Everyone knows it’s windy
So I’m checking out LostWinds via the brand new WiiWare platform. You know what it reminds me of? Portal.
No, I’m serious. I mean, sure, it doesn’t have any hilarious evil computers, and it doesn’t have any 1500 megawatt Aperture Science supercolliding superbuttons, and it doesn’t have any, umm, portals, but it makes me think of Portal nonetheless. Like Portal, it’s essentially a puzzle game in a different genre’s framework; where Portal was a puzzle game FPS, LostWinds is a puzzle game platformer. You run your wacky little giant-headed fairy boy around the world using the analogue stick on the nunchuck, and you fly your magic wind spirit around using the pointer. Most of what you can do in the world involves using wind powers; you blow things around in various different ways to get through any given room, much like you would (in some other game) get through various rooms by opening portals in different places.
The other way LostWinds reminds me of Portal is that it appears to be pretty damn short. I’ve only put two hours into it so far, but I’m definitely getting the impression that I’m almost done. So if what sold you on Portal was the gameplay or the shortness, you might want to take a look at LostWinds. Of course, if what you liked was the crazy computer, there’s not much here for you.
Believe it or not, I came across this post by googling the phrase “LostWinds reminds me of Portal” because I was curious to see whether anyone else had used that exact phrase.
The way it reminds me of portal except for what you already described is that it’s a very pure experience – there isn’t anything in the game that doesn’t need to be there to make it what it is, as opposed to a, say, GTA 4 which while great is full of extra stuff that you could do without and not really miss it. I’m a big fan of that sort of economy in design.
Comment by InsoFox | 20 May 2008
That’s a great point, and one I should have played up more in my reviews of LostWinds and Portal both. Game designers these days have a tendency to throw in everything they can think of, but in both of these games, that’s not the case — they both stay focused on one primary method of interaction (be it wind or portals), and the worlds are designed around that.
Comment by Darien | 20 May 2008
Now that I’ve finished LostWinds I will say that the way it doesn’t remind me of Portal is that it seems more episodic in nature. It’s pitched at just the right price for that, but there’s much more of a feel of an incomplete story there.
I don’t mind that, but I admit that I don’t feel that I’ve accomplished that much by the end, unlike Portal.
Comment by InsoFox | 21 May 2008