Elebits: The Adventures of Kai and Zero
What do we have here hiding behind this rock? Zelda?
Tags: Elebits 2: The Adventures of Kai and Zero Categories: DS Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Jake McNeill on May 6th, 2009
The first Elebits games was one of those odd, experimental things on the Wii. You know, the kind of thing people refer to as a “tech demo” just as much as they refer to as a “game”. It basically used the Wii remote’s motion-sensing abilities for a sort of virtual reality hide-and-seek. And… well, gameplay-wise, it really has little to do with its first sequel, The Adventures of Kai and Zero. Rather, the DS follow-up takes a somewhat more traditional path, opting to follow in the action-adventure footsteps of games like The Legend of Zelda.
Or rather, a more kid-friendly Legend of Zelda. There’s not much monster-fighting, a lot more collecting, and enough sugary-sweet cutesy storytelling and voice work to give you a toothache, but it still packs a good amount of clever puzzles and some very nice boss fights to give older gamers something to hold their interest so long as they’ve already had their fill of Phantom Hourglass.
The basic premise of the game is that you’re using a sort of energy grappling beam to move objects in the environment, find and stun multitudes of flighty Elebits critters, and then sic your Omega Elebit (a bigger Elebit) after them. Collect enough and you can power the gates that bar your path, or charge the abilities of the dozens of different Omega Elebits you’ll be collecting (an ice Omega to freeze rivers, a fire Omega to burn brush that’s in your way, and so on).
There are only two issues that make this game a good deal less fun than it could be. First, collecting the Elebits can be a bit of a grind, and can drag down the experience. And secondly, some of the puzzles don’t really have an obvious solution, which might deter the younger target audience. As annoying as Zelda’s Navi may be, she at least filled the role of prodding slower players in the right direction – here it’s not uncommon for a player to wonder if there’s something they’ve missed.
Still, there’s always GameFAQs, and if you can put up with the tedious collect-a-thon, there’s a decent Zelda-style adventure here, and the lower challenge level means this might be a good game for a parent to play with their kid, too. All in all, it’s not spectacular, but it may be worth you’re while to check it out.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
| + Solid Zelda-style gameplan + Decent puzzles + Clever bosses | 7.5 |
| What Doesn't | |
| - Collecting Elebits is a tedious grind - The solutions to some puzzles aren't self-evident, which may frustrate younger gamers the game targets | |
| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| A good (but not spectacular) Zelda-style adventure for younger audiences. | |
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Tags: Elebits 2: The Adventures of Kai and Zero
Posted by Jake McNeill on May 6th, 2009 and is filed under DS Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
