Elebits: The Adventures of Kai and Zero (NDS)
The first Elebits game for Wii wasn't as good as it could be but it did open up a good door of possibilities that honestly haven't been implemented into any Wii games I've seen. Now Elebits has a sequel on the DS starring Kai, an adorable 10-year-old boy who would probably have more fangirls than Kurama from YuYu Hakusho if given more publicity and his Omega Elebit Zero. The gameplay centers around running around multiple worlds and using your stylus to catch Elebits that are hiding everywhere from in trees to under boulders to in the grass itself. The regular Elebits you catch become Watts that you use for various in-game functions, such as powering devices and using the powers of your Omega Elebits. Omega Elebits are Elebits that you actually obtain and keep with you throughout the game. A la Pokemon, you collect the Omega Elebits and use them to capture the other Elebits (the ones that give you Watts) and mess with the environment, among a few other things. One of the major features of the Omega Elebits is that you can use your Watts to "Charge" them; once they have charged enough Watts, they will develop into a "Master Form," which is essentially the same as before except now you have a longer period of time to capture Elebits, and their abilities use up less Watts (the Mast Form actually proves the be quite useful, and once you get used to using Master Form Omegas, you'll have a really hard time catching anything with regular non-Master Omegas).
The Adventures of Kai and Zero looks extremely cute--scratch that, childish. At first glance it looks like a little kid's game, but once you pick it up it becomes difficult to put down. The gameplay is simple yet addicting, and although the methods for finding Elebits may become a bit repetitive (shake tree, move boulder, walk around) the levels do not. You will even find yourself going back to older levels (once the game allows you, which isn't that long of a wait) to search areas that were once unreachable but are now available to you and your new Omega Elebits. Also to look forward to are the challenging puzzles. No, they're not the most tedious, brain-wrecking puzzles in the world, but you will be required to use your brain and think outside of the box for a fun challenge (of course, if thinking outside of the box isn't your forte you might just end up throwing your DS against the wall and wishing that someone would put up a walkthrough on GameFAQs already). The addicting gameplay can also get to be a challenge and will test your ability to tap tiny little creatures on-screen as they run around crazily. As the game progresses you will come across uncatchable Elebits that shock you, Elebits that obsess over you like rabid fangirls and literally plaster themselves to you leaving you unable to capture more Elebits until you shake them off (these kinds of Elebits happen to come in large numbers and even have hearts come out of them while they happily squeeze your flesh), golden Elebits that combine with other Elebits to become a large gold cat-like Elebit that will throw large boulders at you in-between hula dancing, and even some Elebits that are like laser beams and will laser beam you from their head. Aside from this violence, Kai also faces other damaging obstacles on his journey and can, in fact, "die" when his health reaches 0, although "die" is a very mean term, as you can simply continue from a checkpoint with all of your newly-gained Omegas and Watts intact. You can also suspend at any point.
All of this violence is also incorporated into boss fights that take up both DS screens. The boss fights, like capturing Elebits, require quick thinking and good strategy. Although the bosses are insanely adorable (the first one is a baby who fights with a massive rattle [it actually took me a while to realize this]) they still pack quite a punch. The strategy involved will usually be you figuring out which Omegas to use for a) allowing the boss to be hittable and b) actually damaging it. As the bosses get weaker they like to use attacks that take up 80-90% of the bottom screen that you're on, so if you screw up in the beginning of the boss fight (or even if you started the fight with not much health) you may be in for a rough ride. However, if you die, I mean, lose, you can still continue and you'll start back from the beginning of the battle (you will start the fight with however much health you had when you first started, however, so if you walked into the boss's lair with only 1 health and lost then continued, you're not going to have your health healed all the way).
The dialog is candy-sugary-sweet and will seem cheesy to anyone over the age of, say, 12 (since all 12-year-olds are rebellious punks nowadays) and the basic plot is so simple and so unoriginal that half the time I forget what it was exactly--I'm just too focused on the gameplay, which I would say is a very good thing, because there are dialog-heavy parts, but the heaviest it gets would be about 4 pounds. Really, the boring story doesn't take away from the gameplay at all, and you don't have to worry about long boring exchanges between little kids who want to help each other (but still, pay attention sometimes because there is one slightly linear section of the game in which you need to bother a cute island girl and she tells you to go bother someone else, which you need to do in order to advance). There is great replayability because, as said before, once you get new Omegas you can travel to new sections of old areas, which are a pretty decent size the first time around anyway (I'd like to say "big," but that's probably a comparative thing). Also in each area are a number of hidden extras that you'll want to find: Batteries (which increase how many Watts you can carry at once), Pink Elebits (there are 3 hidden in each area), Guard Boosts (which increase your max health) which come from defeating the boss and finding the Pink Elebits, and hidden diary scraps (probably the most difficult to find) that you get from talking very well-hidden people who seem to enjoy living like a hermit away from all other human life.
In all, I would say this game is worth a buy, especially if you're into the whole hide-and-seek gameplay. If it doesn't sound like something you'd enjoy, I would recommend at least a demo download (the demo is half of the first level, which was good enough for me to get acquainted with the gameplay style) or rent. But whatever your tastes, I still highly recommend this game. You'll spend lots of time on it, I can assure you.
