We're kicking off a new series of posts checking back in on notable releases of one year ago, starting with the 1/21/08 oddball Wii game "Endless Ocean." One year later, why do I still recommend this game to people?
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Game: "Endless Ocean"
Platform: Wii
Developer: Arika
Publisher: Nintendo
Release Date: 1/21/08
What it was about: "Endless Ocean" is a motion-controlled Scuba-diving game that got lumped into the non-game category by many Wii owners. The player uses the Wii remote to guide a diver through shallow and deep-sea dives. "Endless Ocean"'s most prevalent and oddest goal for each dive mission involves the player making the diver pet new species of fish. The game is stuffed with species, many of which are quite interesting to look at, particularly the strange deep-sea life and the sharks. With the biggest fish and whales, you can grab their tails for an on-rails swim.
What was cool about it: It turns out that "Endless Ocean" isn't best classified as a non-game. It's a stealth single-player adventure game, and a good one at that. Early on, it could have been mistaken for casual entertainment, a virtual pond through which to wander and gaze. But I found that the structure is pure single-player gaming: the diving missions involve discovery or escort-mission goals and take you through well-staged encounters. For example: during one dive, following a certain species fish takes leads you into a current... which pulls you to a sunken city... which has a building that has a whole in its roof, through which you can descend to find a giant manta ray covering the floor. There's no killing, no combat, but the way the sequence plays out leads the player through a focused, well-paced journey. The missions that involve tracking sea turtles, sharks and whales are the most impressive, and the end-game -- a hunt for a singularly impressive underwater creature -- proves as satisfying as many end-game boss battles.
What wasn't so great: The dialogue and out-of-water character action was bad. Believe it or not, the game's supposed to have an emotional hook. I wriggled free of it.
Features I neglected: I never used the game's custom soundtracks, only dabbled once with an option to use an in-game magic marker to write messages that could hover underwater and I never played the game via the offered online co-op.
When I last played it: July 12, 2008 (I had finished the game by then and was entering a very busy second half of the year.)
How long I played it: 8 hours 44 minutes, 8 seconds
Great moments in "Endless Ocean"-based journalism: Since Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime is an avid diver, I asked him once if diving was the inspiration for the Blue Ocean sales strategy he often refers to. It was a joke, of course, and one I'm not sure I would have made had I not have had a taste of diving with "Endless Ocean."
Worth tracking down? Yes, for Wii gamers hungry for a solid single-player experience as long as the lack of violence won't bum them out.
Related Posts:
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My First Swim With The Wii’s ‘Endless Ocean’ — Penguins Have Been Petted
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