Kombo's Review Policy: Our reviews are written for you. Our goal is to write honest, to-the-point reviews that don't waste your time. This is why we've split our reviews into four sections: What the Game's About, What's Hot, What's Not and Final Word, so that you can easily find the information you want from our reviews.

What the Game's About
Although today's game makers continue to employ more story-driven techniques in videogame design, developer Akira is not taking the copycat approach with its latest effort, Endless Ocean for Wii. Its game features no dramatic storyline twists, over-the-top cut-scenes or groundbreaking gameplay mechanics. There is a story, yes, but it's only there to give some kind of backdrop to its sandbox-style gameplay. You play as a scuba diver who is assisting a marine biologist by exploring the depths of the ocean.

What's Hot
Endless Ocean really isn't much of a videogame, which is in fact part of its allure. It's more of an interactive experience. The game features an absolutely huge ocean for you to explore, and hidden within it are a variety of sights to behold: everything from breathtaking underwater landscapes to over 200 different types of sea life. Few games are as tranquil as Endless Ocean. There are no guns, explosions, blood, cursing or sexual themes to speak of. In a literal sea of games that desperately try to appeal to audiences with "mature" (read: adult) themes, Endless Ocean forgoes the competition for something absolutely different. This is the game's great success – it's fresh and a game of its own kind.

While using the Wii-mote to navigate the underwater world of Endless Ocean is hardly jaw-dropping or even that innovative, the process is intuitive and mostly trouble-free. Like other Touch Generation games, the title is played with just the Wii-mote. The game uses a pointing system that allows you to point where you want your scuba diver to swim, and in real-time, he or she will swim in that direction. The setup is simple, but it's simple in a successful way.

The game features an online mode in which you can play with a friend over Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. The mode works well, and scuba diving is even more fun with a friend. It's too bad there's no voice chat. (You can always use a laptop application, like TeamSpeak, which is what we do.)

Somewhat surprisingly, Endless Ocean's musical soundtrack is excellent. The music is as calm, pretty and relaxing as the ocean you are exploring. And if for some unfathomable reason you don't like the atmospheric soundtrack, you can listen to your own MP3s via an SD card, thanks to the game's custom soundtrack option.


Endless Ocean
What's Not
Endless Ocean is a soothing, relaxing game, but other than that, it doesn't do much to entertain. This is the game's biggest shortcoming. Unless you'll totally fall in love with exploring a virtual ocean and observing virtual sea life, Endless Ocean probably isn't your cup of tea. The developer has done a rather exceptional job of creating this lifelike ocean, but it all feels kind of pointless. As a game, there is nothing particularly rewarding about Endless Ocean. The game employs a suitable mission structure, but these missions do little to excite.

While graphics don't make a game, they can certainly break one. For a game that is all about taking in the virtual sights, Endless Ocean's sights aren't really worth taking in. The game has a decidedly last-gen look. Occasionally, there are moments in which Endless Ocean looks surprisingly great. The lighting, textures and underwater filter all come together brilliantly. But these moments are disappointingly rare. More often than not, textures look low-res and marine life models lack detail. Things are even worse above water, on your ship's deck, where aliasing runs rampant.

There are, unfortunately, some other gameplay-oriented problems. Load times are a bit long, the controls can be clumsy and the partner training feature could have been so much more.

Final Word
Strangely enough, Endless Ocean is a very well made game. The problem lies in something else: as a game, Endless Ocean isn't very entertaining. There are a select few that will no doubt fall in love with Akira's underwater experience, but the rest of us will sit there with a confused look on our faces, wondering why we don't get it.

The single most important task of a videogame should be to entertain – games should be fun to play. No matter how well done the mechanics within a videogame are, if the game's not fun to play, then there's a problem. As far as scuba diving videogames go, Endless Ocean is king. There's not a lot you can do to a game that's about swimming in the ocean and looking at fishes that will make it more fun. So, unfortunately, while Endless Ocean succeeds, it succeeds at something that isn't particularly fun.