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If you’ve been following the WiiWare launch you’ve probably heard of a little game called LostWinds. Even if you haven’t heard of it you should stop reading this review and go download the game now. Quite simply this is a game that all Wii owners should experience for themselves.

LostWinds has you taking on the role of Toku a young boy who finds and rescues a wind spirit named Enril. Enril grants you the power of elemental wind, and this becomes the main control mechanic. When you start out you can really only control your side to side movement with the thumbstick, but the addition of your wind powers allows you to draw controlled bursts of wind on the screen that will cause Toku to jump.

It’s this simple mechanic that continues to build through the game where you’ll unlock further upgrades such as double jumping and even the creation of a controlled cyclone. The controls are simple enough and by the time you master the current unlock you’ve unlocked something else to help you solve the puzzles. As you unlock new abilities you can backtrack and explore more of the world ala Metroid. The relatively small game world is well laid out and utilized. You are always finding something new in areas you’ve explored before.

Visually LostWinds really shines; the world is big, detailed and alive. How a small $10 downloaded game can put most full price disk games to shame is both hilarious and sad at the same time. You really do feel as though you are more interacting with a beautiful dream world then just controlling Toku in his adventures. The graphics engine helps to seal this illusion with the subtle depth of field effects when the game focuses on the foreground action and the paralax scrolling when you are making your way through a dense village in the mountains. Little touches like the background villagers and plants reacting when you send a gust of wind their way is a layer of polish that is usually saved only for Nintendo titles.

While a little on the short side, 4.5 hours for my first play through, LostWinds is the bargain of the year at $10. I can only hope that other developers see what Frontier has done for their first WiiWare title and step up their game. WiiWare has found it’s first gem and we the gamers are reaping the rewards.

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