Adventures in sinaesthesia: a fragrant videogame!

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lostwinds-20080408034306093_640w I’m not some huge videogame buff, much preferring to spend my leisure hours reading, hanging with friends, or even watching shows, but once in a while I do enjoy a good zone-out on our Playstation or Wii consoles. The proble

m I have with videogames is that they are often too violent for my tastes, or they require some sort of intense focus, which is about the last thing I want after a long day studying.

To my great delight, I have found a game—or really, two games—on the Wii console that I really enjoy playing. Called Lostwinds and Lostwinds: Winter of the Melodias, this game allows you and a companion to wander through a Zen-like natural landscape on a slow-moving quest to do something or other (the plot’s just not that important, and there’s no hurry). It’s meditative, beautiful, and best of all, it is fragrant! Well, you can’t actually smell all the flowers in bloom, but you can see them release their scent and pollen in the air—it’s the next best thing to really smelling the and I find it quite lovely. You can shake ferns, flowers, and trees with your cursor to make them release pollen and little spirits—little animistic deities that live inside a

ll living things, I presume, for this is a quintessentially Japanese game.

SO, for this week’s adventure in sinaesthesia, if you feel so inclined: make yourself a nice floral drink, spritz on a fougere or a white floral fragrance, and enjoy a few quiet hours playing this pleasant little game.

I look forward to cracking this game out again in the dead of winter, when not a bloom nor a leaf remains to be seen, and I’m starving for a little natural beauty that’s not covered with hoarfrost.

You can’t buy this game at a store; it can only be purchased (at a quite reasonable price) on the wiiware store on your wii console (if you have one)

OK, now, reading this over, I feel like kind of a sellout, but I really did enjoy playing this; it appealed to my sensibilities. 

CREDITS:

screenshot courtesy of ign.com.

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Comments

  1. BellatrixJune 24, 2010 at 4:06 AM

    Love the music. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. MyPerfumeLifeJune 24, 2010 at 7:55 AM

    Funny you should mention this now. Last Friday I went out and bought a Wii, ostensibly for father's day. But I was pretty sure the children would like it too! We haven't had any computer games at home before and they are all sport/violence focused. This is a lovely recommendation - and I'm sure my daughter will like it too.

    ReplyDelete
  3. La Bonne VivanteJune 24, 2010 at 8:45 AM

    Oh Good! I do like it, and I bet you will enjoy playing it with your daughter--it's strange, but it seems there are very few games which allow two-person play on the wii...

    I also really like playing wii cheer--it's really fun to dance and jump around, although the avatars are a little gross--oversexualized preteen anime. But I bet you'd have fun playing that with your children as well.

    ReplyDelete
  4. ScentScelfJune 24, 2010 at 9:38 AM

    Tennis! Frisbee competition! The old school stuff has two player options. :)

    I went through a rather serious WiiFit phase...it is handy when the weather outside is frightful...but have to admit the console hasn't seen any action in a while. Not that I mind; good weather, gardening, positive things call. But I have filed this away for a rainy day...thanks.

    ReplyDelete

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