Publisher: Frontier
Developer: Frontier
Genre: Puzzle-Platformer
Release date: Available now

Roughly halfway through this current generation of consoles, I can safely say that I have mined more entertainment and unique gameplay experiences from the bite-sized morsels available on the various digital distribution streams (such as WiiWare, XBLA and PSN) than I have from the mega-budget retail releases. Looking back over the last few years, my end-of-year Top Ten lists have skewed heavily towards the independent developers, with games such as Braid and World of Goo standing taller than their supposed big brothers. There just seems to be an air of creativity at the grass roots level that diminishes the higher you climb in the stratosphere, and while I’ll happily tackle the next GTA or Halo clone, my juices really start flowing when I’m adventuring through another finely crafted puzzle game. This digital revolution kicked off around the time the WiiWare service launched, featuring its greatest showcase title, LostWinds. Developer Frontier has toiled tirelessly for the last two and half years to finally offer fans their long awaited follow-up, Winter of the Melodias.

LostWinds: Winter of the Melodias, like its predecessor, is a platformer/puzzler that utilizes the unique control abilities of the Wii to navigate your character, Toku, through an enchanted landscape. In the original game, Toku was charged with seeking out lost spirits to battle a reanimated evil demon. The Wiimote was used to direct and divert wind currents to aid Toku in his travels and to help him solve a series of environmental puzzles. In the sequel, Toku must find his mother, who has gone missing at a mysteriously frozen outpost. Toku travels to this wintry land and tries to free his mother from the cool grip of a curse that has befallen her and the land’s inhabitants. Along the way, he unlocks new wind powers and the ability to change the seasons.

During his quest, Toku encounters a series of puzzles based around the Wind Spirit’s abilities. Early on, you could be called upon to ignite a torch and then direct the flames (using a burst of wind) to burn down a thorn barrier that is blocking your progress. As you work through the game and uncover memory chests, Toku gains new abilities, including the power of the cyclone, which can be used to propel Toku to great heights or to transform certain areas of the landscape so that he can reach underground caverns. In addition, when you learn to control the seasons (turning the land from winter to summer and vice versa), the puzzles begin to play off of these disparate elements to help you reach new areas. If a vast lake stands in Toku’s way, switching to winter creates a frozen expanse that can be easily crossed. These new abilities often open new avenues for your continued exploration. While there is some backtracking as new powers are discovered, Frontier has included a new map function that always keeps you on task.

I was a huge fan of LostWinds, with my only complaint being that it seemed like it ended just as it got started. That first game, while excellent from start to finish, could be completed in about two to three hours. Winter of the Melodias is about twice as long because of its puzzle complexity and its larger narrative. It took me a few nights to play through this adventure, and throughout the entire course of the game I constantly felt like I was doing something new. Enhancements to my abilities were almost continuously doled out, providing a new wrinkle to the gameplay. While some of the design harkens back to classics such as Metroid and The Legend of Zelda, Frontier has proven themselves masters of this form, building a compelling world and then adding a continuous series of tricky conundrums to solve. It’s an addictive game design that compels the player to journey for just five more minutes to see what’s coming next.

From a technical perspective, the developer’s work on the Wii (more importantly on WiiWare) is jaw-dropping. Melodias has a fine visual aesthetic, using subtle bloom lighting to bring its artistic vision to life. The soundtrack, with its soothing melodies, supports the visuals and creates a haunting, fairy-tale landscape that ought to bring in Legend of Zelda fans. While Melodias plays to the same crowd that craves each new Zelda installment and other adventures such as Ico, Shadow of the Colossus and Okami, it offers its own share of enchantments buoyed by the Wii controls. I’m sure this game could have been done on other consoles or the PC, but it would’ve lost something without the motion controls; the tactile handle on the wind creates an indelible connection with your character. It’s quite telling that the developer’s two WiiWare titles put most Wii retail releases to shame, which only underscores how talented this developer is and how lazy their competition can sometimes be.

Some of my favorite games of the last few years have come from digital distribution. Developers such as Frontier seem to thrive on a stripped-down economy; free from the bloat that can plague bigger-budgeted behemoths, they can focus on what truly matters: the game design. LostWinds: Winter of the Melodias is one of the year’s best, a burst of fresh air that manages to keep my love of videogames aloft.

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