Endless Ocean fully uses the motion sensitive Wii controllers and the Wiimote is actually the only thing you need to control your character – either on the deck or in the water. The scheme is pretty simple and straightforward: pointing at the screen tells your character in which direction to swim and pressing the B-trigger sends him there. However, a little move of your arm will completely change the direction of your diver, which is really frustrating – not to mention the fact that you actually have to stay as close as possible to the screen, since otherwise you will definitely have problems with the motion sensitive controller. Also, another issue related to the controls arises when you swim too close to the underwater objects (rocks and stuff) or go round a cave’s corner. But, hey, nobody is perfect!
Still, Endless Ocean has an aspect which is as close as possible to perfection, for a Wii game: its graphics. The visuals are pure eye candy and honestly I loved spending some of my playing time on the deck, lying on my chair and looking at the endless blue (which is possible via something like a screensaver – a very relaxing one, too!). So, for a Nintendo Wii console, the visuals are flawless and can be compared to those of the Xbox 360 or PS3!
The sounds are also pretty charming, with a very relaxing and cool soundtrack, but you will probably change that in an instant, when you find out that Endless Ocean allows you to play your own mp3 songs via the SD card reader. You won’t have too many people screaming in your speakers, since you’ll spend most of your time underwater, but the sound effects are also really nicely done, especially the breathing sound.
Conclusion: Endless Ocean might be the perfect choice if you have a kid you want to keep away from the violence over-present in other video games: it definitely has the looks to put them under a spell and keep them exploring. However, the lack of even a few little bits of action in the really slow paced game world, the repetitiveness of the stuff you have to do and the sometimes frustrating controls turn Endless Ocean into a title more hardcore gamers won’t play for too many hours.
Final Rating: 3/5
