Fluidity is one of the more unique and creative titles to hit WiiWare this year. You play as a body of water, however you don't control this protagonist directly, you help guide and move the water around some delightfully visually impressive worlds by rotating the environment. The game is not a new idea, i still remember playing hand held versions of this concept as a child, but it's refreshing, fun, and a great way to spend a few hours of your day.
Your adventure begins inside the Aquaticus, an enchanted storybook that has been infected with a black goo called the influence, similar to games like the recent Wii hit "Disney's Epic Mickey" or "Mario Sunshine". Unlike the two games i just mentioned Fluidity is a 2D affair, the goal however is still the same, clean up the mess. To do this you will need to hold the Wii remote horizontally and tilt it side to side (exactly like the toy's they make for children) rotating the environment which will cause the water to move in many way's.
The challenge in Fluidity comes from the fact that you can't directly control the fluid. Water moves in many way's and controlling it with precise perfection can be a tricky task, this is what makes Fluidity a challenging but fun experience. Simply watching the water physics in the game is enough to please on it's own, the game looks fantastic and the water manoeuvres through the environmental obstacles almost as you would expect it to in reality. This makes the game feel very real and responsive, as well as providing a great deal of satisfaction every time a new challenge is completed. The only thing i didn't like was the jumping, i never knew water could jump, and in Fluidity the controls for jumping are just awkward and don't really work well. To jump you have to jerk the Wii remote upwards to make the water leap into the air, this gesture control works 50/50 at times, leaving it down to luck most of the time and it would be much more effective if this action was assigned to a button.
As you make your way through the pages of the Aquaticus you gain new ability's such as the three forms of water. These ability's will allow you to do thing's like gather all your liquid into a ball and make transporting yourself around the environment much easier. You will also be able to stick to walls as an ice block, or float around as a steam cloud. They are very simple ability's but they manage to mix up the action enough to keep thing's interesting and fun, also adding new challenges for the various ability's.
There are four chapters in the Aquaticus, each containing several pages. Throughout these pages are hidden Rainbow Drops which must be recovered in order to save the book. For example, you may need to get a Rainbow Drop behind a door, but the only way to open the door is to manoeuvre the missing mechanic back to the door in order to get it working again. With the obstacles in the way this is obviously a hard task to complete, but one that is extremely rewarding.
There are many other secrets to find other than Rainbow Drops, for example, if you find enough hidden puzzle-pieces in one chapter you can unlock a mini-game (or "playroom") that you can play at any time.
Visually the game is fantastic. The whole game is presented in the style of a storybook, the menu, boss fight's, everything and it works very well. The colours are bold and help bring the world to life and with the great physics everything just seems to fit very well together in one neat little package.
Overall i think Fluidity is one of the best games on WiiWare right now and definitely a game that would please anyone with a Nintento Wii. It's fun, challenging, and beautifully presented.
Your adventure begins inside the Aquaticus, an enchanted storybook that has been infected with a black goo called the influence, similar to games like the recent Wii hit "Disney's Epic Mickey" or "Mario Sunshine". Unlike the two games i just mentioned Fluidity is a 2D affair, the goal however is still the same, clean up the mess. To do this you will need to hold the Wii remote horizontally and tilt it side to side (exactly like the toy's they make for children) rotating the environment which will cause the water to move in many way's.
The challenge in Fluidity comes from the fact that you can't directly control the fluid. Water moves in many way's and controlling it with precise perfection can be a tricky task, this is what makes Fluidity a challenging but fun experience. Simply watching the water physics in the game is enough to please on it's own, the game looks fantastic and the water manoeuvres through the environmental obstacles almost as you would expect it to in reality. This makes the game feel very real and responsive, as well as providing a great deal of satisfaction every time a new challenge is completed. The only thing i didn't like was the jumping, i never knew water could jump, and in Fluidity the controls for jumping are just awkward and don't really work well. To jump you have to jerk the Wii remote upwards to make the water leap into the air, this gesture control works 50/50 at times, leaving it down to luck most of the time and it would be much more effective if this action was assigned to a button.
As you make your way through the pages of the Aquaticus you gain new ability's such as the three forms of water. These ability's will allow you to do thing's like gather all your liquid into a ball and make transporting yourself around the environment much easier. You will also be able to stick to walls as an ice block, or float around as a steam cloud. They are very simple ability's but they manage to mix up the action enough to keep thing's interesting and fun, also adding new challenges for the various ability's.
There are four chapters in the Aquaticus, each containing several pages. Throughout these pages are hidden Rainbow Drops which must be recovered in order to save the book. For example, you may need to get a Rainbow Drop behind a door, but the only way to open the door is to manoeuvre the missing mechanic back to the door in order to get it working again. With the obstacles in the way this is obviously a hard task to complete, but one that is extremely rewarding.
There are many other secrets to find other than Rainbow Drops, for example, if you find enough hidden puzzle-pieces in one chapter you can unlock a mini-game (or "playroom") that you can play at any time.
Visually the game is fantastic. The whole game is presented in the style of a storybook, the menu, boss fight's, everything and it works very well. The colours are bold and help bring the world to life and with the great physics everything just seems to fit very well together in one neat little package.
Overall i think Fluidity is one of the best games on WiiWare right now and definitely a game that would please anyone with a Nintento Wii. It's fun, challenging, and beautifully presented.
Fluidity is a great package 7/10
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