Endless Ocean
Developer: Arika
Publisher: Nintendo
Platform: Wii
Release Date: January 21, 2008
Posted: May 17, 2008
Swim towards the light...Imagine you are being paid to live on a yacht in the South Pacific and are asked to do no more than swim to your hearts content. As if that would ever happen to you in real life, Arika has developed a game for you to do just that. Endless Ocean offers players the opportunity to explore open waters as a digital deep sea diver.
The typical gamer need not apply here; Endless Ocean boasts no fighting, killing, dying, and absolutely no harming of the marine life. What this game does feature is hours of exploration and discovery in a safe and relaxing realistic, dynamic environment. The diving experience will change over time as the time of day and seasons have an effect on the wildlife that is available to interact with.
The graphics are nice for a realistic Wii game. Coral-infused environments are bright and colorful, and in contrast the deepest caverns would be pitch-black if it were not for your flashlight. While they may not be perfect, the water effects are believable and can really pull the player in.
Occassionally, animals will show up on board for you to visit with. These can be penguins, various sea birds, and even walruses.
Ultimately, the game is driven by the player’s discoveries and shipmate, Catherine. She guides you through game checkpoints and will send you around the explorable area. Moreover, there is a phone in the boat’s cabin that will send requests for dives, items, and area discoveries. Aside from the logbook of animal entries, there are treasures to be found. These salvaged items are hidden throughout the area and take a keen eye to find. Through certain item collections and completions of requests, the player earns different clothing, hairstyles, and equipment. Clothing and hair are pure aesthetics, but new equipment enables the player to venture into new, unexplored territories such as caves, and can allow diving in extremely deep caverns and at night. Rewards follow the game’s style, and are usually access to 
Making friends with a wild dolphin can make finding salvaged items easier and more exciting.new equipment for further exploration, intimate interaction with rare creatures, or new avatar outfits.
Most creatures in the game can be scanned to be entered into an encyclopedia logbook. To unlock the three facts about each animal, the player pets, feeds, and otherwise entertains the pursued creature until it sparkles and gives off a “ding” noise. These scans, however, must be done on separate days and can not be collectively procured during a single dive. Unfortunately, there are no visual keys to tip off the player as to whether or not the three scans have already been attained on a particular creature without going into a menu of some sort. It would have been useful to see even an asterisk next to the animal’s name to designate that its entry is “complete.”
The player can befriend a companion creature, or partner, that will swim
A typical Commerson's dolphin. around alongside during dives. This animal can range from a simple bottle nosed dolphin to a majestic orca. My favorite was the Commerson’s breed of dolphin; however, the only differences between the companions are appearances. Additionally, you can train each to perform tricks, although that ultimately does nothing, and they can assist you in finding the hidden treasures while diving.
Pair up with another diver across the web, or take non-player characters on diving missions.To make diving more enjoyable for the players who play for extended periods of time, music files can be uploaded into an SD card and listened to while exploring. Think of it as you, the dolphins, the serene underwater landscape, and death metal. If that is not enough for you, connecting to the Internet will allow you and a friend to explore together.
Those that say Endless Ocean’s game play is lacking are thinking too hard and not opening themselves up to the experience the game has to offer. This title is made for pure, fun exploration and virtual tour of crystal clear waters and its animal inhabitants.
TLDR: Swimming with the fishes, and other varieties of marine life, in Endless Ocean is enjoyable as a breather game in between the multitude of shooting and mayhem titles.
