Games for the Weekend is a weekly feature aimed at helping you avoid doing something constructive with your downtime. Each Friday we’ll be recommending a game for Mac, iPhone or iPad that we think is awesome. Here is one cool enough to keep you busy until Monday, at least.
LostWinds2: Winter of the Melodias ($3.99, Universal) is a platform game that is as close as possible to being a defining console game for the iOS platform. With its attention to gameplay detail, stunning mixture of 2D and 3D graphics, the rich story line behind LostWinds will draw you into the game even further.
Gameplay is about as good as it can get on a touch display. The way you interact with the various elements and objects is quite unique, and the elements are truly the elemental parts of nature: earth, fire, water and of course wind. Wind is one of the key components that enables the main character, Toku, to jump from platform to platform. Throughout the game, Toku is guided by the wind spirit Enril on his adventures. You use your fingers to call upon Enril and create gusts of wind that propel Toku and other objects from one place to another. There is even an element of physics involved and the objects you use the wind to interact with are subject to gravity. Getting Toku up a series of cliffs takes a little wind practice and a whole lot of bouncy mushrooms.
The touch interaction goes beyond simple movement of Toku across the screen with gusts of wind. You can control the wind to create a vortex that will funnel water from a pond onto a grassy area in order to grow plants. You can use that same vortex to levitate objects and a second gust of wind to propel them against other objects and barriers like a weapon. You can even use the wind to move fire from one torch to another. This is a particularly useful trick as the torches are what keep Toku from freezing. Controlling fire is also key when it comes to removing barriers that are in Toku’s way. This use of a combination of skills can turn some scenes in the adventure into a graphics-based puzzle game. You have to figure out the exact sequence of events and master each learned skill to advance Toku forward.
As Toku advances, he is met by increasingly difficult challenges. And with these challenges, additional skills are introduced to keep gameplay fresh. It seems like around every corner there is a new challenge to overcome and a new skill to master. Eventually the game goes beyond controlling the wind to moving objects around. You soon learn the skill that can actually control the seasons to help Toku advance forward in his quest.
But all of this touch controlling of nature has to be for a purpose: to save his mother Magdi. The adventure progresses through some stunning scenery as Toku makes his way through Summerfalls Village, across the mountains of Chilling Peaks and onto Melodia City. There is a map that shows where you need to go and keeps you from getting lost.
LostWinds2 Winter of the Melodias is a sequel to the original LostWinds game. So if you find that you want to continue the adventure even further, both titles will keep you engaged for quite some time.