Get hyped – in a very casual way – for Endless Ocean Luminous
Endless Ocean: Luminous Nintendo Switch Review – Is It Worth It?
Nintendo chose the end of its February 21st Partner Showcase to reveal an unexpected sequel to a half-forgotten series of Wii diving games. It may have seemed like an odd choice, but Endless Ocean Luminous recreates a style of play – and, more importantly, a pure atmosphere – that we haven't seen in nearly 15 years.
Published by Nintendo and developed by Arika – who presumably also made this new game, although it's not confirmed – 2007's Endless Ocean and its 2009 sequel Endless Ocean 2: Adventures of the Deep are games about encountering and logging marine life under the waves, and … that's about it. With gently silly new age plots, relaxing gameplay, soothing music and beautifully modeled and animated underwater creatures, these were perhaps the ultimate chill-out games of their generation. (Arika had form though, having done the Everblue games for PS2 before.)
Endless Ocean Luminous looks to modernize the formula in some unexpected ways. The underwater environment, called the Veiled Sea, now changes with each dive, in an apparent random random random order. And Luminous surprisingly adds support for up to 30 divers in online multiplayer, for shared vibe sessions of a scale never seen before. Divers will be able to share their discoveries of all kinds of rare sea life, including some extinct creatures — there's a monster plesiosaur, or underwater dinosaur, seen in the trailer — and maybe some amazing ones, too.
