Wind Walker

Wind Walker is a short puzzle game where you play as a young man named Wally. He’s been studying to learn how to control the wind, but a recent bout of amnesia caused him to forget almost everything. Now he must cram for his final while trying to remember his past up to this point. This game was made for the event “Theme Roulette 2.”

Let’s Talk About Assets!

These are credited to Kadokawa, but I’m pretty sure it’s mostly RTP. I assume whatever custom assets there are came from them. There isn’t much to say on this front. The chosen visuals and sounds work well enough. There was one picture used that I think would’ve been nicer if it had transparency, but this was the image assigned to them by the event prompt, so they might not have been allowed to alter it. It’s not a major thing either way.

Let’s Talk About Story!

Despite being only half an hour, the game manages to fit in quite a bit of lore. Between every couple puzzles or so, we get flashbacks to Wally’s past and other world-building tidbits like where the school came from, the legacy of the elemental mages that founded it, and a legend about an ancient evil that must be kept sealed at all costs. The amnesia angle may be cliché, but it’s kinda nice here since we learn about the situation alongside Wally as he gradually remembers.

Characterization is nothing too spectacular. We get to know a little about Wally, his sister, and a certain redhead he rather fancies. There’s only so much they could do to round out the cast in such a short time, so I’m not complaining.

Let’s Talk About Gameplay!

This is the heart of the game since it’s puzzle-driven and dependent wholly on its physics. How the game works is that Wally is inside a maze with a balloon that he must push around using only wind. You choose what direction the wind blows and when it stops blowing. The balloon moves in a straight line in your chosen direction, and you win the stage when all balloons reach their matching vortexes (yes, sometimes there are multiple).

Inhibiting you from this goal are obstacles of various types. Spikes will pop your balloon if it hovers over them and damage you severely if you step on them. Poison ivy can’t affect balloons, but it will take a chip out of you. This is similarly true of fire wisps, which are harmless to balloons, but can’t be passed over, and are quite harmful to you. If the balloon pops or you run out of health, it’s game over. This only sets you back to your previous save, which you’re offered after each puzzle anyway.

Since the balloons are only controlled by wind and not by you, it’s possible to solve most puzzles without moving around much. Unless you can’t see where the balloon is going, there’s no need to move more than one step in the direction you want the wind to go. This makes health hazards a lot less of an issue, but there are some countermeasures in place. One such hazard is a door that Wally must open so the balloon can pass through. It won’t stay open, so you can’t just open all the doors and get back to it. Beyond that and the need for visibility, there’s not much else, so you can keep Wally out of harm’s way with ease.

While I think the game has good component parts, there’s a lot of room for the concept to be expanded upon. A lot of stages are very basic, even past the tutorial parts, so it doesn’t feel like it’s living up to its potential. This may well be due to the contest timeframe, so I won’t knock it too hard for being simple, I only would have preferred to see more done with it. What’s there is all right; just it could be more interesting.

There’s at least one decent challenge; the final (only) boss fight, which you can choose the difficulty level for, but even that can be trivialized once you pick up on how it works. Without saying too much, you’re directing balloons at a stationary enemy and defending to preserve your health when they attack. It’s a fine battle, but the balloons always respawn in the same locations, making it easy to establish a rhythm. Having multiple spawn points would at least change the directions required to get the balloon where it’s going.

Let’s Wrap This Up…

Although this game could be more substantial, it’s hardly lacking in its design. It functions as intended and manages to tell a cute story along the way. It’s remarkably cohesive for a contest game, and when the biggest complaint is that it could do more, you know it’s done something right. I’d say it works for what it is, just don’t expect to be blown away, literally or figuratively. I give it a...

4/5


This is no time to think about girls!