It's rather paradoxical: Wii was designed around the notion of making games accessible. And yet, a number of released titles manage to be the complete opposite—in a world where the gamer is used to his sticks and buttons, a game that takes time to master control-wise may end up discarded before it's had a chance, whether it deserves to be or not.
Dewy's Adventure is just such a title, following in fan favorite Excite Truck's footsteps by requiring you to master its own brand of motion control before you can appreciate the joy of playing it. Even those with the patience to learn how to Excite may not have what it takes to unlock Dewy's joy, though; the learning curve is far sharper. I personally took under an hour to start appreciating Excite Truck; Dewy, on the other hand, led me through several hours of frustration before it finally clicked.
What you'll be diving into with Dewy sounds simple enough: tilt the Remote to tilt the game world, and Dewy follows thanks to gravity. Feeling it is something else entirely, though. Dewy isn't a Kororinpa marble or even a monkey in a plastic ball; he's a water drop, and he slides. The difference has to be felt to be appreciated, but I've no doubt the frustration of figuring out water-drop physics led more than one reviewer to slap the game with a "poor control" verdict, when in fact, the control works quite well—it's just that the physics sort of break your brain for awhile.
You don't just flip your Remote around and have Dewy snap to attention; you must learn to glide through the levels. Being trained to stop on a dime like I had become thanks to the excellent Kororinpa, this was hard to learn, but ultimately quite rewarding. When it clicked, I couldn't help but smile; I was still tilting the Remote around like I would in a number of other Wii games, but I felt like I'd mastered a whole new type of game, one that was simply joy to play.
It helps that Dewy comes with both eye candy in spades—it's one of the more technically impressive Wii games thus far—and what I consider its shining accomplishment: a wonderful selection of bosses to battle at the conclusion of each of the game's worlds, right up to the final confrontation. They feel like they were ripped right out of a top-notch platformer from a bygone era; they have just the right level of challenge and conveniently (for Dewy) have weakenesses that match the little water drop's strengths. You can replay them (or any other level) for grades, and I've oft felt like doing just this for these guys—even after you've mastered beating them, they call to you to give it another shot.
Of course, it's not all sunshine and rainbows (actually, scratch that, there are in fact an ungodly number of rainbows in this game); there are a few warts that keep Dewy from being a totally smooth experience. For a game where you tilt the world to slide your character around, Dewy has a rather peculiar problem with jumping: aside from how long you hold A, which determines the height of your jump, it seems you can't actually influence where Dewy will land through tilting—no matter how much you tilt after hitting the button, Dewy will land in exactly the same place. It's especially odd considering how you aim Dewy's lightning attack—released while in the air—through tilts; why can't you move the landscape underneath him when landing?
The worst offender, though, is the awkward way the controls work for the lesser-used features. The mapping of Remote shakes to cause wind and earthquakes is a truly sad case; you can't do it without accidentally tilting a little, and I lost more than a few Dewys off the side of a platform this way. You can hold A to steady Dewy, but even reaching over to press A repositions your grip and seriously messes up the flow.
A lesser offender shows up In the challenge levels (including those you or your friends build with the game's level editor); you're responsible for moving the camera with left and right presses on the directional pad—both counterproductive to a steady tilting hand as well as visually disorienting.
I wasn't sure what to expect when I first popped the Dewy's Adventure disc in; I'd been carrying a torch for the game since the hour I spent at E3 2007 playing it in childlike wonder, but was filled with a sense of dread due to the abysmal sales and reviews. The game ultimately proved itself worthy of my expectations; it's a uniquely enjoyable experience among the pantheon of Wii tilters—it's just not something that you can expect to develop a love affair for if you don't have the desire to learn to live in its world. But, for those who can appreciate this sort of game design, Dewy's Adventure pays off.
Dewy's Adventure is just such a title, following in fan favorite Excite Truck's footsteps by requiring you to master its own brand of motion control before you can appreciate the joy of playing it. Even those with the patience to learn how to Excite may not have what it takes to unlock Dewy's joy, though; the learning curve is far sharper. I personally took under an hour to start appreciating Excite Truck; Dewy, on the other hand, led me through several hours of frustration before it finally clicked.
What you'll be diving into with Dewy sounds simple enough: tilt the Remote to tilt the game world, and Dewy follows thanks to gravity. Feeling it is something else entirely, though. Dewy isn't a Kororinpa marble or even a monkey in a plastic ball; he's a water drop, and he slides. The difference has to be felt to be appreciated, but I've no doubt the frustration of figuring out water-drop physics led more than one reviewer to slap the game with a "poor control" verdict, when in fact, the control works quite well—it's just that the physics sort of break your brain for awhile.
You don't just flip your Remote around and have Dewy snap to attention; you must learn to glide through the levels. Being trained to stop on a dime like I had become thanks to the excellent Kororinpa, this was hard to learn, but ultimately quite rewarding. When it clicked, I couldn't help but smile; I was still tilting the Remote around like I would in a number of other Wii games, but I felt like I'd mastered a whole new type of game, one that was simply joy to play.
It helps that Dewy comes with both eye candy in spades—it's one of the more technically impressive Wii games thus far—and what I consider its shining accomplishment: a wonderful selection of bosses to battle at the conclusion of each of the game's worlds, right up to the final confrontation. They feel like they were ripped right out of a top-notch platformer from a bygone era; they have just the right level of challenge and conveniently (for Dewy) have weakenesses that match the little water drop's strengths. You can replay them (or any other level) for grades, and I've oft felt like doing just this for these guys—even after you've mastered beating them, they call to you to give it another shot.
Of course, it's not all sunshine and rainbows (actually, scratch that, there are in fact an ungodly number of rainbows in this game); there are a few warts that keep Dewy from being a totally smooth experience. For a game where you tilt the world to slide your character around, Dewy has a rather peculiar problem with jumping: aside from how long you hold A, which determines the height of your jump, it seems you can't actually influence where Dewy will land through tilting—no matter how much you tilt after hitting the button, Dewy will land in exactly the same place. It's especially odd considering how you aim Dewy's lightning attack—released while in the air—through tilts; why can't you move the landscape underneath him when landing?
The worst offender, though, is the awkward way the controls work for the lesser-used features. The mapping of Remote shakes to cause wind and earthquakes is a truly sad case; you can't do it without accidentally tilting a little, and I lost more than a few Dewys off the side of a platform this way. You can hold A to steady Dewy, but even reaching over to press A repositions your grip and seriously messes up the flow.
A lesser offender shows up In the challenge levels (including those you or your friends build with the game's level editor); you're responsible for moving the camera with left and right presses on the directional pad—both counterproductive to a steady tilting hand as well as visually disorienting.
I wasn't sure what to expect when I first popped the Dewy's Adventure disc in; I'd been carrying a torch for the game since the hour I spent at E3 2007 playing it in childlike wonder, but was filled with a sense of dread due to the abysmal sales and reviews. The game ultimately proved itself worthy of my expectations; it's a uniquely enjoyable experience among the pantheon of Wii tilters—it's just not something that you can expect to develop a love affair for if you don't have the desire to learn to live in its world. But, for those who can appreciate this sort of game design, Dewy's Adventure pays off.