The original Elebits was released shortly after the Wii hit retail shelves and was a showcase for the new functionality offered by the Wii Remote. Playing from a first-person perspective, you scoured the environment in search of elusive electrically charged creatures, using the controller as a virtual wand to overturn kitchen appliances and shake down trees in an elaborate game of hide and seek. The sequel makes the leap to the Nintendo DS with the same basic capturing mechanics but shifts the vantage to a top-down viewpoint. The emphasis is now placed on clever puzzle design rather than over-the-top physics, which makes for a satisfying experience. The pointless evolutionary system and unimaginative visual design put a slight damper on the fun, but interesting levels and varied puzzles make this an engrossing, and surprisingly challenging, adventure.
The Good:
* Interesting puzzle design
* A multitude of different abilities to take advantage of
* Fun boss battles.
The Bad:
* Weak evolution system
* Uninspired visual design.
From Atlanta Video Game News Examiner:
"Halloween is past and Thanksgiving is fast approaching. That means it is time to start planning for your holiday shopping. One of the biggest problems when shopping for gamers is making sure that you buy a quality game that they will enjoy. There's nothing worse than getting a game for someone and finding out that it is buggy, has bad controls, or just isn't fun at all. So, we've come up with the best bets of recent releases for the two major hand-held platforms (Nintendo DS and the Sony PSP) for the 2009 holiday shopping season. We've broken it down not just by hand-helds but by genres as well. So click through on the links below for the hand-held and genre you'll be shopping for this year."
The first Elebits games was one of those odd, experimental things on the Wii. You know, the kind of thing people refer to as a "tech demo" just as much as they refer to as a "game". It basically used the Wii remote's motion-sensing abilities for a sort of virtual reality hide-and-seek. And… well, gameplay-wise, it really has little to do with its first sequel, The Adventures of Kai and Zero. Rather, the DS follow-up takes a somewhat more traditional path, opting to follow in the action-adventure footsteps of games like The Legend of Zelda.
Nintendo Life writes: "The original Elebits is one of the most enjoyable games we've played in a long time and Elebits: The Adventures of Kai and Zero is a similar story. The vibrant and childish graphics accompanied by the game's simple difficulty may point to the game being suited for younger audiences, but anyone can love The Adventures of Kai and Zero. If you never had the opportunity to play the original, do yourself a favor and pick up its sequel".