The first Elebits game for Wii wasn't as good as it could be but it did open up a good door of possibilities that honestly haven't been implemented into any Wii games I've seen. Now Elebits has a sequel on the DS starring Kai, an adorable 10-year-old boy who would probably have more fangirls than Kurama from YuYu Hakusho if given more publicity and his Omega Elebit Zero. The gameplay centers around running around multiple worlds and using your stylus to catch Elebits that are hiding everywhere from in trees to under boulders to in the grass itself. The regular Elebits you catch become Watts that you use for various in-game functions, such as powering devices and using the powers of your Omega Elebits. Omega Elebits are Elebits that you actually obtain and keep with you throughout the game. A la Pokemon, you collect the Omega Elebits and use them to capture the other Elebits (the ones that give you Watts) and mess with the environment, among a few other things. One of the major features of the Omega Elebits is that you can use your Watts to "Charge" them; once they have charged enough Watts, they will develop into a "Master Form," which is essentially the same as before except now you have a longer period of time to capture Elebits, and their abilities use up less Watts (the Mast Form actually proves the be quite useful, and once you get used to using Master Form Omegas, you'll have a really hard time catching anything with regular non-Master Omegas).
The Adventures of Kai and Zero looks extremely cute--scratch that, childish. At first glance it looks like a little kid's game, but once you pick it up it becomes difficult to put down. The gameplay is simple yet addicting, and although the methods for finding Elebits may become a bit repetitive (shake tree, move boulder, walk around) the levels do not. You will even find yourself going back to older levels (once the game allows you, which isn't that long of a wait) to search areas that were once unreachable but are now available to you and your new Omega Elebits. Also to look forward to are the challenging puzzles. No, they're not the most tedious, brain-wrecking puzzles in the world, but you will be required to use your brain and think outside of the box for a fun challenge (of course, if thinking outside of the box isn't your forte you might just end up throwing your DS against the wall and wishing that someone would put up a walkthrough on GameFAQs already). The addicting gameplay can also get to be a challenge and will test your ability to tap tiny little creatures on-screen as they run around crazily. As the game progresses you will come across uncatchable Elebits that shock you, Elebits that obsess over you like rabid fangirls and literally plaster themselves to you leaving you unable to capture more Elebits until you shake them off (these kinds of Elebits happen to come in large numbers and even have hearts come out of them while they happily squeeze your flesh), golden Elebits that combine with other Elebits to become a large gold cat-like Elebit that will throw large boulders at you in-between hula dancing, and even some Elebits that are like laser beams and will laser beam you from their head. Aside from this violence, Kai also faces other damaging obstacles on his journey and can, in fact, "die" when his health reaches 0, although "die" is a very mean term, as you can simply continue from a checkpoint with all of your newly-gained Omegas and Watts intact. You can also suspend at any point.
All of this violence is also incorporated into boss fights that take up both DS screens. The boss fights, like capturing Elebits, require quick thinking and good strategy. Although the bosses are insanely adorable (the first one is a baby who fights with a massive rattle [it actually took me a while to realize this]) they still pack quite a punch. The strategy involved will usually be you figuring out which Omegas to use for a) allowing the boss to be hittable and b) actually damaging it. As the bosses get weaker they like to use attacks that take up 80-90% of the bottom screen that you're on, so if you screw up in the beginning of the boss fight (or even if you started the fight with not much health) you may be in for a rough ride. However, if you die, I mean, lose, you can still continue and you'll start back from the beginning of the battle (you will start the fight with however much health you had when you first started, however, so if you walked into the boss's lair with only 1 health and lost then continued, you're not going to have your health healed all the way).
The dialog is candy-sugary-sweet and will seem cheesy to anyone over the age of, say, 12 (since all 12-year-olds are rebellious punks nowadays) and the basic plot is so simple and so unoriginal that half the time I forget what it was exactly--I'm just too focused on the gameplay, which I would say is a very good thing, because there are dialog-heavy parts, but the heaviest it gets would be about 4 pounds. Really, the boring story doesn't take away from the gameplay at all, and you don't have to worry about long boring exchanges between little kids who want to help each other (but still, pay attention sometimes because there is one slightly linear section of the game in which you need to bother a cute island girl and she tells you to go bother someone else, which you need to do in order to advance). There is great replayability because, as said before, once you get new Omegas you can travel to new sections of old areas, which are a pretty decent size the first time around anyway (I'd like to say "big," but that's probably a comparative thing). Also in each area are a number of hidden extras that you'll want to find: Batteries (which increase how many Watts you can carry at once), Pink Elebits (there are 3 hidden in each area), Guard Boosts (which increase your max health) which come from defeating the boss and finding the Pink Elebits, and hidden diary scraps (probably the most difficult to find) that you get from talking very well-hidden people who seem to enjoy living like a hermit away from all other human life.
In all, I would say this game is worth a buy, especially if you're into the whole hide-and-seek gameplay. If it doesn't sound like something you'd enjoy, I would recommend at least a demo download (the demo is half of the first level, which was good enough for me to get acquainted with the gameplay style) or rent. But whatever your tastes, I still highly recommend this game. You'll spend lots of time on it, I can assure you.