Elebits
Posted February 19, 2007
The showcase station for Elebits at E3 was off in the corner of the giant Nintendo booth at the end of the endless supply of Wii consoles showcasing feature titles like Zelda and Metroid. When I spent a bit of time watching the Elebits demo, I became intrigued with the possibilities of the motion control being used for simple everyday aspects in the nonsensical, real-life recreation within Elebits. It’s a niche title that seems to be directed at younger gamers, especially those seeking an easy adventure tale. 
The presentation of Elebits is built around a storybook style of narrative, complete with a fairy tale appearance. The story centers around a young, narcissistic boy named Kai who shares his little corner of the world with tiny, electric creatures known as Elebits. Kai’s parents are pegged as authoritative researchers on these creatures and seem to spend more time with their science rather than raising their son. Kai’s jealousy runs rampant and becomes rage when his parents leave Kai in an empty house when the power across the entire city fails. Kai decides to exact revenge on the annoying Elebits and gather up the little buggers in his father’s capture gun. Little does Kai know that the Elebits are actually the solution to his problems rather than the cause.
Gameplay:
Each level is designed around typical rooms found within an average household and areas of the town. With the Ghostbuster-esqe capture gun in hand, the name of the game is search, abduction, and power up. For instance, Kai’s room contains tons of moveable objects that have to be tossed around to find all the elebits. Using the capture gun, Kai can rummage through his closet and snatch up the little elebits sleeping behind his collection of toys. Once enough elebits are discovered and captured, the gun becomes more powerful in terms of moving strength and powering ability. With the power of the elebits, Kai can now turn on objects that use electricity such as the television or his toy airplanes. This releases even more elebits which are needed to unlock the door and move onto the next room / level.
The small elebits are a variety of colors which designate their level of power. The most abundant of the elebits are light blue, but only offer slight wattage gains. As more colors are released (orange, yellow, red, pink, etc.), the power gains for Kai’s weapon become vastly more substantial. Boss battles are even more useful to Kai’s long term goals. The bosses are inanely constructed around the elements, but do seem to fit into the narrative of the game. They provide brief interludes between capturing the endless supply of elebits, but are also far too simple to complete. Each boss has an easy pattern to memorize which make it very simple to survive each encounter.
Once the single player storyline has been exhausted, there is an average multiplayer mode as well as an extensive create-a-level mode. Multiplayer battles are speed based zapping competitions. The Edit mode allows the player to change existing levels around and create a unique design. These can be traded over the Wiiconnect system between friends as well as stills taken of the rooms. It was a novel idea to include such a feature, but not very entertaining.
Wii Control:
Motion control is a definitive portion of the game’s novelty, especially during the latter stages of the game and the boss fights. The controller can be used to aim, push, pull, grab, twist, turn, shoot, and toss items found in the cute world of the Elebits. There are a variety of training exercises at the outset of the game that explain every facet of the control scheme. The only tough portion of the controls to master seems to be moving a grabbed object to a particular spot. The controls don’t allow for much varying length distance when rotating an object around an empty room. That slight annoyance aside, I would say Elebits has excellent usage of the Wii motion control, especially when thinking of future possibilities in the first person shooter genre.
Graphics:
The cartoonish level design certainly fits the atheistic of the Elebits world. Unfortunately, the low resolution of most static, in-game objects gives the background a humdrum, unappealing blah factor that resonates throughout every room of Kai’s house. The actual elebits share the same poor textures, but do offer a wonderful variety of lighting effects when revealed or captured with the electric blasts of the capture gun. The frame rate becomes a bit suspect when too many objects start to populate the screen. Releasing an armada of yellow elebits from the TV sends the game into a chugging funk. All in all, the visual elements of design in Elebits are generally unique, but the technical execution of effects and animation leaves much to be desired.
Audio:
The voice acting is beyond horrendous. The contrived voice of the narrator and young Kai is hopelessly lost in a myriad of amateur acting. Fortunately, the voices are only implemented during the cut scenes between levels. On the other hand, the soundtrack is definitely more professional. The electronica tunes are light, bouncy, and fit the overall appeal of the game. The zapping sound effects of the capture gun and the high pitched squeals of the tiny Elebits are also delightful.
