LostWinds

Lore & Background

The genesis of LostWinds stems from a Frontier 'Game of the Week' competition to develop a game that took advantage of the Wii Remote. Designer Steve Burgess, watching wind blow through trees, conceived the idea of letting a player become the wind. He added a second character to be moved and protected by the wind, applying his ideas to the Wii Remote. The game was ported to iOS due to its success, and a sequel, LostWinds 2: Winter of the Melodias, was released on October 9, 2009. In the plot, Toku is awakened by the wind and falls into a cave, where he finds a crystal shard containing Enril, a wind spirit trapped when she imprisoned the vengeful Balasar. Using Enril's power, Toku navigates the land, learns abilities like Slipstream and Vortex, and seeks help from his babysitter Deo, who is revealed to be a spirit himself. Deo's memory is locked in four chests; after opening them, Deo gives Toku a Jumbrella Cape to allow him to fly. He left it with a monster known as Magmok, located below the Chamber of Memories. LostWinds and its sequel were removed from the iOS App Store after an iOS update caused both games to crash on startup, a bug that was never fixed. The game was initially unavailable for download on Wii U at launch in November 2012, but this was patched in April 2014. It was delisted from both Wii and Wii U following the discontinuation of the Wii Shop Channel in January 2019.

Reader's Guide

LostWinds received 'favorable' reviews on Wii and 'average' reviews on iOS according to Metacritic. IGN praised the Wii version's sound and graphics, calling the presentation 'remarkable', and felt the gameplay was fresh and fun with clever puzzles and tight controls, though they noted the short length (about three hours) was offset by the low price. Eurogamer called it a 'mini-masterpiece', and GamePro gave it a perfect score, calling it 'beautiful and unique'. 1UP.com found it 'charming, beautiful, and loaded with smart, judicious use of the Wii Remote' with minor length concerns. Nintendo Life said it was 'innovative' but 'not quite as revolutionary in terms of play control as some had hoped', though a step in the right direction. N-Europe praised Frontier's 'astounding attention to detail' and visuals that make it seem like a 'living, breathing fairytale'. In contrast, GameSpot was disappointed by its short length and lack of 'energy' and 'personality'. 411Mania gave the Wii version 8.5/10, while The A.V. Club gave it a B−, criticizing similar environments, predictable story, and low difficulty. Metro gave the iOS version 5/10, praising graphics but panning unresponsive touch controls. Addressing the short length, Frontier founder David Braben argued LostWinds stacked up favorably against full-priced retail games offering only four to seven hours. IGN awarded it Best Use of the Wii-Mote in its 2008 awards and nominated it for Best WiiWare Game, Best Artistic Design, and Best Platform Game.

Did You Know?

• LostWinds was a launch title for the WiiWare service in 2008.
• The game's concept came from designer Steve Burgess watching wind blow through trees.
• An iOS update caused both LostWinds and its sequel to crash on startup; the bug was never fixed, and both were removed from the App Store.