 Small, cute and the answer to energy problems of today: Meet the Eledees, the new age Pikmin, exclusively on the Wii.
Meet Kai
A young boy whose parents have no time for him. Ever since the Eledees landed and revolutionised the way the world is powered, Kai’s parents have spent their efforts researching how the Eledees work. As a result, Kai holds only bitterness toward these harmless looking creatures.
After a heavy lightning storm one night, all goes black and Kai’s parents chuff off to their lab to find out what’s happened. Now home alone, Kai’s only desire is to watch his TV program Ranger Heroes, yet how can he do that without the needed Eledees fuelled power? Naturally with the help of his father’s newest Eledees invention; the Capture Gun!
 What next?
Armed with the Capture Gun you must search every nook and cranny within Kai’s house, find the Eledees and generate enough power to watch the TV. You do this using the Wii-mote to aim at objects, which you can then move, shake, throw and sometimes break to flush those pesky creatures out. When you see an Eledee you simply aim at it and shoot. Simple.
Each Eledee you capture will earn you Watts. You must attain a certain level of Watts in order to pass a level within a time limit. If you complete the level with time to spare, you’ll have the option to continue until the time runs out, in order to get the most points possible.
At the end of each level as well as either completing or failing the level, you will also be given a rating. So kids, to summarise; the more points you have the higher the rating and the higher the rating, the more things you will unlock. Like different game modes such as; time attack or score mode (where you don’t have a time limit – great for level exploration) edit mode objects (where you can create your own levels) and some artwork goodies.
What a mess!
How therapeutic it is to completely trash a room by throwing things around in order to capture the Eledees, however my age must be getting the better of me as I can’t help but want to tidy things back up again afterwards…
As well as picking up objects, you can interact with others such as doorknobs (you twist the Wii-mote then pull toward you to open a door) or taps (which again you must twist). There are also electrical appliances which, once you’ve captured enough Eledees, you can turn on.
Turning on appliances results in lightning Eledees flooding out which are bright yellow in colour and upon capture, will increase the strength of your gun. The stronger your gun, the heavier the objects you can lift and to my great delight, throw across the room.
2D or 3D?
So how well does the room interact? Pretty well actually. If you threw, say, a table at a bookcase, the bookcase would fall and any objects on the bookcase would spread themselves across the floor. Breakables will shatter and Eledees will flee. (If you are violent, Eledees get scared and as a result they are worth less Watts when captured).
Eledees can also interact with objects so if you scare an Eledee and it runs around in a blind panic, you just may see it knock over Mums priceless Ming Vase… Funny but possibly resulting in a level failure.
How does it look?
It’s not exactly PS3 or Xbox 360 standards, but we all knew that when we parted our £1something last November. Eledees visually is smooth, colourful and real looking in a slightly cartoony way.
 Fill my ears with cheese:
This is a colourful and animated game, and the music follows suit very well. It’s light, simple and varied enough not to grate on your mind. Eledees make their tiny little squeaks and plonks, appliances sound as they should and the game is accompanied by some serious laughing as I trash someone else’s house with prejudice. Awesome.
Multiplayer mess:
Multiplayer games follow the same theme as the single player, and with the right friends you will be laughing for a good while pitting your reflexes against each other. The biggest problem, however, is the fact that one of the players will have total control over where the camera is pointed which can be hard to get use to. To be fair, there’s no better way to get around this without having a split screen – and the lack of a split screen is a massive plus.
Edit away:
When tired of the normal game, players can enjoy making their own levels. A great if not expected feature to have; especially when you can share your levels online.
The edit mode is clear and runs without too many glitches however you’ll have a limited amount of edit objects to use initially as most of them will be unlocked as you progress through the game.
Does it last?
Eledees takes the Wii gimmick to the max, utilising the Wii-mote effectively to push, throw, shake, rotate and aim at things however, like the Wii craze itself, the novelty does wear thin and a lack of variation of objectives and game style may mean that the box disappears on to the shelf for a while before returning to your TV screen for another blast at a few levels.
Finally, there’s a nice little feature whereby you can take screenshots, which, if you’re online, you can share with your friends (along with any levels you’ve created).
That said, Eledees is a great experience, moving away from the more common game genres and supported by great visuals and sounds to make it worth your hard earned cash.
The Scores:
Gameplay – 8 / 10: The tutorials are clear and as captivating as a tutorial can be and once you’re into the game, it is easy to get into the swing of things.
Graphics – 9 / 10: Pretty and colourful. There are no glitches and movement is nice and smooth.
Sound – 8 / 10: Everything sounds as it should. The music tracks are varied enough to continue being interesting. There are even voice actors!
Multiplayer – 7 / 10: Because one of the players will have total control of the camera, things can get frustrating at first, however it has all the pro’s that the single player does.
Lifespan – 6 / 10: There is a lack of variety in the levels and the hidden features are not very inspired. This will be an on off relationship with most.
Overall: 76%
Rank: C
Review by Ben Heron
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