Tornado Outbreak Review
It's a mystery how many people would have bet on a turbo-charged hedgehog, or a bandicoot with a couple screws loose. Who knew that controlling a pair of outrageous plumbers would be such a hit? How about taking the reins of tornado, of all things? That's exactly what Konami hopes will steal the spotlight this season, with their latest title for the Nintendo Wii, Tornado Outbreak. However, the courageous Zephyr alongside captain Nimbus and his squad of Wind Warriors are more likely to rip the spotlight out of the ground before standing in it, but that's just what you'd expect from a swarm of tornados, right?
A game about a tornado destroying towns and cities might seem in bad taste, but Tornado Outbreak takes a Saturday-morning-cartoon approach to the premise that really couldn't be more light-hearted than it is. Zephyr is the second in command of the Wind Warriors, beings that look like a small twister with a torso, arms and head sticking out the top. The Wind Warriors travel through space with the universal task of creating atmospheres on lifeless planets, but when they stumble upon an enormous, injured being by the name of Omegaton, the Wind Warriors have a change of plans. Nimbus, the leader of the Wind Warriors, had been prepping Zephyr to become their new leader, so with his newfound role, Zephyr issues his first order, to help Omegaton.
Tornado Outbreak has a rather imaginative plot wrapped out its premise, but wait, it gets weirder. Omegaton is the greatest hero of a backwards dimension that he describes as an anti-matter universe. He's been stripped of his six orbs of power and banished to Zephyr's universe, and when the Wind Warriors decide to help Omegaton, they wind up heading to Earth, where Omegaton's enemies have buried the orbs. However, Zephyr and the Wind Warrior's can't stand the UV rays from the sun, so Omegaton gives them the Light Weight Object Amalgam Device, or L.O.A.D. Starr for short. In short, the L.O.A.D. Starr absorbs UV rays for a limited enough time that Zephyr and the Wind Warriors can seek out and eliminate Omegaton's enemies, find the orbs, and fight to get them back.
It's fairly understandable that justifying running around as a tornado destroying everything needs a ridiculous plot line to match, and Tornado Outbreak does a surprisingly great job of making it work with animated cutscenes, strong dialogue, top notch voice acting, and characters that a young audience can really love. Subsequently the story and theme add up to a believable reason for all the gameplay elements present in Tornado Outbreak. Omegaton's enemies have sent monsters call Fire Flyers to Earth to defend the orbs, and they're hiding all over the place, in tents, in cars, in enormous ferris wheels and buildings, and so on. By starting out as a tiny twister, blowing away plants and rocks, Zephyr picks up more and more momentum, becoming a bigger and bigger tornado, all the while stirring up and absorbing the Fire Flyers.
As Zephyr and the Wind Warriors will perish if they step into the sunlight, in every level of the game they make use of the L.O.A.D. Starr. The L.O.A.D. Starr affectively creates a wide, shaded area that Zephyr and crew can run around in, with sunlight acting as the level's boundaries. However, the L.O.A.D. Starr only works for about three minutes before it needs recharging. There are ten themed levels in the game, with three zones and a boss battle to each, and with the L.O.A.D. Starr in use, Zephyr is tasked with completing each zone in that limited amount of time. Luckily for Zephyr though, destroying larger and larger objects allows him to collect more and more Fire Flyers as he traverses a zone.
