{"id":133670,"date":"2023-05-12T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-12T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/#article-149354"},"modified":"2023-05-12T17:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-05-12T17:00:00","slug":"anniversary-lostwinds-first-launched-15-years-ago-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2023\/05\/12\/anniversary-lostwinds-first-launched-15-years-ago-today\/","title":{"rendered":"Anniversary: LostWinds First Launched 15 Years Ago Today"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"media_block\"><a href=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/bc503e56da9af\/large.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/bc503e56da9af\/small.jpg\" class=\"media_thumbnail\"><\/a><\/div>\n<figure class=\"picture\"><a class=\"scanlines\" title=\"LostWinds\" href=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/bc503e56da9af\/lostwinds.large.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy\" src=\"image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciIHZpZXdCb3g9IjAgMCA5MDAgNTA2Ij48L3N2Zz4=\" width=\"900\" height=\"506\" data-original=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/bc503e56da9af\/lostwinds.900x.jpg\" alt=\"LostWinds\"><\/a><figcaption class=\"caption\"><em class=\"credit\">Image: Frontier Developments<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Today marks the 15th anniversary of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/wiiware\/lostwinds\">LostWinds<\/a> in North America, a launch title for WiiWare and (in this writer&#8217;s opinion) one of the console&#8217;s finest bite-sized games.<\/p>\n<p>The title was developed and published by Frontier Developments out West, though Square Enix took care of publishing duties for LostWinds&#8217; Japan release in December 2008. The game would later come to iOS for a brief time in 2011 before more recently being added to Steam in 2016.<\/p>\n<p>Frontier Developments set out to make a game that took full advantage of the Wii Remote, and with LostWinds, it achieved just that, winning IGN&#8217;s Best Use of the Wii-Mote award in 2008 \u2014 highly coveted, I&#8217;m sure we can all agree).<\/p>\n<p><!-- cache: html:nintendolife.com\/ssl\/wii\/related-articles:1850 @ 2023-05-13T07:18:24+01:00 --><\/p>\n<aside class=\"block object-related\"> <\/aside>\n<p>But perhaps we&#8217;re getting ahead of ourselves here, after all, not everybody would have played this curious Zelda-like-meets-Metroidvania all those years ago. LostWinds sees you playing as Toku, a young boy who comes into contact with an elemental wind spirit, Enril, before embarking on a journey to take down an evil force known as Balasar. So far, so Zelda, right? But where this game really (wind)chimed with its WiWare audience was through its innovative control scheme that had you moving Toku with the Nunchuck, and using the Remote to control the wind. Yes, you <em>play<\/em> as the wind.<\/p>\n<p>With a swish of the Wii-Mote, you are able to send a gust of air shooting across the screen, lifting Toku up into the sky, or pushing any nearby enemies off into pits below. It&#8217;s a relatively simple concept, but one that once you get the hang of it (having spent several minutes throwing the poor child into the floor with a rogue downdraft) leads to some very fun weather-based platforming.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"gallery\"><figcaption class=\"caption\"><em class=\"credit\">Images: Frontier Developments<\/em><\/figcaption><\/aside>\n<p>Making your way across difficult jumps introduces you to unique unlockable abilities (Splistream, Vortex, Jumbrella Cape) all of which help you get to an area that had previously been <em>just<\/em> out of reach. Metroidvanias are two-a-penny on the Switch eShop these days, but seeing this structure take full advantage of the Wii&#8217;s motion controls was a stroke of genius upon launch.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, very much unlike many of the Metroidvanias that we see today, LostWinds was a very short game, only taking a <em>breezy<\/em> three hours to complete. The puzzles were engaging and the pleasant soundtrack and visuals had you wanting to stay in the land of Mistralis for longer, but this was more of a freak gust than a long-lasting storm as far as its length was concerned.<\/p>\n<p>Guiding Toku with the precise movement of the Remote created an experience that you would imagine to be made for touch controls. The game was released on iOS in 2011 but, plagued by game-crashing bugs from the get-go, it was later removed from the App Store. The subsequent closure of the Wii Shopping Channel now means that the only way to play the game is via <a href=\"https:\/\/store.steampowered.com\/app\/447780\/LostWinds\/\">Steam<\/a>, where it can currently be purchased for the reasonable price of \u00a36.99 \u2014 seems fair considering its size.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"gallery\">\n<div class=\"cols\">\n<div class=\"col\"><a title=\"LostWinds\" class=\"scanlines\" href=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/d20298e192f67\/lostwinds.large.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy\" src=\"image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciIHZpZXdCb3g9IjAgMCA0NDUgMjUwIj48L3N2Zz4=\" width=\"445\" height=\"250\" data-original=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/d20298e192f67\/lostwinds.445x.jpg\" alt=\"LostWinds\"><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"col\"><a title=\"LostWinds\" class=\"scanlines scanlines\" href=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/102cf5c80d207\/lostwinds.large.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy\" src=\"image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciIHZpZXdCb3g9IjAgMCA0NDUgMjUwIj48L3N2Zz4=\" width=\"445\" height=\"250\" data-original=\"https:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/102cf5c80d207\/lostwinds.445x.jpg\" alt=\"LostWinds\"><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"caption\"><em class=\"credit\">Images: Frontier Developments<\/em><\/figcaption><\/aside>\n<p>Frontier Developments made a sequel, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/wiiware\/lostwinds_winter_of_the_melodias\">LostWinds: Winter of the Melodias<\/a> in 2009 and in 2013 we heard rumblings of a third game as the developer said it was still <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/news\/2013\/05\/frontier_would_very_much_like_to_make_another_lostwinds_game\">very interested in the series<\/a> but, ultimately, no more was to ever come.<\/p>\n<p>What we are left with is a tight Metroidvania WiiWare launch title with Zelda influences sprinkled throughout and a creative control scheme that would benefit from touchscreen support \u2014 it&#8217;s positively calling out to be brought to the Switch, right? Yes, there are a number of factors that are stacked against this little wish coming true (porting is expensive and the iOS removal in 2011 might just demonstrate that implementing touch controls is no walk in the park), but the game appears to be a dream Switch port through and through \u2014 to our money, at least.<\/p>\n<p>Did LostWinds have its flaws? Sure it did, but it was a prime example of building a game around its home console&#8217;s quirks. Even if we never do see a Switch port, it&#8217;s a lesson that a whole lot of other games would do well to learn from.<\/p>\n<p><!-- cache: html:nintendolife.com\/ssl\/wii\/related-articles:1889 @ 2023-05-13T07:18:24+01:00 --><\/p>\n<aside class=\"block object-related\"> <\/aside>\n<p><em>Did you ever play this WiiWare gem? Let us know in the comments.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image: Frontier Developments Today marks the 15th anniversary of LostWinds in North America, a launch title for WiiWare and (in this writer&#8217;s opinion) one of the console&#8217;s finest bite-sized games. The title was developed and published by Frontier Developments out West, though Square Enix took care of publishing duties for LostWinds&#8217; Japan release in December [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-133670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nintendo-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133670\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}