[quote name='rickonker']I still don't understand exactly what you do in this game. Is it basically just going around and lifting stuff up to find these Elebits?[/QUOTE]
OK, I left out the main means of progression. You start off every level with 0 Watts and your goal is some preset amount (like 3000 Watts). When you collect Elebits (merely by shooting them) your wattage goes up. You get different amounts for the same Elebits depending on the state they are in - sleeping, awake, running away (thus strategy element #1).
Once you hit certain levels of Wattage messages pop up telling you that certain appliances have power - such as a flashlight, a toaster, a lamp, a computer, a CD shredder
, etc. Also, lights will come on in the room at a certain level. When the appliances go active, you need to find them and turn them on. When you do this, special Elebits pop out that don't give you wattage, but power up your gun so that you can lift heavier objects. This allows you to find more Elebits. Your gun will go through several levels of upgrades that allow you to lift more things.
The Elebits can be anywhere - out in the open, inside things, under things. You also get them by doing things like turning a sink faucet on, or putting frozen Elebit icecubes (from the fridge) into the oven.
Also, certain wattage levels unlock doors, which you can then open and go into the next room. The second strategy element is trying to get the power to turn things on and get your gun upgraded in the right order (especially in multi-room levels where you need to go back and forth a few times) so that you always have things to lift/move and Elebits to find. Otherwise you will run out of time.
There are also special items you can use: a cookie that attracts Elebits (and when you zap them you get the most favorable wattage from them), an EM pulse bomb that stuns them, a homing laser that lets you get a bunch at a time, and a few others. All of these things last for 30 seconds (it seems).
The goal of every level is to reach a certain wattage - then it is "cleared". However, you can continue to play for the rest of the time to get a better score or find the hidden pink Elebits (which unlock Eternal mode for that level). You get ranked A, B, C, (and presumably S) at the end. I've gotten one A and a bunch of C's
.
Some levels introduce other limits than time. In one I had to break no more than 7 breakable objects (like pots, vases). In another I had to keep my noise level down, so I couldn't throw everything around to shake out all the Elebits.
And, note, all this is in the first 5 levels which is all I've played so far. I assume there will be more variety to come.
My other worry about this game prior to playing was the 3D control. In Super Monkey Ball I couldn't get any of the minigames that required depth perception of the Wiimote to work. This game requires it when you pick up objects and move them forward or backward in the room. I've had to do fairly precise things like put a CD in the CD shredder and put toast in a toaster (each of which resulted in a hail of Elebits). While these tasks are a bit tricky (you have to rotate them upright as well as moving them to the right place), it worked much better than the minigames of SMB, so I was relieved.
Basically, that's it (so far). I haven't played any of the other modes (Score attack, Challenge mode, Eternal mode). I poked around in the menus and it is also similar to Katamari in that you can look at the objects you've collected (presumbly just by interacting with them). You can rotate them and all that - just like Katamari. There appears to be some rare items that you can find. But there is also a multiplayer mode, and you can create levels and send them (in addition to snapshot pictures) to others once Nintendo activates that on WiiConnect24.
Oh, and apparently there are boss levels too but I haven't reached one of those yet. So that's some more variety. I'll be playing through more levels and trying the multiplayer Thursday evening.
ers thinking? Two of them give it ratings in the 4's! I mean, I understand having some issues and rating it as low as 6, perhaps, if you just aren't into this kind of game (say, if you hated Katamari). But these guys specifically compare it to Katamari and say it is much worse. Bah, morons...
