Opoona: Not Gay, Because Balls Aren’t Touching

When I began explaining what Opoona was to by roommate, he honestly thought I was making stuff up as I went. And how could you blame him? A little guy who has a ball over his head that he throws around to hit bad guys? That sounds like something out of a bad 60’s comic book. But with enough convincing, and a stop at Gametrailers.com, I managed to prove to him that I was not entirely insane.

Opoona is one of the only real RPG style games to come out for the Wii. You have the standard quazi-turn based battle system, multiple party characters, and an item and weapon system which you use to upgrade that ball on top of your head. If you’ve played an RPG at all, you shouldn’t have any trouble knowing what’s going on.

One of the novel features of this game is that you can play it entirely with the nunchuck. I was skeptical at first, but it proves to be quite effective, since like in most RPGs, you only need two buttons: YES and NO. The battle aspect of the game is also interesting, since you can curve the trajectory of the basic ball throw attack in order to do more damage or block attacks. It takes some getting used to, but it allows for some nice strategy opportunities, some of which are lost on me, because I tend to just throw it whichever way seems the easiest.

After playing the game for a good five hours or so, I do have a few nit picky things about it. The first is the confusing nature in which the domes (or cities) are arranged. You’ll often find yourself having to traverse several sets of hallways, stairs and elevators in order to complete tasks, and it is very easy to get lost. Although they give you a GPS system, it only tells you where you are, not where you need to go, or even what rooms the room you’re standing in connects to. It took be a good twenty minutes to find out how to get back to the Jobs desk in order to finish one of my tasks.

Secondly, the camera could use some work. The only control you have is to push the c and z buttons at the same time, with centers the camera behind you. However, you’ll often find that trying to center the camera while running is a difficult task, and bumping into walls is like a regular sport. Also, in the outdoor areas where you fight enemies, you have absolutely no control over the camera, making difficult to spot paths and chests that you may need to beat your quests.

Overall, I would recommend this game to people who enjoy the occasional RPG, and don’t want a complicated skill tree or battle system to be associated with it. It’s quirky, its fun, and it’ll be one of the only Wii games I’ll play to the end (maybe).