WiiWare: Lost Winds Nintendo Wii Nintendo Everyone B

Nintendo has launched "WiiWare", which is essentially XBox Live Arcade for the Wii. Sure the Wii had it's Virtual Console but WiiWare is all new content designed for the Wii to be purchased and downloaded. WiiWare currently runs from $5-$15 and requires "Points" to be purchased either from the store or using cards. The first WiiWare title I have purchased, and likely the only one in the initial line-up, is LostWinds.

First of all, keep in mind that this is a $10 title, therefore the fact it only took 3 1/2 hours to play isn't so bad. The game is super cute, though missing a map of any sort even though I thought we all realized how important a map can be. You befriend a "wind spirit" and then go on a quest to discover what happened to "the evil guy", along the way you learn new tricks which are required to go more and more places. Everything is very standard to a platformer, though the controls are new, in order to jump you need the help of the wind which is controlled by the Wiimote.

I won't give away the end, but as I expect will be common in WiiWare titles the fact that a sequel is coming is pretty evident by the "To be continued...", and since WiiWare lends itself to episodic content, if I pay $40 for 4 mini games at 3 1/2 hours each, that is about on-par with what is expected out of quality games these days.