Well one developer, Konami is already lending a big hand with its release of Elebits for the Wii. This quirky title not only has all the charm of something delivered in house by Nintendo, but also utilizes the Wii control system quite effectively making for one of the more enjoyable surprises in the Wii launch window.

Elebits are cute living beings that contain a mysterious form of energy. In their world, there is not gasoline, natural gas, or nuclear energy. Everything in their world runs off the Elebits mysterious power. In the story, you play as Kai, a 10-year-old boy who’s mom and dad are scientists who perform Elebits research. With a total devotion to their work, they don’t pay as much attention to young Kai so he grows to hate the Elebits. One day a big lightning storm strikes their town and zaps all the power. Kai wishes to watch TV, but alas no power means no TV. He decides it is the Elebits fault for the storm so grabs his dad’s capture gun to capture all the Elebits in the house thus beginning your adventure.

Visually Elebits at first glance looks very simple much like Toy Commander on the Dreamcast did. Just like the great DC game, it is not how many textures or polygon this game has that counts, it is how they react in their surroundings. Elebits has a great physics engine that allows you to move not only small objects like flashlights, lamps, and vases. The real joy, much like Katamari Damacy, is when in later levels you can move large objects such as cars and fixed structures like homes! While the textures leave a lot to be desired, there is a great deal going on screen at one time and the lighting varies from level to level-creating mood. The game’s story is delivered by some wonderful artwork cut scenes that are incredibly illustrated and full of color. Unfortunately there are only a handful of Elebit types, but thankfully there are many Elebit emotions such as sleeping, fleeing, surprise, crying, etc that keeps the game interesting each time you play. For the most part, with all your chaotic moving and capturing you will soon not care how many types there are, but how many you can capture.

The controls in Elebits, much like the visuals, are simplistic on the surface, but you will find plenty of depth once you get further into the game’s story. You’ll look around, crouch and stretch up with the nunchuck controller. With the Wii-mote, you’ll use your capture gun. Here you can aim, fire beams, grab objects, twist objects, throw objects, and even push and pull objects by doing the motions yourself with the Wii-mote. In the beginning, it is easy to get carried away tossing things back and forth without a care in the world except to capture Elebits. Once you get into later levels though, you must put more thought into your procedures as not only will you be penalized from breaking objects, but also your success will be determined on what state you capture your Elebits in. Each level has a watt level you much reach in a certain amount of time. If the game relied on you just finding Elebits and zapping away, that would be too easy. The trick is watching the actions of the Elebits as this determines how many watts each is worth upon capture. For instance, you will get more watts if you capture an Elebit while asleep rather than running in terror.

While the story mode is a single player affair, Elebits does offer a fun multiplayer mode in which you can determine which room you choose (after unlocking them in story mode), how long you have on said level, and how many watts to complete it. What’s more, you can even design your own levels and share them over Wii 24 Connect to add more longevity to your game.

It is great to see Konami lend a creative hand to the Wii, and not just porting an already established title and adding Wii controls. It’s games like Elebits that will make or break this console, and it is up to developers, much like the DS, to come up with new and exciting ways to utilize the endless possibilities with the control scheme. I just hope gamers appreciate this title for what it is worth and if we do see a sequel, bring on the multiplayer online play. In the end, if you own a Wii and want something that not only uses the controller to its fullest and provides a unique since of humor and game play, then Elebits should be in your Wii library. A great first wave title indeed.