Dewy’s Adventure – WII – Review

Konami brought us a very unique game
at Nintendo’s grand launch of the Wii entitled Elebits. This frantic
“point-and-click” game featured cute little animals and a kiddy art style that
offered what was more like a really long mini-game than anything else. But
that’s about to change with Konami’s newest addition to the Wii’s growing
library, Dewey’s Adventure. Players will again be given a very child-friendly
art style but this time with a little more variety in the gameplay. Dewey is a
little over the top for older gamers, but a little too complicated for really
young gamers.

The story, played out like a
children’s book, is shown through a series of moving “still images” that remind
me of moving flannel board pieces from Sunday school. Dewey’s little adventure
starts when the Eau, which are little creatures that live in a tree of seven
colors, are captured by the Don Hedron and their little tree is destroyed by a
summoned black rain. As the tree gives into death, our little hero is born… a
single water droplet. Yup, that’s right, you are a water droplet. But as un-heroly
as that sounds, it plays a major role in the games structure with puzzles.

For all two of you that paid
attention in science class you know there is more than one state that water can
transform into. For the rest of you the answer is: solid, liquid, and gas.
That’s right, Dewey can transform into ice and a cloud to fight off evil. When
frozen, Dewey can put the smack down with some cool physical attacks and some
combos. As a cloud, although you are unable to move, he can shock his enemies
with some very powerful lightning.

The game’s controls are fairly responsive but some of the level designs make it
very tedious, and dare I say annoying in some areas to maneuver. One of the few
games that has you hold the Wiimote sideways, you tilt the world and have little
Dewey slide around hopping and bouncing along. Doesn’t sound too bad right?
Well, it’s hard… really hard. And to compound the situation’s frustrating fixed
camera angle, there are no save points during the level. Zero! So you’ve scaled
up a very complex platforming puzzle and you’re on the very last moving platform
and you slide off the edge… you’re out of luck chuck, go back to the beginning
of the level.

In the end though, this game is fun,
plain and simple. The graphics are energetic and very stylized, the puzzles are
well thought out and as a platformer it certainly exceeds if you can look past
the NES-style control scheme and unfortunate fixed camera angles. The voice
acting is not good at all, borderline funny but in the end the game is unique
and challenging enough to keep you playing if for nothing else, just to say
you’ve made it past those crazy platform puzzles. So if it’s a raining day, and
you are bored, go pick up for Wiimote and play with your own water droplet… in
Dewey’s Adventure.

Gameplay: 7.0
Complex puzzles compounded by fixed camera angles make Dewey a little too hard
to youngsters and even slightly frustrating for experienced gamers. But the
puzzles are well thought out and is paced well.

Graphics: 8.0
Great animations and style, but the art direction is a little too childish for
veteran gamers.

Sound: 5.0
Funky music with horrible voice-overs.

Difficulty: Hard

Concept: 8.0
The idea of being a kick-butt water droplet is just great. But what was really
cool is the elemental changes that Dewey can change into to both fight and solve
puzzles.

Multiplayer: 6.0
You and your friends basically slide around a level and try to collect stars.
The one with the most wins. This gets old during the 3 round… I tested it.

Overall: 7.0
Dewey is a little over the top for older gamers, but a little too complicated
for really young gamers. Either way it provides a decent amount of fun and a
very unique take on your average water droplet.