At this point in time youll likely want to have a blue tube near by to bust open. The blue tube is one of many powerups that give you special abilities for 30 or 60 seconds. Its specific ability is that it gives you auto-targeting. Just randomly swing your Wiimote through the air to target mass amounts of Elebits and hit the A button to unleash a huge amount of rays. Lining up a ton of Elebits just for this purpose is a whole lot of fun. As for the other powerups, there are some that are decently useful and some that are just a waste of space. My favorites include the golden orb which increases your ray guns strength and the strange looking medallion that makes hidden Elebits get hearts over their heads and walk toward it. All of these items only require you to pick them up with your ray and smash them into something in order to activate.
Blue Aura = It's Time To Play!
As you progress through the game youll meet all kinds of new Elebits which are recorded in a journal for you to view later, along with many other stats. Some, if left alone, will fuse together to make mega Elebits that can actually pick up things and attack you while others just wander around. Essentially as the power you receive from catching an Elebit increases, so does its ability to hurt you or escape from you. The hardest to catch, which arent that hard to catch, will run away from you and hide under things. There are also a few downright mean Elebits which if you zap them, theyll come hurling at you, spikes and all.
Besides the Elebits, there are also quite a few other dangers that youll have to deal with. There are toy tanks, toy turrets, and a few other surprises. While about 95% of the game they post no threat, the last few levels are quite difficult because of them. Youll have to watch your health meter close to survive. The only other time youll be watching that meter is during a few of the boss fights. Yes there are boss fights, and theyre all very unique and very fun to conquer.
During the 10+ hours that it requires to finish Elebits youll be hard pressed to find many issues. At times its a bit hard to open doors and shoot Elebits because of collision issues but that really doesnt detract much from the fun. The only real show stopper comes late in the game during the final two levels where some serious slowdown occurs. The areas are large, there are 100s of Elebits on screen, and a ridiculous amount of building and objects all colliding in one big physics equation. It essentially turns into a slideshow at this point, but its still playable.
There's a whole lot going on and it's Slooow.
The graphics are nothing fancy but they fit the game perfectly. Not once did I see a washed out texture, and that alone made me a happy camper. The sound is forgettable and borderline annoying at times, but honestly youre so focused on the action you dont notice it that much.
Multiplayer is um... not so good.
All in all Elebits is a solid title that uses the Wiimote and Nunchuk controls extremely well. If youre not in it for the offline 4 player multiplayer, which isnt all that great, or the level building then this is probably a rental. Though, if you want to get perfect rankings on all the levels youll likely want to make it a purchase.
Import Friendly?
Yep, it's an easy play through in Japanese, though it comes out stateside in just a few days.
Pros
Excellent engaging gameplay all the way through to the end
Unique fun boss battles
Nice variety of locations
Great variety of puzzles worked into the core goals
Online sharing of user built levels
Cons
Difficulty goes from easy to hard fast near the end of the game
