Since we don't have a lot of information about Helix, the upcoming release from Texas based developer Ghostfire Games, we recently contacted their CEO, Ed Roman about setting up a possible interview. Ed was kind enough to take time out of his busy schedule to do a telephone interview with WiiWare World.
Find out what he had to tell WiiWare World in this exclusive interview:
WiiWare World: On the Ghostfire Games "Our Philosophy" page it talks about your fondest memories being of classic games that were simple and fun like Pac-Man and Super Mario Bros. Do you feel that video games have become too technical and complicated?
Ed Roman: That's a good question. I think some of the best games I've seen in recent memory are games that have been simple to learn, but difficult to master and I think that there have been a lot of games that have gotten very technical, but I think there are also a lot of games these days that are still kind of harkening back to the classic games. A good example of a game like this would be World of Warcraft, which is a game where you can pretty much right away get into it. You don't have to learn a complex user interface. Everything is mouse-driven and so I think that even today simplicity is really driving video games, so we defintitely followed that philosophy in our game. In our game there's no buttons at all. Our game is completely driven off of moving the Wii Remote through the air.
GameCritics: "Helix is a new music game on the Wiiware channel, and I could easily imagine the discussion: "Hey, let's make a new game like Dance Dance Revolution! Except we'll focus on moving the hands instead of the feet." For those who've never had the pleasure, Dance Dance Revolution is a music game which uses a mat peripheral and lots of techno/trance music to get a gamer physically moving. Scrolling arrows show where to put the feet on the mat; the game features abstract movies and music videos in the background.
Similarly, Helix features techno/trance music (thankfully never as airy as Ian Van Dahl) and has scrolling indicators that show when to move. However, this game is about waving and groovin' with your arms. An onscreen guide shows the movements required by the player, and at the top of the screen, "move bars" scroll across to show when to perform those moves. It's a fairly simple concept to grasp, and for a music game, that's a good thing."
DS-X2: "Helix describes itself as 'one of the most innovative music rhythm games ever designed'. Whether that's true or not remains to be seen but we slipped on our dancing shoes and powered up the Wii. The question is 'can we dance any better now?'"
Helix is an interesting title that makes good use of what the Wii is capable of. If you have some money to spend in the Wii Shop Channel and you're tired of doing nothing but watching Strong Bad on the WiiWare, you might want to give Helix a try... just remember that it's best to have two Wii Remotes.
Gameplay: 8
Visuals: 6
Audio: 7
Value: 7
Quality: 7
