Mario: Runs, jumps, bops enemies on the head. Sonic: Runs at the speed of sound, spin-jumps, spin-dash enemies. Lara Croft: Runs around in circles, jumps like a mad woman, shoots enemies. Yoshi: Runs, flutter-jumps, eats enemies. Toku: Walks, unable to jump unless hurling himself off a cliff, can’t deal with enemies himself.

Instead, LostWind’s hero is forced to rely on a wind “Spirit”, who reminds us of the Pixl from Super Paper Mario. Going by the name of Enril, they are what makes Lost Winds a real must-buy. He was caught in a battle against the game’s main villian previously, and trapped him, only now there forces are starting to disrupt the land, hence your adventure.

So what exactly is it that makes LostWinds as good as it is? Enril, as a Wind Spirit, can control the wind. A simple flick of the remote creates a path of wind for it to be blown down. This lifts, moves and even mixes objects, elements and Toku.

This is put to particularly good effect once you’ve unlocked slipstreaming. Simply press and hold “B” to make a path, and then watch as it follows along. Our favorate example of thisis part where Toku and Enril are stuck in a cave, there are enemies everywhere, but once you’ve picked them off, they’re a fire at the entrance, several unlite torches, a waterfall by a patch of soil, and then just at the end of the cave, a plant that spits you super-high. Theres also a gap by the waterfall for you to go up, but you can’t. And no, you can’t just move the plant.

TURN AWAY NOW IF YOU DON’T WANT THE SOLUTION SPOILT.

How do you do it? Firstly, slipstream the fire to the next torch, then onto the next one, and the next one, and so on. Eventualy, you’ll be close to the plant. Slipstream the fire onto the plant, to kill the plant and recive a seed as a result. Carry it over to the soil, and plant it. But huh? It’s not grown. So use he slipstreaming tool again to blow water from the waterfall onto the plant, making it grow, so you can shoot up. Amazing.

FEEL FREE TO COME BACK.

It was clever moments like that one that had us starting campaigns on behalf of Zack & Wiki, but the other thing the choclate-munching pirate’s adventure managed to impress us with was the cel-shaded graphics. And, guess what? LostWinds has surpassed them. (Or at leats matched them.) LostWinds is absolutely beautiful, not just in terms of lush visuals, but also style.

However, for every moment where you have a “Eureka!!” yell usualy saved for Capcom & Nintendo’s adventures, or a “Superb.” Platforming shout that is normaly only for Mario & 2D Sonic games, theres a couple of hours shaved off the end of LostWinds.

It realy deserved to be a 30-Hour quest that we’ll be drawn into, (Which can be done, if Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicals: My Life As A King# and Eternaty’s Child are anything to go by) but it’s not. It’s got roughly 6 Hours of Gameplay, or around 15-20 hours if you’re after all of the hidden relics. But that’s what gives it the Gameplay value. You didn’t want it to end.

WiiWare promised a lot, and if it weren’t for LostWinds it wouldn’t of achived many of them, for a mere £7. Thank Frontier for all Nintendo, just beg them to make the sequal a tinsy bit longer…

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