Review by: Danielle Riendeau

The more I played diving/exploration sim Blue World, the more I came to the conclusion that the appeal of the game is almost exactly the same as with Animal Crossing. It’s a relaxed, entirely enjoyable experience, one marked much more by chilled out activities and fun discoveries than by any sense of urgency or action.

Like Nintendo’s other casual pastime, the main objectives exist in finding new things, exploring the world, and collecting and trading massive amounts of stuff. Here, you play as a diver who explores the big, beautiful ocean and all of its most interesting nooks and crannies. Instead of arranging things in a house, you have impressive albums of sea creatures and treasure to check off. Instead of talking to a bunch of cute animal pals, you’ll instead trade up to new gear, level your diving abilities, and unlock vast new areas to kick your flippers in. Best of all – instead of paying off an exorbitant mortgage, you get to train a dolphin pal and zap fish with a pulsar to “heal” them and restore balance to the ecosystem.

Along with the relaxed structure, there’s plenty of “game” here – upon first booting up, you’re treated to an introduction to the game’s main storyline. You play as a new diving recruit to the L and L diving company, based on Nineball Island (which serves as a sort of home base/overworld to your diving excursions). A cast of characters joins you (and in the beginning, guides you) through your underwater activities, as you attempt to solve an underwater mystery worthy of a scuba-diving Nancy Drew.

Don’t worry, though – the storyline and more “focused” mission-based dives are never so limiting that you can’t spend the whole time futzing around and researching/feeding/petting all the gorgeous flora and fishies floating around.

The controls are simple and clean – you hold the Wiimote at the screen, using the cursor to point and aim, while you swim (or walk on land) by holding the B trigger. A is your general action button – depending on what tool you have out, you use it to focus on one item or fish, or shoot/use items in a context-sensitive fashion.

You have a variety of new tools at your disposal, all accessed by the D-pad. You’ve got your standard petting/feeding hand, an underwater camera that you can snap gorgeous (and not so gorgeous, some fish are ugly as hell) shots with, a pulsar that heals sick fish and “calms” dangerous ones, a multisensor used to find treasure and seek out structures, an underwater pen, and a sea whistle to call an animal buddy, Epona-style.