PC Game Review: Wandering Willows

I don’t think I’ve come across anything like the fanciful Wandering Willows since I’ve ventured into the casual gaming arena. You could call it a cross between role-playing games, Virtual Villagers, adventure games, simulations and Pokemon. Let’s just say it brings an innovative new world to the casual games industry.

Floating in a hot air balloon, a bird pokes a hole in the balloon whisking you to a land where people are happy. Well, a few grumps do live there to keep things lively and humorous. You’re not the first person to arrive on this island. Everyone who has come before you has stayed. But like Dorothy of Wizard of Oz, you want to go home and that means you need to get to know the island’s residents because they can help fix your balloon.

Before you start exploring Grassland Island, you need to create an avatar complete with style and colors for hair, eyes, and skin. Now you’re ready to start your adventures with a pet who climbs and digs for you. PETA folks can take comfort knowing these are beautifully and intricately drawn animated pets and you take good care of them by making sure their energy levels stay up by feeding the animal its favorite foods (it lets you know what it likes and dislikes).

You only have one pet with you at all times, but can change your pets at your heart’s desire. As you meet other creatures on the island, you’ll occasionally come across an egg that you can incubate.

Every creature has three numbers — thus resembling RPGs — climbing, digging and energy. As it climbs and digs, its energy levels drop. The amount of drop depends on its strength and the strength of the object or animal it interacts with. The game comes with 40 creatures including robots. Animals also have the ability to charm other animals to get them to give up an egg, recipes or items.

Characters also have likes, dislikes and unique interests and personality quirks. Art Gunderson loves to wear fuzzy costumes and ballgowns. Two roommates live in a tent refuse to eat anything that isn’t organic — or rather one does while the other complains.

You also meet twins, a professor, a captain and more. Just when you think you’ve met all of the characters, you discover more. That’s what makes the game special — it surprises you throughout the game.

Your new found friends have a friendship meter. They start as strangers and as you complete tasks for them or treat them to something they like, the number climbs as you work to become everyone’s best friend. You might not be all of their best friends by the time you build your balloon, but don’t rush to do it either. This game and its journey need savoring and enjoying.

You pick up recipes, items, clothing and collar patterns and much more along the way. In total, the game contains 162 tasks, 200 recipes and 150 patterns for making different types of clothing including swords, helmets and capes.

I never care for wardrobes and dressing up characters … until now. This comes with more than just shirts and pants. With sunglasses and funny hats, the characters (and you) wear your creations until you change them. The collars give the animals added powers or abilities. But power of the collars don’t look obvious.

The wondrous land has three stores: cooking, sewing and gardening. You can buy some supplies while others you need to make yourself. You can also sell items in these stores so you can get more Willowbees aka cash, moolah, currency and bucks. You can carry 100 mushrooms, but you may not be able to carry 20 different objects depending on the size of your backpack. I love that about this game — it lets you carry all you want of individual items, but limits the different types of items.

Wandering Willows lasts a long time. Even after you fix your balloon, you can keep on playing and you most likely want to. Some of the simulation types of games encourage you to continue interacting with the game, but you feel like the fun is gone. Not so with Wandering Willows. I only have three uncompleted tasks by the time I repair the balloon. I’d like to see a few more than that, but at least I have plenty of trophies to earn to compel me to trek on.

During the entire game play, I worried about the game crashing. Its colorful and calming scenes constantly jerked as if I didn’t have enough screen power. It only crashed once, but continued to flake even though I closed all other applications.

Another feature I’d like to see is a list or chart of all the animals that travel with me and things I make. With many animals and recipes, you lose track and I’d like to meet each creature once and make each item. Although the character eventually finds a way to move from place to place a little faster, it gets tiring waiting for her to get where she needs to go. Speed up!

It won’t surprise me if this one wins awards and accolades. I wish we could see novel games like this more often. Not only does Wandering Willows contain charming and adorable scenes and characters, but also humor and the freedom to do things in no particular order. It’ll make my top 10 games for 2009 and it’s only March.