A solid gas of a game. http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/impressionsArt.cfm?artid=14025 Konami may have high hopes for Dewy's Adventure on Wii. During its press conference it went as far as mentioning it and Metal Gear Solid 4 in the same breath. (Then again, people didn't show up because they wanted to see the newest Dewy's Adventure trailer.) I got the opportunity to get some hands-on time with Dewy at Konami's booth on the show floor, and while it may not draw the anticipation of Snake's next big game (no, not
that one) it should still turn some heads.
Dewy is a water droplet. You can slide him around using the Wii remote's tilt controls to tilt the play field, or make him jump with the 2 Button. He also has the power to change the temperature of his surroundings, which can be done on the fly with the up and down buttons on the D-Pad (as held in the horizontal position). Lowering the temperature will make Dewy freeze; raising the temperature will turn Dewy into a cloud of steam. These temperature changes are only temporary, as the gauge that shows the current state of Dewy will slowly move back to the middle, returning Dewy to his liquid form. This puts a time limit on certain things you can only do in one form or the other, such freezing a lake to slide across it in his solid ice form. However, if you can find a safe spot (such as an island on the lake) you can manually reset forms without penalty. If you try doing this while on the lake, however, Dewy and the lake will unfreeze and you'll be lost to the water.
Each of his different forms also brings with it different attacks, performed with the 1 Button. In the regular water droplet mode, Dewy can perform a basic jump attack which will take out most enemies well enough. In ice form, he'll be able to turn into a spinning ice top to take out multiple enemies at once. In his cloud form, Dewy can float high above the level and charge up a wide-spraying lightning attack that will stun or take out any enemy in his cloud shadow. Although powerful, the lightning attack comes at a price. In cloud form, Dewy moves around very slowly, leaving him more vulnerable. There are, however, special environmental attacks that can stun enemies and do other things: Shaking the Wii remote up and down will cause an earthquake, and shaking it left and right will induce a gust of wind. These two abilities weren't really used in the demo, but they will no doubt be an important part of the final game's puzzle-filled levels.
The E3 demo was quite short, but it was still fun to play through. Although the only real puzzle of the level was the freezing of the lake, the manipulation of level temperature and the states of water bring with it the potential for something wonderful. The time I spent with the game proves that the basics of the game are sound, so the success of the final product will come down to level design. We'll see if Konami can come through with that when the game releases later this year.
Topic: IMPRESSIONS: Dewy's Adventure (Read 1293 times)
