Wow, a Game to Relax to – the Beautiful Electroplankton

A few months ago I was having trouble sleeping. I reach for my DS, and Contra 4. I figure that it couldn’t hurt, I’d blast some aliens and squash my insomnia. Essentially, I’d take the spread shot to my thoughts and leave myself ripe for slumber.

That really wasn’t meant to happen, however. Contra 4 is not really conducive to sleeping well, it seems. I was engaged, I was intent, I had to clear it. I couldn’t just leave myself represented as a grease spot, catching the reflection of my assailants in my splattered fluids.

I just couldn’t leave good enough alone. I ended up rolling the game, excitement building during that final assault on the Harvest Yard. I was vindicated, but I had done precisely the opposite of what I set out to do.

This is largely why I stopped playing games right before going to sleep. They are a great too to wind down and chill out but I just don’t find many of them relaxing. The problem is that games are usually task driven. You start an adventure with the premise that you have to save the world or beat some dude and from the onset you start to form a reason for pressing on.

Perhaps this is my own hang up, but when something is so task oriented I find that it’s more likely that I will get excited or become committed to seeing the next part of the story or to surpassing my previous feats. I tend to fill my library with games that are engaging in this way, true. But I even found Animal Crossing a little too task oriented and “chore-y” after a while.

Sure, we’ve had those nights where you’ve played into the early morning and you stumble to bed. But I don’t normally equate googly-eyed exhaustion to relaxation, ha ha.

Is there a game that you find truly relaxing? For myself, up until a few months ago I would have to say that there is nothing that jumps out at me. Then Electroplankton happened.

I had been after Electroplankton for a very long time and this past holiday season it was gifted to me. I had entered the DS game a year or two late and I had missed this title completely, so I was pretty happy to get it!

To my surprise, it cut through all of my previous idiosyncrasies and I just found myself playing it. The Hanenbow game is the only one with a perceptible goal, to make the flowers bloom. But I soon abandoned this because it made how I played Hanenbow too rigidly defined and they just didn’t sound pretty. The flower is ultimately ephemeral and superficial. I lay down with the DS on my pillow listening to the Hanenbow plink off of the leaves and plunk into the water. And I just lay there, listening. You don’t need the man they call Reveen to find something relaxing to listen to.

And so I explored all of the plankton. The arcing of Tracy, the interactive Nanocarp, the fantastic Rec-Rec. I was moved by the beautiful plinking of the Marine Snow and fascinated by the subtle and momentary sounds of the Sun-Animalcule and Falcato.

But to touch on this theme of the ephemeral, maybe that’s why I like this game so much. One of the major complaints I have heard about Electroplankton is that there is no built-in way of storing your compositions. Particularly lucid and inspired combinations can be lost to antiquity almost at conception unless you get clever and store the audio elsewhere. I do agree that there should be a storage or replay option for the folks that want. I guess one of the very few advantages to not having any real musical talent is that I’m not seeking to push the envelope with Electroplankton. I have a fresh experience every time, though I also believe people shouldn’t be forced to have a fresh experience every time.

I want to mention the manual for Electroplankton. I have maintained for a long time now that Contra 4 had the greatest DS manual because of it was tongue and cheek classic fan service. But I was wrong, Electroplankton has the best manual. At a stage where manuals are often just the story, the controls, and some recycled artwork Electroplankton goes the extra mile. It is fully illustrated, with personality and more depth on each plankton than most manuals give their whole game. In short, it is the most sincere manual I have read in a long long time.

And I may be getting off topic here, but the manual does speak volumes about Toshio Iwai. Included in the manual is a very impassioned note from Iwai that expounds upon his inspirations for Electroplankton as a whole and the individual plankton. It is very honest and shows the love that went into this title. Games can still be built on a foundation of love and experimentation, and Electroplankton is evidence that originality has not left the industry. You just have to search for it.

To be honest I’m not even sure if I would call Electroplankton a game. I wouldn’t call it a ‘relaxation tape’ either, even though that has been my use for it. I’ve seen it called a toy box by many sources, and this is really the best description. It is a set of toys that produce lights and sounds. There are no real tasks. You are just given the toys and you direct the scenario. You just play.

Electroplankton is not for everyone. It’s not even a set of minigames in the true sense like so many DS releases. If they wanted to go that route they could have just made Link’s Partytime Castle or something in lieu of Electroplankton. But instead what you have is something unique.

However, again, it is very different and if a game (or toy box) that has no inherent point does not appeal to you then I wouldn’t drop the dough on it. It is rare, it is expensive, and the reception will vary wildly depending on your taste. I believe that the individual plankton are DSIware now, and if you have that capability you may want to watch a few vids and pick a couple of dudes to pay with. But I prefer to have them all, because my favourite – Luminaria – was not held in that position when I had just previewed the plankton. But when I got down and played with the little guys, they quickly shot to the top!

So I’ll just go on relaxing to this title. I don’t open it every night, but I do open it fairly often. I can toy around with it for 20 minutes or 3 minutes and leave satisfied, then go to sleep. It’s filled a niche in my gaming that I wasn’t sure could be filled. So kudos, little guys.

…you know, the manual suggests using multiple DS systems with Lumiloop open to get a ‘3d sound experience.’ Dare I contemplate getting another copy of Electroplankton? This one was hard enough to rock!