Abyss

Game Info

First released back in 2012, Abyss was a cleaver little DsiWare game.  It was very simplistic but worked on the small scale setting of the DSi.  With the Wii U having off screen play and a nice home for indie eShop titles a port of Abyss seems reasonable.  I was a fan of EnjoyUp’s game Unepic when they released it earlier this year on the eShop, so I couldn’t wait to dive in to Abyss.

According to Abyss, the human race wises up for at least another thousand years.  The setting is Earth in 3024.  I’m surprised that there is anything left to harvest or even use at this point, but there is and it is called “Gaia” (and no it is not an illusion).  Now the humans who are desperate to find new energy resources create a biomechanical robot called Nep2no that is capable of withstanding extreme depths in the hope of finding new energy sources.  It’s kind of like the movie The Abyss I guess, without all the weird stuff in the end.

The game plays a lot like the ridiculously tough Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game for the NES.  Well the water level that is.  Instead of being shocked by electrocuting reefs (They have those in New York?) and disabling bombs though, you still cannot touch the “walls” of the level and you are collecting Gaia.  It also feels simialr to Balloon Fight if that is a better explanation.  The left stick turns your Nep2no robot in a 360 degree motion and any face button or L/R button makes it move.  You will find yourself trying to figure out the best combination of tapping and hold to get it just right.  The main game features 12 tough missions to collect 6 Gaia’s on each and another 8 toucher “dark” missions are unlocked after finishing the original set.  A time trial mode is also unlocked at this point.

Another new feature in the Wii U version of Abyss is 2 player competitive mode, where a buddy can pick up a wii remote and join in the fun. The lack of online or Pro controller support hampers this experience though.  The Wii U GamePad is just a mirror display of the action on the screen and nothing more as well.  Online leaderboards would have been an acceptable addition as well.

Graphically I enjoy the style they went for immensely. I had an issue with some of the menu screens being a little fuzzy being the game is in HD, maybe it was a bad design choice? I don’t know but I didn’t like it.  There wasn’t any “music” per say but the sound was very atmospheric and worked.  I also enjoyed the guy on the radio yelling at me to not hit the walls.  The sound effect on his voice was cool and made me really feel like I was inside the robot.

The Recommendation

I’m going to just throw this out there, there really isn’t too many games that I can think of that aren’t worth 2 bucks.  I’m sure we all spend twice as much at McDonalds for lunch.  But this game even though shallow, is a great challenge and is actually quite fun.  I recommend this title to any Wii U owner, the price of admission is worth it and it is fun enough for at least one playthrough.  EnjoyUp is quickly becoming a favorite indie developer of mine.  I can’t wait to see what there next Wii U title is going to be!