"Save the peaceful tree of seven colors!"
That's what I read off the back of the box as I was leaving the store, and it was clear to everybody that I was not purchasing Halo 3. Although nothing gets much more child-oriented than Dewy's Adventure, it's still a fun platforming experience that doesn't take full advantage of its own possibilities.

You control a baby rain drop named Dewy to fight off the evil Black Rain that has taken over your peaceful forest. It only takes ten seconds to realize this is a game about saving the environment, but it only takes a quick look at the back of the instruction manual to realize they've teamed up with Nestlé Waters to help sell some natural spring water.

I'm not kidding - it's called AquaPod. "Change the shape of what kids drink," it reads. I'm not saying it's wrong, I just think it's funny.

Dewy is controlled by holding the Wii Remote sideways, and then tilting it in various directions to slide Dewy around on the stage, much like Kororinpa and Super Monkey Ball. What's really unique, however, is your ability to change the temperature of the stage with the press of the D-Pad, which then changes Dewy's form. He is a water droplet after all, so dropping the temperature transforms him into Ice Dewy, while raising it makes him Mist Dewy. These three forms all have their pros and cons, and must be switched between often to complete tasks and defeat enemies. For instance, Ice Dewy can't jump as high as Water Dewy, but it can attack enemies and travel faster. Mist Dewy can't move at all, but he can attack multiple enemies from above with bolts of lightning.

While I really enjoy this ability to change the environment, the controls just aren't as tight as they should be. I'm not sure if this should be blamed on the low-gravity jumps or the odd level design. There are bulges and ridges in the ground which help the stage look nice, but are irritating to navigate around. My sense of place when making large jumps to other platforms is generally very good, but I had a lot of trouble landing. Even though Dewy has a shadow, the angle of the game is so low to the ground that my perspective of exactly which direction to jump would be misguided. It's not always very clear, which leads to some frustrating gameplay. Then again, maybe I'm just losing my touch.

The game only runs at 30 frames per second, and I'm not sure why. The stages aren't pushing anything real amazing looking (take another look at that first screenshot), and there aren't enough particle effects to slow the game down either.

Despite the bland level design, I was always looking forward to another boss battle. The bosses themselves are very impressive graphically, and a lot of effort was put into their animations. It almost feels like they spent more time on the presentation of the bosses than on anything else. Just their death animations alone are worth watching. If it wasn't for these fights, Dewy's Adventure would be a pretty dull game overall that lacked any attention to detail.