LostWinds blowing its way onto WiiWare..
I'm happy to say, their first collection of offerings is rather worth the 1000 Points and the hefty memory block count (external HD, anyone?). And LostWinds is definitely worth the sacrifice.
Primarily a 3D Sidescroller, tempered with puzzles similar to Wind Waker, LostWinds spins the tale of Toku and the Wind Spirit he inadvertently frees when he ends up taking a nap within a sacred cave.
Apparently, Toku lives on an enchanted island where a long time ago the Elementals and Humans lived in harmony. But as with all things, there ended up a malevolent spirit who caused trouble, forcing the Elementals to seal it away and save the Island and its inhabitants from harm.
Regrettably after several centuries, the seal has been weakened and the spirit plans on escaping, destroying the Island and plunging the world into darkness. Thus, Toku has to help the Wind Spirit to find the lost treasures in order to revive the Elementals, acquiring the power to defeat the malevolent force once and for all. (whew!)
Thus, your quest begins. Like many platform puzzlers, LostWinds uses a unique control scheme. You control Toku with the Nunchuk, whereas the Wii Remote enables you to use the Wind Spirit's power as a means for carrying Toku across gaps, hurling items and blowing flames against flammable objects, not to mention destroying the evil forces trying to stop you. Mainly in the form of black dots and grass frogs.
The dungeons Toku must search are actually caves, mines and temples where he can locate pieces of an Elemental Statue (the result unknown, since I've be unable to collect them all), upgrade the Spirit's abilities and unlock the treasure chests enabling the village elder to help you in your quest.
The only problem I have with LostWinds is similar to that of Okami and the brush strokes, it takes patience and practice in getting Toku to do what you want him to do, as well as figuring out where one can use boulders, Tone Balls (for shattering crystals and crystal-locked doors), pyres and other items.
Also finding locations aren't exactly easy as well, meaning you don't have a map to help you out, you just have to remember where certain items are located and pull out a hit-and-miss on your quest. But at least finding the statue pieces makes up for this.
Even funnier are how characters react when you use the wind power on them as well, while getting information out of them. Now considering this is a WiiWare title, naturally, it's like what future titles like StrongBad's Adventure turns out to be: episodic. Meaning, right now the first episode of LostWinds is rather short, sort of like when you play a demo, but the good thing here is, it's not so incredibly easy where you'll breeze through it through one sitting. In fact, the statue piece search gives the game some replay value.
Overall, unless you like having to run a kingdom, or play a Paper Mario version of Rampart, LostWinds is definitely worth a look, and hopefully the next installments will make up for its short-comings as we wonder what other obstacles Toku and the Wind Spirit will face while saving his village and the Island.