Overall:
Elebits would have made an excellent tech demo to showcase the Wii controls, but it doesn’t fair well as a complete game. The level difficulty is far too simplistic and begins to become very repetitive after a couple hours of play. The storyline is easily predictable, but still difficult to become enraptured due to the horrid voice acting. Also, the oddball Wiiconnect option does not add enough replay value to necessitate a purchase. The unique nature of the gameplay does allow for a weekend rental as the main storyline can be knocked out in about five to six hours.
The presentation of Elebits is built around a storybook style of narrative, complete with a fairy tale appearance. The story centers around a young, narcissistic boy named Kai who shares his little corner of the world with tiny, electric creatures known as Elebits. Kai’s parents are pegged as authoritative researchers on these creatures and seem to spend more time with their science rather than raising their son. Kai’s jealousy runs rampant and becomes rage when his parents leave Kai in an empty house when the power across the entire city fails. Kai decides to exact revenge on the annoying Elebits and gather up the little buggers in his father’s capture gun. Little does Kai know that the Elebits are actually the solution to his problems rather than the cause.
Gameplay:
Each level is designed around typical rooms found within an average household and areas of the town. With the Ghostbuster-esqe capture gun in hand, the name of the game is search, abduction, and power up. For instance, Kai’s room contains tons of moveable objects that have to be tossed around to find all the elebits. Using the capture gun, Kai can rummage through his closet and snatch up the little elebits sleeping behind his collection of toys. Once enough elebits are discovered and captured, the gun becomes more powerful in terms of moving strength and powering ability. With the power of the elebits, Kai can now turn on objects that use electricity such as the television or his toy airplanes. This releases even more elebits which are needed to unlock the door and move onto the next room / level.
The small elebits are a variety of colors which designate their level of power. The most abundant of the elebits are light blue, but only offer slight wattage gains. As more colors are released (orange, yellow, red, pink, etc.), the power gains for Kai’s weapon become vastly more substantial. Boss battles are even more useful to Kai’s long term goals. The bosses are inanely constructed around the elements, but do seem to fit into the narrative of the game. They provide brief interludes between capturing the endless supply of elebits, but are also far too simple to complete. Each boss has an easy pattern to memorize which make it very simple to survive each encounter.
Once the single player storyline has been exhausted, there is an average multiplayer mode as well as an extensive create-a-level mode. Multiplayer battles are speed based zapping competitions. The Edit mode allows the player to change existing levels around and create a unique design. These can be traded over the Wiiconnect system between friends as well as stills taken of the rooms. It was a novel idea to include such a feature, but not very entertaining.
Wii Control:
Motion control is a definitive portion of the game’s novelty, especially during the latter stages of the game and the boss fights. The controller can be used to aim, push, pull, grab, twist, turn, shoot, and toss items found in the cute world of the Elebits. There are a variety of training exercises at the outset of the game that explain every facet of the control scheme. The only tough portion of the controls to master seems to be moving a grabbed object to a particular spot. The controls don’t allow for much varying length distance when rotating an object around an empty room. That slight annoyance aside, I would say Elebits has excellent usage of the Wii motion control, especially when thinking of future possibilities in the first person shooter genre.
Graphics:
The cartoonish level design certainly fits the atheistic of the Elebits world. Unfortunately, the low resolution of most static, in-game objects gives the background a humdrum, unappealing blah factor that resonates throughout every room of Kai’s house. The actual elebits share the same poor textures, but do offer a wonderful variety of lighting effects when revealed or captured with the electric blasts of the capture gun. The frame rate becomes a bit suspect when too many objects start to populate the screen. Releasing an armada of yellow elebits from the TV sends the game into a chugging funk. All in all, the visual elements of design in Elebits are generally unique, but the technical execution of effects and animation leaves much to be desired.
Audio:
The voice acting is beyond horrendous. The contrived voice of the narrator and young Kai is hopelessly lost in a myriad of amateur acting. Fortunately, the voices are only implemented during the cut scenes between levels. On the other hand, the soundtrack is definitely more professional. The electronica tunes are light, bouncy, and fit the overall appeal of the game. The zapping sound effects of the capture gun and the high pitched squeals of the tiny Elebits are also delightful.
Overall:
Elebits would have made an excellent tech demo to showcase the Wii controls, but it doesn’t fair well as a complete game. The level difficulty is far too simplistic and begins to become very repetitive after a couple hours of play. The storyline is easily predictable, but still difficult to become enraptured due to the horrid voice acting. Also, the oddball Wiiconnect option does not add enough replay value to necessitate a purchase. The unique nature of the gameplay does allow for a weekend rental as the main storyline can be knocked out in about five to six hours.