Helix (WiiWare) - Review by jofra01

Introduction

Helix is an exclusive title to Nintendo's service of WiiWare, the game is a music rhythm game that has been innovatively designed. Using only one or two WiiMotes you are giving the ability to perform motions that move to the beat of the music giving you a great upper body cardiovascular workout. This is one of those WiiWare titles that does actually make it worth your WiiPoints for it's purchase and below you will find out why.

Gameplay

When you first start off with the game and you decide to skip the tutorial you may find yourself completely lost not knowning what you are meant to do. Helix is one of those games that does require you to actually go through the tutorail which just so happens to be highly informative.

After you have learned what you are exactly meant to do you are given the oppurtunity to choose the difficulty you want the game set and unless you are super fast with the arm movements and are highly accurate in hand eye co-ordination you may find that you won't stand a chance in either hard mode and medium. Once you have choosen the difficulty you have the option to choose from a handful of songs because as of now you don't have many to choose from and the more levels you complete with good scores the more songs you unlock to workout to.

When it comes to the actual gameplay itself all you have to do is copy what the man on screen does with his arms while you are holding the WiiMotes, although it sounds simple and is at first it will greatly challenge you later on within the game. It is however easier to use one WiiMote for just one arm instead of two WiiMotes with one in each arm but you would find that the game will be half as easy as you only have to do half of the on screen movements.

Controls

You are given the option to use either one WiiMote or two but how many you choose to use doesn't greatly affect the control. The only control usage you will come across in the game is that once you have choosen your song and how many WiiMotes you will be using you just copy the on screen man with arm movements. Being only 30 arm motions actually available to do the game does respond well to the arm movements which cause the WiiMote to move. However there are times in which you will find that the game doesn't register your moves and penalises you for the mistake. It doesn't happen often but when it does it is frustrating if you are going for a high score or a high level streak. Other than the arm movements there isn't much control elsewhere found in the game.

Graphics

The game isn't breath taking in the graphics area with a little simply stick figure who represents you on screen and makes you copy the arm movements this simplicity does suit the game's nature. The outstanding thing though in the game when it does come to the graphics is the actual background on each level that acts like a pulse to the beats of the music which means it moves with the music like you are and it does make for a trippy view. Some however may not like what developer Ghostfire Games have actually done with the graphics and could find it a little to bland for their actual taste but if one can't find the graphics enjoyable then surely the independent music is something they will enjoy.

Sound

The game contains exactly 26 songs from independent artists from around the world which are part of the actual main game as these songs you must unlock for new levels. Some of the songs are actually fun to play the game to and are music to the ears but then there are those odd few songs that don't sound that great and can put you off balance when you are playing the game.

Final comments

With such simple gameplay elements and a decent independent soundtrack to play to Helix is one of those rare WiiWare titles that you can actually enjoy. The game does contain it's problems with some control errors and some of the songs aren't that great but the positives do outweight the negatives in this situation.

Pro: Graphics suit game, Unique gameplay, large independent soundtrack
Con: Controls don't always work, hard mode is really to hard, Some songs are awful
Final score: 7.5

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