Elebits is the kind of game that has people everywhere scratching their heads in confusion. What is an Elebit? It's a creature that generates electrical power that first showed up after a particularly strong thunderstorm. They are used in the game to power absolutely everything (oh yeah, even the toilets are power by elebits), and they even increase your capture gun's ability to move heavy objects. Should you take a closer look at this game and give your hard-earned cash to step into a completely different kind of game? Let's take a closer look.

The story begins, oddly enough, as a story book being ready by a father to a son who promises that after this one last story, he will go to bed. The book itself is about another little boy who absolutely hates elebits. When an electrical storm knocks out the power to his home, his parents rush away to their laboratory in order to run tests and find out what happened. Desperate to watch his favorite television show, but reluctant to touch a dreaded elebit with his own hands, he uses his father's handy-dandy capture gun to hunt down the elusive creatures. This is a very, very unique concept for a game and gets a strong 8.5 for having the courage to be different.

This game sheds new light on just what the Wii remote and nunchuk are capable of doing. The analog stick of the nunchuk allows you to move around, while the Z and C triggers on the same piece allow you to crouch down or stretch out to reach out for the dastardly little guys (or girls...). Pointing the remote changes where you look in the game and either the A button or B trigger can fire the quirky capture gun. Once you capture enough of the creatures, you can turn on an appliance (includes toys and stuff, too) by pointing at the power switch on the item and hitting A. Capturing the special elebits released by a powered appliance will upgrade the power of you capture gun, and the more powerful it becomes, the heavier the objects you can move around. The control scheme is actually pretty intuitive and takes very little time to learn, and the simple story can pull you in very fast. For making it fun to practically tear a house apart from the inside, Elebits gets a strong 8.

Graphics are shaping up to be less and less important in gaming as the Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS continue to take center stage. However, it is important that that game actually strives for a storybook look. The graphics that this system is capable of match up with that look very well. The interior of the house is very well decorated and stocked with objects to inspect and toss all over the place. When a game is detailed enough to have a large bathroom complete with cabinets and toilet paper, then there is an extreme attention to detail that even some of the most graphically impressive games can overlook (why the toilet runs on electricity, and how that would work is something that still goes around inside my head, completely unanswered). For attaining the look of a children's story book without compromising attention to detail, Elebits keeps a strong 7.5.

One aspect of this game that is easy to enjoy is the sound. Nintendo is famous for gameplay music that sounds corny, but quickly becomes stuck in our heads for a long time (Mario Brothers, anyone?). Not only does this game have dozens of elebits squealing as they run from your grasp, and the clangs of objects falling back to the ground when all the elebits have been captured from inside, but it also has a selectable background music. That's right, you can change the song. There aren't that many options to choose from, but it still makes you feel good to know that you have a choice. It's pretty addictive music, and the sound effects more than satisfy the need for controlled destruction. For a realistic-sounding game that makes hunting for something actually named an elebit, this game gets a solid 7.5.

As well as I may rank this game, Elebits will invariably become a niche game, wildly popular to a select group of gamers. In fact, the response I have to the game is much the same as the response I had to Katamari Damaschi when it first released. Ultimately, it isn't a game for everyone, but I still recommend this 7.5 rated game to everyone. At least rent it or borrow it from a friend, it's more than worth your time for one play-through.