An all-new IP, based on a concept submitted to Frontier’s ‘Game of the Week’ forum and an idea closest to a proven commercial failure, Okami, this is not the type of game we have grown accustomed to on Wii, yet exactly the type of game the console deserves.

It is hard to talk of LostWinds without mentioning Capcom’s white wolf, though the comparison is a tad unfair. Alone, Ameratsu was a force to be reckoned with, empowered further with the celestial brush. In Toku, the chibi hero of this piece, we find little more than a camera on legs, absolutely in need of the player-directed elements to survive and proceed.

Dividing control of Toku and the wind – here represented by the spirit Enril – between the Nunchuck and the Remote shows the kind of control clarity that has escaped even Nintendo – the stubby, boring Toku on the similarly limited Nunchuck, with the wonder-baton directing the exciting wind powers. Early concerns over ease of control are dispelled after a minute’s play, a slight slowdown in time added to the wind-casting process avoiding panicked fumblings.

Such accessibility is in no small part due to the expert pacing with which each new gusty trick is explored. There is a distinct whiff of Metroid in the careful doling out of abilities, each given just enough time to settle in before the next appears. Time-consuming navigation becomes a wind-propelled doddle, before slipstreaming is introduced and Toku is piloted directly with a player-drawn path. However, it is this pacing that arguably provides the biggest gripe with LostWinds.

Completed at around the three-hour mark, the game’s generous gifting of skills is to the detriment of its challenge. In some ways it plays more like a single Zelda dungeon as opposed to a grand adventure, in that you’re not given the time to forget how everything works. The puzzles are such that not one of your powers goes unused for long – a praiseworthy feat, certainly, but also denying you those glorious eureka moments we expect from puzzle-platformers.

That said, there is a playfulness to LostWinds that will surely extend its playtime beyond the bounds of narrative (which is surprisingly well told for a downloadable title – a format usually adverse to the singleplayer adventure). Whether discovering the effects of new powers on the environments – grabbing a baby from its mother’s arms or slipstreaming cherry blossom into a glorious pink vortex – or simply sweeping a whirligig Toku around on a sycamore-like seed pod, the room for experimentation fits the toybox mentality apparent in so many of the host console’s better titles.

Complemented by charming art design and some impressive technical realization, especially considering the minimal storage space it takes up, there is plenty to love about LostWinds. When the credits roll and the final words remind you of LostWinds’ humble ‘Game of the Week’ origins, you can’t help but read it as a cheeky ‘So there!’ to publishers everywhere. And it has every right to say it.

8/10