Topic: Elebits

[segagamer12]

So is the game any good? I hadnt even looked at it because I didnt even ehar about it till a few days ago. Anyone who played it got a recommendation? and whats it even like?

[Smash_Brother]

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Originally posted by: segagamer12
So is the game any good? I hadnt even looked at it because I didnt even ehar about it till a few days ago. Anyone who played it got a recommendation? and whats it even like?

It CAN be good if you enjoy these kinds of games, but I'd highly suggest renting it first to see if that includes you.

I THOUGHT it would include me, and a friend who's an electrical engineer and a massive puzzle buff who agreed with me that the game was cute but lacking.

Like I said, rent it to be on the safe side and put in a few hours. If you DO like it, it's not like you'll lose your save or anything.

Also, don't think you'll be getting a good multiplayer game out of this. It's fun to try once with 4 players, but then never again.

[segagamer12]

renting is NOT an option but I will pass based on the repies in thie thread after I read them all.  

[GoldenPhoenix]

I suggest you read some of the more professional reviews of the game from gamerankings.com, the game is a great game if you like quirky titles. Personally I've had a blast with the game is both single and multiplayer, playing both multiple times. BTW Smash what does being an electrical engineer and a "puzzle" buff have to do with the game? Really the game isn't much of a puzzle game and the only electrical related thing is the Elebits themselves in a farfetched story.

[Smash_Brother]

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Originally posted by: segagamer12 renting is NOT an option but I will pass based on the repies in thie thread after I read them all.

That's a shame because you could really like it but it's almost a coin toss.

As for my friend, he's brilliant and is a much, MUCH larger buff for quirky and bizarre games and after the first time I played Elebits, I figured it would be an instant hit with him but he came to the same conclusions I did.

[GoldenPhoenix]

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Originally posted by: Smash_Brother

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Originally posted by: segagamer12 renting is NOT an option but I will pass based on the repies in thie thread after I read them all.

That's a shame because you could really like it but it's almost a coin toss.

As for my friend, he's brilliant and is a much, MUCH larger buff for quirky and bizarre games and after the first time I played Elebits, I figured it would be an instant hit with him but he came to the same conclusions I did.

Not sure how intelligence enters into whether you enjoy the game or not, there is no doubt many who really enjoy Elebits that aren't dummies. The trouble with using friends as examples of game tastes is we usually end up becoming friends wth people we have alot more in common when than we may even realize. I've never played the supposed "prequel" game to Elebits, so I am judging the game based solely off my experience. What I've found is a fun, quirky, relatively deep, hybrid game, that shows why the Wiimote can add so much to an experience. I can't imagine playing this game on anything other than the Wiimote, the pinpoint accuracy and the sense of actually being involved with what is going on cannot compare to what the Wiimote adds.

[NWR_pap64]

OK, its time to put my two cents in...

I played SB's copy of the game during the week and I must say that while the game is cute it feels lacking and undeserving of the huge amount of love its getting.

Before anyone says anything, I LOVE these quirky games to DEATH, and I am a BIG fan of the first Katamary Damacy game. What I loved the most about KD, as I mentioned before in other threads, is how you keep progressing as you work your way through the game and the immense sense of satisfaction you get from it. I mean, it is almost magical starting out being even smaller than an ant, then creating a ball so, so big that you are able to plug whole islands as if they were mere lego pieces and rip Gods from the sky.

Having said this, Elebits provides very little of this. The game is cute, but nothing succeeds to capture my imagination. I'm just going through these stages picking up the creatures. Its fun the first couple of minutes, but after that I grow bored of it.

I personally think the game is too long. It should've ended on 15 stages or else. 29 is an overkill for this type of game. Even KD had fewer stages. The developers knew that gamers would grow bored of the rolling after a while and decided to end the game before it grew annoying. Konami, on the other hand, thought people would LOVE to play the same game for 29 stages straight. Again, they should've ended it at stage 15.

One other thing lacking very badly is heart and soul. The Elebits are cute, but I can't shake off my mind the fact that these are generic creatures created to capitalize on the cute critter craze in gaming nowadays. The whole game lacks the heart and charm of KD. KD had awesome music, great humor and an amazing self awareness combined with some life metaphors. Elebits is just...blah.

