PAX 2010: Fluidity Hands-On
By:
Andre Segers
|
September 3, 2010, 3:36 pm

Nintendo unveiled a brand new WiiWare title at PAX Prime 2010 called Fludity. This game is a puzzle-based platformer starring water.

The 2D-based gameplay revolves around tilting the Wii Remote (no Wii MotionPlus) to tilt the stage accordingly, causing your puddle of water to slide around. As you maneuver about the environment, you’ll encounter hazards, puzzles, and enemies, which will all require you to to use your watery-ness to get by.

Speaking of which, the game is heavily physics based, and this is immediately noticeable as your watery-blob will break apart and separate as it traverse the environment, getting caught up on in gaps and various objects. It’s a very well done effect, as the animation is very fluid (heh) looking. Luckily, you can regroup at any time, causing any separated water-blobs to regroup, similar to the T1000, but less deadly...mostly.
 
In addition to regrouping, you have several other abilities including jumping and erupting like a boiling pot. You can jump with a quick shake of the Wii Remote, allowing you to cross short gaps or reach low ledges. But in addition, you can charge your blob and then explode like a watery volcano to grab power-ups high above.
 


As you explore the environment, some of the hazards you’ll encounter are switches that can be activated by pooling your water around it and holding the “2-button,” which will change something nearby, such as opening a gate allowing you to continue on. In addition, we encountered several enemies that were on fire--which oddly, would damage our water blob. Luckily, their flames would go out intermittently, allowing us to douse them with our watery-goodness and take them out.

The controls were very responsive. Quite often, tilt-based movement has a tendency to feel slightly laggy, but this didn’t seem to be a problem for Fluidity as the level seemed to respond almost immediately. Even jumping with a quick shake worked very well, and we didn’t experience any instances in our short time with the game mis-interpreting our movement.

Unfortunately, Nintendo has not announced a release date or price yet for this WiiWare title. But we do know that the game will feature four worlds, in addition to several more powers, including Ice and Thunder.
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