(This is part of a series of party game reviews for party games that I messed around with alongside a good friend in a weekend. I'm writing them with time inbetween each review to avoid flooding so I can still have friends after this.)
Elebits was another one of the party games I selected ahead of time as prepwork for a packed weekend of multiplayer games with a close friend. The multiplayer session we had was... kind of a mess though. Objects flew around the room like the Tazmanian Devil had stumbled upon an abode, lasers and Elebits made the screen look quite busy aside from the already scattered objects tanking the frame rate, and both of us were constantly pointing out how strange the camera combined with the just slightly off point lasers felt. But Elebits looked and sounded like such an interesting concept, so I wasn't content with this being the end-all of my experience, and I took another look by myself today.
I'm going to defer to Pangburn's review for most of the mechanical explanations (I actually didn't know he had played and reviewed this til I brought the page up again, whoops!), but needless to say, it's a super cool and innovative concept with very cute objects and creatures. I think packing the tutorial all in one go as an offered optional precondition before starting the story is a bit of a mistake, and I think it's possible for the devs to have started a bit more slowly and eased in the instructions and introductions as you progressed early levels. Otherwise, the package label is exactly what you get; it's a really bold take with the Wii motion controls, and I'm surprised how quickly I got used to the experience once I knew what I was doing (which I most definitely did not when playing it cold in multiplayer with my friend). I do have a few nitpicks that I think could improve the experience though:
- The camera often panned to angles where I could temporarily see through walls and notice where other Elebits were hiding. This is a pretty minor complaint considering it's probably a product of its age, but if Elebits ever gets a remaster/remake, I do hope this gets tackled.
- The gravity gun capture isn't angled as a straight line from the reticle directly into the background (i.e. not necessarily parallel with and perpendicular with the walls and the floor, like how you'd expect a light gun shooter to work), so the laser isn't always pinpoint on the reticle. This took some time to get used to and fortunately is somewhat alleviated because you can just wiggle the reticle around til you snag your intended object, but as mentioned before, it is a learning curve.
- Too often I found myself snagging onto bigger objects (many of which couldn't be moved) when I was trying to capture the smaller Elebits. This probably could be fixed if you could also hold a button on the Wii Remote that would switch on a mode that would bypass picking objects with gravity and exclusively focused on capturing Elebits.
I'm probably putting down Elebits for now, but I'm intrigued enough to where I want to give this game another proper go in co-op when my friends and I have another big meet up planned in a couple of months. I think Elebits definitely passes the "interesting" test, and I can't wait to give this gem another shot with the actual wherewithal to progress smoothly.
Elebits was another one of the party games I selected ahead of time as prepwork for a packed weekend of multiplayer games with a close friend. The multiplayer session we had was... kind of a mess though. Objects flew around the room like the Tazmanian Devil had stumbled upon an abode, lasers and Elebits made the screen look quite busy aside from the already scattered objects tanking the frame rate, and both of us were constantly pointing out how strange the camera combined with the just slightly off point lasers felt. But Elebits looked and sounded like such an interesting concept, so I wasn't content with this being the end-all of my experience, and I took another look by myself today.
I'm going to defer to Pangburn's review for most of the mechanical explanations (I actually didn't know he had played and reviewed this til I brought the page up again, whoops!), but needless to say, it's a super cool and innovative concept with very cute objects and creatures. I think packing the tutorial all in one go as an offered optional precondition before starting the story is a bit of a mistake, and I think it's possible for the devs to have started a bit more slowly and eased in the instructions and introductions as you progressed early levels. Otherwise, the package label is exactly what you get; it's a really bold take with the Wii motion controls, and I'm surprised how quickly I got used to the experience once I knew what I was doing (which I most definitely did not when playing it cold in multiplayer with my friend). I do have a few nitpicks that I think could improve the experience though:
- The camera often panned to angles where I could temporarily see through walls and notice where other Elebits were hiding. This is a pretty minor complaint considering it's probably a product of its age, but if Elebits ever gets a remaster/remake, I do hope this gets tackled.
- The gravity gun capture isn't angled as a straight line from the reticle directly into the background (i.e. not necessarily parallel with and perpendicular with the walls and the floor, like how you'd expect a light gun shooter to work), so the laser isn't always pinpoint on the reticle. This took some time to get used to and fortunately is somewhat alleviated because you can just wiggle the reticle around til you snag your intended object, but as mentioned before, it is a learning curve.
- Too often I found myself snagging onto bigger objects (many of which couldn't be moved) when I was trying to capture the smaller Elebits. This probably could be fixed if you could also hold a button on the Wii Remote that would switch on a mode that would bypass picking objects with gravity and exclusively focused on capturing Elebits.
I'm probably putting down Elebits for now, but I'm intrigued enough to where I want to give this game another proper go in co-op when my friends and I have another big meet up planned in a couple of months. I think Elebits definitely passes the "interesting" test, and I can't wait to give this gem another shot with the actual wherewithal to progress smoothly.