Hands on Dewy’s Adventure

Tilt platfomer is the best way to describe Dewy’s Adventure. Konami's watery hero is controlled with the Wii remote held like a classic Nintendo gamepad. But you can’t directly move Dewy around. By tilting the remote you can slide Dewy on the screen. The key is to gradually tilt the remote. If you rapidly turn it Dewy starts to slide all over the place. If the little droplet falls off the edge of a level he loses a little bit of life. There is a slight learning curve to Dewy’s Adventure, but if you’re well versed in Super Monkey Ball it shouldn’t be a problem. Dewy can also jump by pressing the A button and land on enemies with a ground pound.

The D-pad is used to control Dewy’s temperature. If you press up Dewy transforms into mist and he can shoot lightning bolts. However, in vapor form Dewy can’t move. You can also make Dewy freeze by holding down on the D-pad. When Dewy becomes a chunk of ice his jumping attack seems to do more damage, but since the world around him freezes too Dewy is harder to control. Changing the temperature is also used in simple puzzles. In the demo level there is a lake and even though Dewy is made of water he can’t enter it. You have to freeze the lake by lowering the temperature and then slide Dewy over the frozen lake by tilting the remote. Dewy only stays in alternate phases for a limited amount of time. The temperature meter on the left side of the screen gradually moves back to the middle where Dewy is in water form. Dewy has one more motion controlled super power. If you rapidly shake the remote you can cause an earthquake that stuns the nearby shadowy enemies, making them easy targets to bounce on.

What I liked about Dewy’s Adventure is it does a good job integrating motion control to make a new gameplay experience. The cheerful and colorful world is another plus, even though it might feel a too “family friendly” for some. Every system needs happy, all ages platformers right? What I’m not sold on is the game’s difficulty. The demo level seemed really easy, but that was the first stage. Dewy’s Adventure also has a four player multiplayer mode, but unfortunately that wasn’t around to try out.