Dive: The Medes Island Secret was recently released as WiiWare on the Wii Shop Channel, downloadable for 1,000 points. The game follows the adventures of one John Saunders, a treasure hunting scuba diver.
Dive invites players to grab a Wii remote and explore maze-like underwater locales, teaming with ocean life—not all of it friendly—in a search for scattered valuables. It's not just a scavenger hunt, though. Thorough investigation of each map will uncover clues to unlocking the treasure to end all treasures.
While the environments and characters in Dive are three dimensional models, the game play is strictly 2D. The player character is controlled with the Wii remote alone; hold down the B trigger to swim and the diver will follow the pointer as it is moved around the screen. The A button fires a limited ammo harpoon gun and a double tap of the B trigger results in a short dash maneuver, useful for dodging venomous lionfish and monster sized eels.
Dive plays very much like a cross between the classic Sega Genesis game Ecco the Dolphin and the Endless Ocean games. Players guide a nimble diver through underwater caverns, picking up treasures they go. The biggest challenge is doing so without running out of air. A meter indicating the air volume in a scuba tank steadily decreases as you swim. Touching a sea anemone, giant purple sea urchin, or any of the more aggressive denizens of the deep loses you a chunk of precious O2, while an evasive dash maneuver uses up a smaller amount. Tank recharges and harpoon gun refills can also be found during exploration but are rare enough to keep things challenging during the early parts of the game.
Finding treasures means making money and this cash can be spent on better gear. Flippers make swimming faster, better wetsuits increase the depth you can swim down to, and larger volume tanks make it easier to explore without rushing to find the next air supply.
Ultimately, Dive is a simple game of exploration and collection that plays at a relaxing pace. It's also a very lovely game; the underwater locales don't vary much from island to island but they are all loaded with detailed natural structures, plants, animals, sunken ships, and even submerged buildings.
Dive is easy to pick up and will last you a few hours if you're determined to collect everything and fill out every corner of the maps. It's not, however, without a few bugs. During my play through, I found the diver unresponsive on occasion when I pressed the swim button, and needed to do a dash to get him moving. Also, while exploring I was denied a couple minor treasures by inexplicable invisible walls that clearly should not have been there. The last hiccup came in the form of a sort of stutter, where the music and character would stall then jump. This happened twice on my full game playthrough, but didn't result in any serious problems.
Dive: The Medes Island Secret is a fun and relaxing title that offers a mild challenge and impressive visuals. It suffers from a few nuisance bugs but nothing terribly serious cropped up for me. For 1,000 Wii points it's a solid little game to pick up and enjoy at a leisurely pace. Thumbs up from me.
Dive invites players to grab a Wii remote and explore maze-like underwater locales, teaming with ocean life—not all of it friendly—in a search for scattered valuables. It's not just a scavenger hunt, though. Thorough investigation of each map will uncover clues to unlocking the treasure to end all treasures.
While the environments and characters in Dive are three dimensional models, the game play is strictly 2D. The player character is controlled with the Wii remote alone; hold down the B trigger to swim and the diver will follow the pointer as it is moved around the screen. The A button fires a limited ammo harpoon gun and a double tap of the B trigger results in a short dash maneuver, useful for dodging venomous lionfish and monster sized eels.
Dive plays very much like a cross between the classic Sega Genesis game Ecco the Dolphin and the Endless Ocean games. Players guide a nimble diver through underwater caverns, picking up treasures they go. The biggest challenge is doing so without running out of air. A meter indicating the air volume in a scuba tank steadily decreases as you swim. Touching a sea anemone, giant purple sea urchin, or any of the more aggressive denizens of the deep loses you a chunk of precious O2, while an evasive dash maneuver uses up a smaller amount. Tank recharges and harpoon gun refills can also be found during exploration but are rare enough to keep things challenging during the early parts of the game.
Finding treasures means making money and this cash can be spent on better gear. Flippers make swimming faster, better wetsuits increase the depth you can swim down to, and larger volume tanks make it easier to explore without rushing to find the next air supply.
Ultimately, Dive is a simple game of exploration and collection that plays at a relaxing pace. It's also a very lovely game; the underwater locales don't vary much from island to island but they are all loaded with detailed natural structures, plants, animals, sunken ships, and even submerged buildings.
Dive is easy to pick up and will last you a few hours if you're determined to collect everything and fill out every corner of the maps. It's not, however, without a few bugs. During my play through, I found the diver unresponsive on occasion when I pressed the swim button, and needed to do a dash to get him moving. Also, while exploring I was denied a couple minor treasures by inexplicable invisible walls that clearly should not have been there. The last hiccup came in the form of a sort of stutter, where the music and character would stall then jump. This happened twice on my full game playthrough, but didn't result in any serious problems.
Dive: The Medes Island Secret is a fun and relaxing title that offers a mild challenge and impressive visuals. It suffers from a few nuisance bugs but nothing terribly serious cropped up for me. For 1,000 Wii points it's a solid little game to pick up and enjoy at a leisurely pace. Thumbs up from me.