Elebits brings a whole new meaning to the term "point and click adventure." They certainly don't call it that, but at its most basic form that's essentially what it is and, for the most part, they do it pretty well.

It's sad that I have to start by talking about the story - but you'll need some background as to what's going on. You play a little boy named Kai, whose parents research Elebits. Elebits are small creatures that are chock full of electricity, and are the main energy source behind powering electrical appliances in the city. Unfortunately, Kai is not so fond of these creatures since his parents are always away researching them, so he enjoys sitting around and whining about how much he hates these little Pikman clones. At one point, he wishes that Elebits never even existed, that way his parents would have time to take him to an amusement park. I got news for you Kai - that would be one boring amusement park without those Elebits. None the less, when the power goes out in the city, Kai is a whiny little mess because he can't watch anything on his Television, and is determined to collect these Elebits to help restore power to the house.

This pathetic story is told through the use of images with a very beautiful artwork style. Unfortunately, these images don't fit with the style of anything else in the game at all, so they feel a little out of place. To make matters worse, this story is told with some of the most horrendous voice-acting, and destroys anything this artwork had going for it. Exactly why does Kai sound like he's voiced by a little girl? I understand I probably sounded like a girl when I was younger, and probably still do, but it's amazing to me nobody could notice that this sounded terrible during production.

Putting the story aside however, you've got a pretty intriguing game. It's essentially a first person shooter in which you use the nunchuck attachment to move around the environment, and the Wii Remote to look around and fire at objects. Using this Capture Gun, you point at the Elebits you see running around and fire at them with a laser. Of course, being the little cute creatures that they are, they tend to hide behind objects and underneath them, so it's up to you to find them by picking up these objects or shaking them to reveal more.

You also use the Capture Gun to pick the objects up, and that's where the Wii Remote really comes into play. After grabbing an item such as a book, you can twist and turn it around in the air by twisting and turning the Wii Remote, and you can even bring it closer to you by pulling the Remote closer to your body. Giving the object a gentle toss will send the object flying. You can also open up drawers by grabbing them and pulling them open, or opening rooms by physically turning the doorknob. It feels really neat to be able to move objects around in the air by simply moving your hand as you think you would. There is a little more to this though.

There are plenty of electrical devices throughout the area, such as microwaves, computers, and telephones. These devices all have specific amounts of watts required to use them. Once you've earned enough watts from capturing Elebits, you can activate these devices which then spew out even more Elebits.

Generally the Elebits that jump out of these powered devices are super-charged, and the energy from capturing them actually goes towards powering up your gun. By "leveling up" your gun, you are able to pick up heavier objects. So when you start out in the first level, you're picking up simple objects like toys and pillows, but by the end you're throwing your desks, computer, bookcase, and bed around the room. When you're all done, you've pretty much demolished the place in the process of looking for these creatures. It's a lot of fun. Skip forward a number of levels and you'll find yourself launching cars into the sky and picking up entire houses. It's pretty sweet.

When you first play the game, it feels like a Konami was messing around with a Tech Demo they created and thought, "hey, let's sell this as a game and call it Elebits." Thankfully, they've put a lot of thought into the game to make it more than just a one-trick pony. They tried to turn the game into a little bit more of a puzzle style. For instance, some appliances don't just activate when you touch them, they require you to do something. If you have a toaster, for example, you need to actually lift up the toast nearby and place them in the toaster. Some of these puzzles were pretty fun, but later on they seem to trip over themselves with it a little bit. Some of the puzzles don't make any sense and would seem impossible to ever figure out without knowing. The other problem is that you might need a certain item, but have no idea where it is since you completely demolished the environment and it could be under any pile of rubble.

There are some other challenges added to the game such as not being allowed to break x number of items, or making too much noise. While these are a neat idea, they're a little annoying. For instance, most items don't break - even ones you would expect to such as TVs or cellos. So it's hard to tell by looking at something whether or not you should be worried about it. As for the noise rules, it feels similar to the shatter rule in that there are specific items that make a lot of noises. When I throw a Sofa into a wall, I barely pick up a reading, but when I drop a plate it's "too loud." Thankfully these rules are rarely used, so they're just specific enough to be fun for the couple of levels that they're in. Any more than what they used and I might have gone a little mad.

The only problem with picking up objects is that they all seem to have the weight of a balloon. This makes perfect sense if you're tossing a balloon in the air (which you don't), but when you lift up a car and watch it float through the air and bounce around on the ground it just feels strange. I haven't thrown too many cars in the air in real life, but I have a slight hunch they don't float.