Given the unique controls of the Wii, it would only make sense that shooters would be one of the more prevalent genres on the little white box. Elebits provides a great example of how to make a shooter work. While it's essentially a kiddy shooter at heart, the gameplay is compelling enough to entertain anyone curious enough to look into it. While Elebits may have some glaring issues it still manages to be fun and entertaining, and in the end isn't that what really matters?
Elebits tells its story through some nicely drawn cutscenes with an art style that resembles anime mixed with those creepy "Precious Moments" figurines. The story revolves around the game's namesake, the Elebits, which provide power to the entire world. Historically, humans and Elebits were able to coexist for hundreds of years, until one day when the normally friendly Elebits seemingly have a change of heart. Enter our whiney main character, the son of the world's foremost Elebits researcher. Stuck at home alone while his parents are seemingly thousands of miles away researching the cause of the Elebit revolt, he grabs his father's special capture gun and sets out to get to the bottom of the mystery on his own.
Elebits' gameplay is an interesting combination of hide-and-go-seek and a first-person shooter. The capture gun is a cross between the gravity gun from Half-Life 2 and the proton packs from Ghostbusters. The game's aim at the younger demographic shines through right away as you'll be using the capture gun to lift objects and capture (not kill) the cutesy, yet shy Elebits to gain wattage and restore power to rooms or objects. It's this gameplay mixture that really makes the game shine. You'll find yourself giggling with glee as you fling objects with the capture gun, power up items, place turkeys into ovens, and destroy vases and other fragile objects during your hunt. Your gun will increase in strength as you bring power to items, and by the end of the level, you'll be able to pick up and throw semi trucks, carnival rides, and small buildings with ease. It may be best to simply call Elebits the ultimate "make a mess" simulator. You'll be placed into multiple "real world" locations such as your house, on the main street of your city, and an amusement park. In addition to the capture gun, you'll find a number of power-ups that make capturing Elebits much easier. Power-ups include a vacuum gun that will suck up any Elebit unfortunate enough to get into its cyclone, cookies to bring them out of hiding, objects to knock them out, and a homing laser that will lock onto a number of Elebits at once.
Each stage has a number of simple goals that you'll need to accomplish in order to move the story along to the next thrilling chapter. Each level has a certain wattage that you have to attain within a time limit in addition to other, somewhat questionable goals like keeping noise to a minimum or placing limits on the number of items that you break. While these goals help to break away from the normal "collect 2500 watts in five minutes" routine, they manage to take the fun out of the recklessness the core of the game encourages. What's worse is that amidst all of the flying objects and clutter onscreen, the game has issues keeping a consistent frame rate, which is sad considering this is a next-gen offering.
Capturing special types of Elebits will unlock extra modes such as score attack and challenge modes for each level if you feel up to playing through them again. Boss battles also offer a break from the hide-and-seek gameplay, though none of the bosses are too impressive. To call Elebits an easy game is a bit of an understatement and any player over the age of twelve will be watching the ending credits within eight hours.
Elebits' graphics are passable, yet unimpressive. Considering the next-gen platform this is on, it looks like this was a game that was destined for the GameCube in 2002. Textures and objects look generic and blurry, which considering the game seems to choke when there's too much action onscreen seems preposterous. The physics don't seem quite right and heavier objects look like they don't have any weight when they crash to the ground or against a wall. The great looking art that exposes the game's story looks great, but it doesn't distract for the hellacious and laughingly absurd voice acting.
If there was ever a poster child for the term "gameplay over graphics", allow me to put my nomination in for Elebits. Despite the unimpressive visuals, wonky physics, questionable product placement, and atrocious voice acting, the fun of throwing large objects around with the flip of a wrist and shooting cutesy things that sound like cats is a lot of fun. If anything, Elebits is a worthy blueprint of the kinds of things the Wii is capable of and hopefully paves the way for a successor that is able to get everything right.
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