I must say that I'm not particularly impressed with this Konami title.
Developed by the same people who worked on Elebits (which I like), Dewy's Adventure feels like it could have used an other couple of months for polishing various aspects.
Story tells about a boy meeting a girl near a giant, almost dead tree. The girl is reading a book, and the book tells the story of Dewy, a drop of water that defended the Tree of Seven Colors against Don Hedron and his Black Rain.
The whole game is envisioned as a fairy tale, graphics are very simple, colorful and "big", with a style clearly aimed to kids.
The game does a great job in this, with the story being told with the same style used in Elebits, though it could have used more effects; polygonal count is low, there isn't much on the screen at the same time but texture are good in their simplicity and everything moves at a decent pace...30fps, nothing more, maybe a bit less, but the game never crawls.
Musics is completely forgettable, dubbing is just plain bad (especially the girl's voice...I think the original Jap voice was tender and calming, the American one tries to be, but unfortunately it's more arrogant that tender) and everything in the game speaks through cute sounds.
It's also noticeable that Dewy tries a bit too hard to copy Kirby; unfortunately Konami wasn't able to fully grasp the subtle comedy in Kirby's world, though there are some fun parts.
The game is played with the Wiimote held horizontally (a la Super Paper Mario), which is tilted in all directions to tilt the whole level and let Dewy slide around. 2 jumps, 1 attacks, + brings up the pause menu and up and down (left and right with a vertical Wiimote) raise or decrease the temperature, changing Dewy from water to ice or mist. While water Dewy can perform high jumps and a basic jump attack, in ice form it can perform a three-hit jump combo or spin around to damage enemies while mist allows our little drop to cast lighting to stun enemies.
The goal in each level is simple: reach the end while rescuing Toad-like mushroom creatures and defeating enemies. There's a boss each four levels and the story is divided in chapters. Each level usually require 10 minutes to be completed, and the game ranks according to time used and mushrooms rescued.
Where Dewy's Adventure fails are its controls; essentially, the game is played like Kororinpa, but where the Hudson game as tight controls, Dewy's, even with the highest sensibility setting feels sluggish; tilting the control to 45-50 degrees produces a very controlled and slow stage rotation, jumps take too long to be registered by the system and they just last too long as you can't steer mid-air. Out-of-level jumps are kept to a minimum, but can still happen as the whole game feels like...mhmmm...you know when you're trying to spread oil over a cold frying pan full or scratches by tilting it? The oil is slow to move and when it does, it goes where it wants due to the scratches. The sensation is similar; you do have more control and thanks to the game large platforms and forgiving enemy hit zones it never becomes frustrating, but it's not as tight you want.
Also, changing forms also changes your jump performance...with even the lowest ridge too tall for the ice form, why even bother trying? Also you're immobile in mist form, which slows down the game a bit.
From what I've played, the game is fun, but controls are making it unnecesseraly slow.
Developed by the same people who worked on Elebits (which I like), Dewy's Adventure feels like it could have used an other couple of months for polishing various aspects.
Story tells about a boy meeting a girl near a giant, almost dead tree. The girl is reading a book, and the book tells the story of Dewy, a drop of water that defended the Tree of Seven Colors against Don Hedron and his Black Rain.
The whole game is envisioned as a fairy tale, graphics are very simple, colorful and "big", with a style clearly aimed to kids.
The game does a great job in this, with the story being told with the same style used in Elebits, though it could have used more effects; polygonal count is low, there isn't much on the screen at the same time but texture are good in their simplicity and everything moves at a decent pace...30fps, nothing more, maybe a bit less, but the game never crawls.
Musics is completely forgettable, dubbing is just plain bad (especially the girl's voice...I think the original Jap voice was tender and calming, the American one tries to be, but unfortunately it's more arrogant that tender) and everything in the game speaks through cute sounds.
It's also noticeable that Dewy tries a bit too hard to copy Kirby; unfortunately Konami wasn't able to fully grasp the subtle comedy in Kirby's world, though there are some fun parts.
The game is played with the Wiimote held horizontally (a la Super Paper Mario), which is tilted in all directions to tilt the whole level and let Dewy slide around. 2 jumps, 1 attacks, + brings up the pause menu and up and down (left and right with a vertical Wiimote) raise or decrease the temperature, changing Dewy from water to ice or mist. While water Dewy can perform high jumps and a basic jump attack, in ice form it can perform a three-hit jump combo or spin around to damage enemies while mist allows our little drop to cast lighting to stun enemies.
The goal in each level is simple: reach the end while rescuing Toad-like mushroom creatures and defeating enemies. There's a boss each four levels and the story is divided in chapters. Each level usually require 10 minutes to be completed, and the game ranks according to time used and mushrooms rescued.
Where Dewy's Adventure fails are its controls; essentially, the game is played like Kororinpa, but where the Hudson game as tight controls, Dewy's, even with the highest sensibility setting feels sluggish; tilting the control to 45-50 degrees produces a very controlled and slow stage rotation, jumps take too long to be registered by the system and they just last too long as you can't steer mid-air. Out-of-level jumps are kept to a minimum, but can still happen as the whole game feels like...mhmmm...you know when you're trying to spread oil over a cold frying pan full or scratches by tilting it? The oil is slow to move and when it does, it goes where it wants due to the scratches. The sensation is similar; you do have more control and thanks to the game large platforms and forgiving enemy hit zones it never becomes frustrating, but it's not as tight you want.
Also, changing forms also changes your jump performance...with even the lowest ridge too tall for the ice form, why even bother trying? Also you're immobile in mist form, which slows down the game a bit.
From what I've played, the game is fun, but controls are making it unnecesseraly slow.