implementation of the Wii remote, the game is genuinely good fun to play.
Dont leave your junk everywhere
The most annoying graphical gripe of Eledees actually coincides with on the most original traits of the game. Its not particularly uncommon to see a dip in the frame rate and for slowdown to occur in the larger areas where there are a huge number of objects youve littered everywhere. Otherwise, the best way to describe Eledees would be as simple as that it hardly sets the standard for the Wii hardware. There is nothing of particular visual appeasement that will stand out from the game, although as far as function goes theyre acceptable for the type of game Eledees is. If you want to muck around throwing chairs around a house this is for you but if youre the type of person who digs next generation graphics you should look for your kicks elsewhere.
Eledees: Cute or Annoying
Its worth noting that the sounds Eledees make are a sort of love-hate concept. While its all very cute at first, their squeaking and shrieking begins to wear thin on those with little patience later on. The musical score is written to be just as quirk as the games concept. Expect some bouncy tunes along the theme of lets go exploring that are good but not particularly earth shattering. They work well in keeping the mood and theme of the game alive and thats really the best that can be expected.
Eledoo or Eledont?
If youre the type of person who enjoys a classic arcade style romp then Eledees is a great candidate for a purchase for your Wii. The controls hit the nail square on your head and are most certainly one of the better implementations seen so far. The single player story of Eledees could probably only be stretched to nine or so hours and after that the replay ability comes from a number of additional modes that all have a twist on the main game. Multiplayer support for up to four players is great at a party or when your mates around for some fun and the addition of a level editor and the ability to share these via Wii 24Connect make for some extensive extras. However, its all much of the same thing, and like all arcade games the true nature of the replay value is to beat your score and see how high you can push your skills. On occasion the game can even get repetitive for those who enjoy it.
Eledees is the sort of game most of you will pull out of your cupboard when you get the inkling to play it and not really anything youd devote too many straight hours to. Recommending Eledees is based purely on the type of replay value you enjoy as a gamer. While not epic quest, Eledees is something new, fresh and importantly, a lot of fun, even if it lacks the extra polish to back up its impressive ground foundations of gameplay.