Oh and the voice acting is so bad it makes 4kids dubbing look like masterpieces.

The graphics are very weak as well. True, KD had that same flaw but what lacked in graphical power it made up in art and style. I am surprised that the game begins to slow down once more than 5 Elebits enter the screen. They seriously rushed this game and didn't take the time to polish it.

So overall, I would give this game a 7. Its a cute little idea done good, but it just feels lacking. It can get boring, repetitive and tedious in some occasions. Smashing crap and destroying public items just isn't enough to get me interested for more than an hour...  

[Rancid Planet]

I think I have officially read the words "tech demo" enough now.

So everyone can just count on me using the words "crap game" instead. I find it a much more dead on balls way of categorizing any game that in my estimation...is crap.

[NWR_pap64]

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Originally posted by: Rancid Planet
I think I have officially read the words "tech demo" enough now.

So everyone can just count on me using the words "crap game" instead. I find it a much more dead on balls way of categorizing any game that in my estimation...is crap.

Well, I didn't say the game was "crap". I think the term "crap" would be too much to describe the game. It may lack substance and depth of a full blown game, but at least its solid enough to keep it away from being considered truly awful.

I just saw SB finish the game (complete with an audience that was cheering him on ) and the ending raised the game's score to 7.5. The ending was definitely cute and touching, and the story was certainly cute and interesting enough. It should've been better voiced and certainly didn't need to be told through 29 whole levels but what we had was cute.

[GoldenPhoenix]

I can't believe I am actually hearing complaining about the freaken voice acting, talk about nitpicking. The game isn't built around story, dialogue, or voice acting. Yes it sucks but this kind of game doesn't need it so lay off. The visuals are fine, when you consider all the physics going on and the decent look that most levels have, they work well when you consider what must be going on underneath the engine. You know since it appears Smash is using all his friends to bash the game, everyone that has touched the game from my friends to my family loves it. Wooptie doo.

Elebits has depth, it has charm, and it is a unique experience. See, wow, I can give an opinion too which is why I think people need to try the game out. I've never played played KD so any comparions to that game cannot be made, but if it was on PS2 and used a joystiq I can see me not liking it.  What I was most impressed with the game is how it slowly makes you feel like things are progressing and not feeling like the same thing. Whether it be the more complexity added to the levels (I love the limits on breaking things, it adds something more to the game besides "break everything". The only part I have despised were the bad Elebits, which I found to be a pain and not very fun to deal with, besides that, no real problems.

I'll admit the music isn't great, but it is adequate, especially for someone like myself that doesn't give a crap about music in games like this (same with story or voice acting). Progression within the levels itself is a fun experience, I always get a warm feeling inside when a new area is unlocked or I can activate a device whether it be inserting an item or flipping the switch seeing what happens. Not only that but the ray gun power levels adds another layer to the game, and shares a similar feeling with me when I achieve power enough to start moving heavier objects.

Another layer of the game I enjoy is trying to be careful around the Elebits who can panic, alerting the others, possibly knocking over breakable items or making too much noise. It adds yet another strategic element to the game that avoids the repetition of throwing stuff around. The game has exceeded my expectations in the way of variety and these things are just a few of the areas that have impressed me.

Personally I cannot believe I'm hearing complaints about the game being too long, especially after hearing how it isn't worth the money. So would you be happy with less levels? Would that all of a sudden make it worth your money? The one area I would agree on is that the multiplayer mode is quite weak, and does feel thrown in. Besides that the game is fully featured from a lengthy story mode, to challenged, to an edit mode that utilizes Wiiconnect 24, to the average multiplayer mode. Not only that but it feels polished besides the slight framerate hiccups here and there, the physics are solid, Elebits are cleverly hiddon, aiming controls are spot on for pinpoint accuracy, and it has more variety than many "quirky" games. So in conclusion, don't listen to me and don't listen to the haters (most of which are friends), check out the game yourself, maybe even read a few more opinions from sources that are not as biased.

[Smash_Brother]

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Not sure how intelligence enters into whether you enjoy the game or not, there is no doubt many who really enjoy Elebits that aren't dummies.

