Endless Ocean: Blue World - Nintendo Wii

I have played Endless Ocean for a long time, now. I loved how fleshed out the enormous map was, and how there were so many things to discover. In the second one, while each individual map (There are 7.) is smaller than the memorable Monoa Lai sea, they all bring new themes into the game. There's your original tropical reef near the last games location, there's a wide European pelagic area which includes some..."old" creatures after progressing through the game, as well as a kind of creepy abandoned castle.. There's the arctic (Polar Bears are where their supposed to be now!) which contains the Ancient Mother, the big (Friendly) white whale species you discovered before. There's the antarctic, which contains an ice field, as well as one huge iceberg which is actually a separate map altogether. Both polar levels have no visible sea floor, giving you a bit of a uneasy feeling, not knowing what giant might emerge from the depths...There's a river in South America which provides a beautiful array of freshwater life, as well as a flooded temple. Your final location a huge area off the coast of Egypt. It provides a tropical reef, an endless abyss (Similar to your last experience.), as well as another location...which I'm not going tell you about, for fear of ruining the plot. There is also your home "base", a small tropical island which you can add things to. Yes, they also kept the aquarium, which is different than last time. Now you can walk around the main aquarium, walk inside of a amphibious aquarium, and even keep the tiny animals that you have to zoom in to see in little aquariums. Did I mention you get paid a salary for keeping an aquarium? Which you can use to buy, among other things, coral for your private reef at Gatama Atoll, which attracts all kinds of species of fish. You won't be bored, either. There is a story line which moves quickly compared to EO1, and there are so many missions, quests, and goals it'll make your head spin. My favorite part of the game is the introduction of "Legendary Creatures". Remember finding the Ancient Mother in EO1? Imagine stuff like that, just spread out across the maps for you to just randomly run into, some of em pretty startling. And that's before you enter the secret area in Egypt...A few downsides? The controls are still a little jumpy, although it could be my sensor. The maps are quite smaller than EO1, but then again...there's 7 of them. Put em together, and they may well be bigger than Manoa Lai sea. However, I do find myself less edgy than on the first one. I could swim for hours on end in one little spot on the map, and discover new stuff the whole time.And even now that some creatures can damage you, I found myself much more afraid of the huge, endless cliff edge the west, and that little stone doll you find in the ruins, that sends you e-mails warning you about the doom you've brought upon yourself. The music is also a little more pushy than the last one. In EO1 I could just mute at the main menu, and I was fine. But now there's many areas and cut scenes where that kind of music plays. Don't get me wrong, everyone is has the right to listen to whatever music they want, there's nothing wrong with it. But personally, I don't feel it's necessary in a video game. The background music is great, I like the first's better, but it's still really good. Another things is that the dolphins still kinda like to ignore you when you call them. This leads to the classic situations when I'm stuck in the middle of the abyss, with dangerous creatures galore, and I feel like I'm playing The Library on Halo. "Wait, where did you go!? Don't leave me here!" Speaking of, I find people who are hardcore FPS gamers writing negative reviews on this game. Now, if anyone fails to see the obvious, I guess I should point this out. ENDLESS OCEAN IS NOT A SHOOTING GAME! Stop comparing Endless Ocean with Call of Duty. That's like criticizing Minecraft for its graphics, or Super Mario Bros for being unrealistic, or Call of Duty for it's violence. Personally, I play many so called "Murder Simulators" (Call of Duty, Halo, Command & Conquer, Battlefield, etc.), and I love this game. Just because you're not killing people, stealing cars, racing cars, or whatever, doesn't mean it's a bad game. Maybe I should start criticizing Infinity Ward for not putting enough dinosaurs in their games? That would make sense, right? You've just got to have the right tastes. Personally, I love diving, I love Marine Biology, I love the water. Someone playing COD, BF, and GTA probably isn't going to be into that sort of thing. So move along, and go criticize FPS's instead. All in all, this is a great game, and I strongly recommend it for anybody else who likes marine life.

My husband and my 7 year old son bond over the Lego Wii games, but until Blue World, there was no Wii game that my son and I really liked to play together. I have to say that this game gave us some really wonderful moments together. It held both of our interest and was such a peaceful experience that I was sad when we completed the story. I'd love a Part II!Here are some of the best features of the game:--It is visually and musically beautiful. While playing, instead of feeling stressed, most of the time you feel immersed in a peaceful, meditative environment with lovely music. It feels relaxing to play and really is escapist in the best sense of the term.--That said, there is still adventure! and goals! and puzzles to solve! I wouldn't have liked it without those features. Some of the adventure comes from encounters with unfriendly sea creatures, like sharks, and even some whales. My son got scared by the sharks for a bit, but not enough to stop playing. The puzzles are challenging, but only one really got us stumped, at that was at the end. (And, thanks to "cheat sheet" websites, we eventually figured it out.) The story is fascinating and cohesive. The puzzles are thoughtful and lead you to deeper challenges. There are no silly "mini games," just various encounters with sea creatures and sunken ruins and treasure.--There are a lot of interesting diversions to engage in when you feel like you have time to explore. And these times of exploration do not go unrewarded. You get extra money for exploring the uncharted areas of the map, and you also get money from finding sunken treasure. That alone was very entertaining for my son as you never know whether the round box-like object you found is a gold ingot or a useless box. You can spend your money on either buying cool equipment, some of which adds to your diving skill, adding objects to the island, or on building your own coral reef. Though I wasn't a huge fan of the reef aspect, my son really enjoyed building his and trying to entice more and more fish to visit. He also loved reading about every creature we encountered, and the game really increased his understanding of sea life more than any book he has read. Ah, if all learning could be this entrancing.--Entrancing is a great word for my overall summation of this game. I had a visceral, positive, even transcendent experience at times while playing the game. It takes patience, but after a while, you come to some stunning places, with Enya-like music and a soaring soprano voice that just is sublime. I may start over and play this again just for the experience.--There are no super tricky puzzles or other really frustrating things that happen. If you lose air, you return to the boat. Your character does not "die," and there is nothing objectionable in the entire story, except for a few mean goblin sharks down the road, who just add to the thrill.The one "con" to this game, and I'm stretching here, is that I would have liked to be able to DO something with more of the items that I bought. Decorating the island is fun, and it would have been nice to do more of that while interacting with the items. As an example, if you buy a hammock, you can go lie down in it. It does nothing to advance the story, but it just feels so peaceful to watch the sun set. More things like this would have been nice. Instead, some objects are not usable, and some just sit there (Tiki pole!).Some reviewers have complained about having to read the dialogue instead of hearing the characters speak, but I think this added to the peacefulness of the experience. The only sound most of the time is the steady breathing of your scuba diver, with a backdrop of music that fades in and out depending upon what adventures await around the next corner. No chattering, no noise. Sweet!I love, love, love this game! We must have 20 Wii games, and none holds a candle to this one. Developers, take heed! Not all of us want shoot 'em up games. Some of us want to be entranced with good stories and great production.