I was half-serious, half-joking when I threw my arms up victoriously while playing the new Wii game "Endless Ocean" this morning.
I had spotted a humpback whale, swam my character in Nintendo's underwater safari snorkeling simulator toward it, petted it, and then grabbed onto its back to hitch a ride. It was all rather pretty. Majestic, too.
But also… I don't know… what am I doing playing an underwater safari snorkeling simulator?
As is often the case with Nintendo-published games, I got a copy of "Endless Ocean" a few days before its official release, which comes next week. And with Wii games, my curiosity still gets the best of me. I had to try something like "Endless Ocean" right away.
"Endless Ocean" is 100% new-Nintendo.
You can find little better proof that the company has changed its priorities in recent years than in comparing the first water-based games for the Nintendo 64 and GameCube with this first one for the Wii. Those older consoles first got wet with installments of an action-packed jet-ski racing series called "Wave Race." The Wii takes its first plunge with a remote-only mellow swim through the sea.
Observe "Endless Ocean"'s back-of-the-box selling points: "Simple controls, no time limits, and serene exploration!"
They printed the exclamation point, though I'm not sure it's warranted.
This game is so laid back that you can put your snorkel-er on auto-swim and just point where you want him or her to go. Once there your options are to point at fish, poke at fish or even pet the fish.
Oh but there was more... (!)
(Note: All pictures for this post were photographed off of my TV. Lo-fi, folks.)
I spent two hours playing "Endless Ocean." During it I discovered the following surprises:
- This Japanese-made game was possibly not really made for U.S. release. Proof: my male swimmer could only have brown or black hair.
- You can pet penguins on your boat before you dive. Why? I have no idea. But the birds are cute when they belly-flop.
- You are sent on diving missions by an unseen financier named Alfred Thorman. A set-up for an all-action boss battle? Unlikely. He's asking me to take his buddies on dives.
- You cannot get the game's camera out of the water while diving. I tried. It's all undersea unless you select a menu option to return to the boat. So make sure you are not freaked out by things like that.
- The controls are fairly crude for a Nintendo-published Wii game. Swimming may be smooth -- the player simply uses the Wii remote to point a blue cursor dot where you want to swim, paddling by holding the B trigger. But tapping, petting and grabbing all rely on pressing the A button, which strangely doesn't always seem to register. I had a tough time petting fish to befriend them (by pressing the A and shake the Wii remote, in theory). Plus, the instruction manual explains the controls much better than the game does.
- You can grab the tail of a dolphin that you befriend by petting it, so that it can swim you around on its own. This makes the game even easier. (Have I forgotten to mention what you actually do in this game? Oh yeah, it seems that it's all about spotting new sealife, petting the sealife so that it sparkles and so that you learn what it's called -- and you can find sunken treasures.) There seem to be other slots for helper animals. Please tell me one of them is a large turtle.
- Once you are out of the water, you can go to the back of your diving boat, pat your dolphin on the head and make it sing and do back-flips for you -- shades of "Nintendogs" without the need of a virtual scooper.
- Eyewitnesses who watched me play the game on a standard-definition TV here at work thought the underwater parts look good. Friends who played it on a high-def TV thought it looked poorer than most Wii games.
If you're looking for a video game to buy, I don't know if "Endless Ocean" is for you. If you're looking to swim through a virtual fish tank, then this budget-priced $30 Wii game is worth researching a bit more. I've only played two hours of it, so I can't say it's a must-buy.
But it sure was cool to find that whale.
Now we need the PS3 to hurry up and bring on this game's partner in nature-tourism, "Afrika." This year, Sony?