I just mean that you have to have a decent sized brain in order to enjoy quirky games. I've never met a slack-jawed idiot who was big into puzzles.

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Originally posted by: VGrevolution I can't believe I am actually hearing complaining about the freaken voice acting, talk about nitpicking. The game isn't built around story, dialogue, or voice acting.

Actually, I thought the pictures were quite pretty and the ending was a nice way of wrapping the entire story up.

Honestly, I liked the ending enough that it took a bit of the sting of having to frantically charge around trying to collect 60,000w and my hand cramping up horribly.

That's the other issue which makes short bursts of play ideal: hand cramping. Repeatedly mashing the same button to collect Elebits basically turns this game into a button masher. Not in the Mario Party sense, but you do spend and awful lot of time rapidly pressing the same button over and over again.

If they make a sequel (and since they only spent like $30,000 developing the first one, I'm sure they'll bring out another), I'd want to see a scenario I mentioned above: co-op multiplayer with gravity guns to solve puzzles and no more collecting of Elebits (since they go back to normal at the end anyway).

There's so much potential for gravity gun puzzle solving that it would be a shame not to see it.

[NWR_pap64]

"I can't believe I am actually hearing complaining about the freaken voice acting, talk about nitpicking. The game isn't built around story, dialogue, or voice acting."

Well, that's almost like complaining when a teacher gives your essay or paper a low score because you didn't spell check or wrote correctly. Just because the essay was very good and it was understandable it doesn't mean that it was written poorly.

It's true that the game isn't about the story, but that doesn't mean they couldn't have hired better voice actors.

[Nick DiMola]

I see the Elebits debate is just as hot as it was 2 weeks ago. The great thing about games is that everyone takes something different away from them. The things we look for in a game varies. Some people find that music and story need to be top notch or it becomes a serious detractor from the game. For others the gameplay is enthralling enough that those things are irrelevant. Elebits is very much a niche title. I believe only some people really latch into the game itself, most others see potential but don't see it realized in Elebits.

In a way Elebits reminds me of Pikmin. The first Pikmin gave us a fantastic concept and an amazing game but certainly didn't explore it's potential completely. Pikmin 2 came along and really fleshed out the concept and took a B-C game straight to an A. I see Elebits doing the same with a sequel. A sequel forces the designers to come up with new ideas and concepts, and it the interim usually wind up creating a much better sequel. Without a doubt everyone should play Elebits because I think everyone who has commented thus far would agree that there is huge potential here.  

[segagamer12]

well see first off I dont read reviews because they are always biased. Most games I like get bad reviews and vice versa. I read this thread to get an idea of what people who had played it thought and thats hwo I make descisions.

Flame me if you want but I don't like cute or quirky games, i didnt like katamary, pikmin or that chibi robo game which I thought I would but didnt.

I guess if people like it thats cool though.

[GoldenPhoenix]

Hey Mr. Jack, you haven't responded to my PMs! Anyway even though I could care less about the voice acting, it is so bad it is almost enjoyable. Segagamer, it is probaly best you stay away from it if you dislike niche, or quirky titles, I really doubt you will like it given what you said.

[ShyGuy]

I rented the game last night, good fun, but I was hoping there would be true co-op play.

If you have made a level for this, plz send it to me! If I'm not on your Wii list, PM so we can add.

[zakkiel]

This game makes me feel claustrophobic after a while. Something about being indoors tearing things apart frantically gives me acute cabin fever. I'll admit: I regret buying it. I would much rather have a game that focused on clever puzzles with unlimited time, gradualkly opening up new areas. You could still have all the objects, and have a timed mode that was just frantic destruction, but in the main game have sharp limits on how much you can rearrange a room without taking penalties (something more than just have a few breakable objects).

[SixthAngel]

I remember some people saying they were trying to unlock eternal mode in levels as they beat them.  I suggest that you wait until you beat the game or at least gotten pretty far in first.  At one point in the game your gun gets stronger and that can be used in past levels.  There are other unlockables that make the levels much easier like infinite radar, double time for powerups, infinite homing, etc.  You get some of them by completing the challenge mode.  Challenge mode is both incredibly awesome and hard.