The Endless Ocean - Nintendo Wii review

Are you ready to dive in?

29 November 2007 15:00 GMT / By Stuart Miles

Not all games have to be about driving fast or killing everyone in the room before they kill you, and Endless Ocean is out to prove it. But can the scuba diving game really appeal or is it just a case of Nintendo getting kooky on us? We put on some flippers, sorry I mean fins, to find out.

Anyone that has been scuba diving will know it is a peaceful experience. Under the water the busy stresses of the daily commute, office rush and city streets are far behind you and scuba fans will be pleased to know that it's the same here.

Endless Ocean is a peaceful tranquil game that sees you swimming around the ocean, playing and feeding fish and learning along the way.

There isn't much more than that to Endless Ocean. No missions to complete, no planets to save and no bad guys trying to pollute or kill the fish to kill off. Endless Ocean is about you endlessly swimming about ocean. Full stop.

So what's to keep you going? Well you get to eventually train some dolphins, learn more about the 150 or so varieties of fish in the game and swim around feeling tranquil.

If that sounds incredibly dull, then that's because it probably is and anyone wanting action would do best to avoid this like you would a big shark intent on eating you for breakfast.

Nothing, and we mean nothing, really ever happens, unless you class a fish flapping its fins after you've fed it - exciting!

Gameplay-wise and everything is controlled via the Wii Remote and you simply point it around the screen as to where you want to go.

Top side out of the water and you can direct your boat around the map, sit and watch the sunset, talk to your marine biologist friend on the boat with you, or read e-mails to help feel you are still connected with the real world (they aren't real e-mails of course, just ones about good dive sites in the game).

Furthermore if you like the idea of swimming around that much you can connect to the Internet and invite a friend to swim around with you, buddy style.

Verdict

With video games being the fast paced action-fest they normally are, the Endless Ocean is a nice break from the norm and achieves what it sets out to do, calm you.

And for some reason, and we aren't sure why, it works. We might normally be found killing our way through fast-paced first person shooters, but here we actually found ourselves playing and playing this title over an over again before writing this review.

That said, back in the real world, if you get frustrated waiting for the kettle to boil, this isn't one for you.

And relax...

Score

Review Recap

Made by: Nintendo
Price as reviewed: £35
The good: Calming, learn about fish, no killing, no guns, no cars
The bad: Need plenty of patience, nothing happens, slow
Quick verdict: Like real diving swimming around looking at the fish is peaceful, however there is little beyond this on offer
Score