''Endless Ocean'' (known as ''Forever Blue'' in Japan) is a

scuba diving Scuba diving is a mode of underwater diving whereby divers use breathing equipment that is completely independent of a surface air supply. The name "scuba", an acronym for " Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus", was coined by Chr ...

adventure game for the Wii. It is published by Nintendo and was developed by

Arika is a Japanese video game developer and publisher. It was formed in 1995 by former Capcom employees, originally as ARMtech K.K, later named Arika. The name of the company is the reverse of the name of the company's founder, Akira Nishitani, who ...

, who also worked on their spiritual predecessor '' Everblue'', another scuba diving adventure game. It was released in Japan on August 2, 2007, in Europe on November 9, 2007, and in North America on January 21, 2008 – after it had been planned for an October 2007 release. A sequel entitled '' Endless Ocean 2: Adventures of the Deep'' was released in Japan on September 17, 2009, Europe on February 5, 2010, and North America on February 22, 2010, with the title ''Endless Ocean: Blue World''.

Plot

''Endless Ocean'' places the player in the role of a scuba diver exploring the Manaurai sea,The sea is called Manaurai in the European version, but is called "Manoa Lai" in the US release. a fictional setting in the South Pacific, in search of sea life and sunken treasure under the guidance of an assistant named Katherine Sunday. In the sea, they will encounter a number of marine species ranging from smaller fish and penguins to massive

whale shark The whale shark (''Rhincodon typus'') is a slow-moving, filter-feeding carpet shark and the largest known extant fish species. The largest confirmed individual had a length of .McClain CR, Balk MA, Benfield MC, Branch TA, Chen C, Cosgrove J, ...

s, manta rays and sperm whales. The range of marine wildlife in the game is extensive and includes many common and rare species. The player will also encounter

dolphin A dolphin is an aquatic mammal within the infraorder Cetacea. Dolphin species belong to the families Delphinidae (the oceanic dolphins), Platanistidae (the Indian river dolphins), Iniidae (the New World river dolphins), Pontoporiidae (the ...

s and other cetaceans that can be trained to perform certain behaviours and become companions on dives. Species such as

shark Sharks are a group of elasmobranch fish characterized by a cartilaginous skeleton, five to seven gill slits on the sides of the head, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. Modern sharks are classified within the clade Selachi ...

s are also present; however, they pose no threat to the player. The player also has access to a large aquarium that they can populate with species they have identified. The sea's various locations provide a means for the player to experience general diving, cave diving, deep-water trench exploration,

wreck diving Wreck diving is recreational diving where the wreckage of ships, aircraft and other artificial structures are explored. Although most wreck dive sites are at shipwrecks, there is an increasing trend to scuttle retired ships to create artificia ...

, and other activities that might not otherwise be possible in a single real-world setting. Late in the game, Katherine tells the player about how her father tried to look for a unique whale called the White Mother and never came back. The player and Katherine set out to find the White Mother, which entails seeking out the four types of whales present in the game (

humpback whale The humpback whale (''Megaptera novaeangliae'') is a species of baleen whale. It is a rorqual (a member of the family Balaenopteridae) and is the only species in the genus ''Megaptera''. Adults range in length from and weigh up to . The hu ...

, North Atlantic right whale, sperm whale, and

blue whale The blue whale (''Balaenoptera musculus'') is a marine mammal and a baleen whale. Reaching a maximum confirmed length of and weighing up to , it is the largest animal known to have ever existed. The blue whale's long and slender body can ...

) and placing motion sensors on different points of the map. Eventually one of the sensors is set off, and the player witnesses the White Mother, a large albino blue whale, as Katherine remembers her father.

Music

The song "Prayer" composed by Secret Garden and performed by

Hayley Westenra Hayley Dee Westenra (born 10 April 1987) is a New Zealand classical crossover singer and songwriter. Her first internationally released album, ''Pure'', reached number one on the UK classical charts in 2003 and has sold more than two million c ...

is featured in the trailers for ''Endless Ocean'' and in the game itself. Westenra also contributes several other songs including her rendition of the Maori folk song " Pokarekare Ana". Players are also able to transfer their own

MP3 MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany, with support from other digital scientists in the United States and elsewhere. Origin ...

music files to an

SD card Secure Digital, officially abbreviated as SD, is a proprietary non-volatile flash memory card format developed by the SD Association (SDA) for use in portable devices. The standard was introduced in August 1999 by joint efforts between SanDis ...

and listen to them while playing, providing a customizable soundtrack for the game. This is the second game on the Wii to provide such a feature, the first being '' Excite Truck''.

Soundtrack

*Embrace of Manaurai/Moon of Manaurai *Prayer * Pokarekare Ana *

Oh Shenandoah "Oh Shenandoah" (also called "Shenandoah", "Across the Wide Missouri", "Rolling River", "Oh, My Rolling River", "World of Misery''") is a traditional folk song, sung in the Americas, of uncertain origin, dating to the early 19th century. T ...

Amazing Grace "Amazing Grace" is a Christian hymn published in 1779 with words written in 1772 by English Anglican clergyman and poet John Newton (1725–1807). It is an immensely popular hymn, particularly in the United States, where it is used for both ...

* Hine e Hine *E Pari Ra *

Benedictus Benedictus may refer to: Music * Benedictus (Song of Zechariah), ''Benedictus'' (''Song of Zechariah''), the canticle sung at Lauds, also called the Canticle of Zachary * The second part of the Sanctus, part of the Eucharistic prayer * Benedictus ...

*River of Dreams * The Water is Wide

Reception

The game received "average" reviews according to the

review aggregation A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

. In Japan, ''

Famitsu formerly ''Famicom Tsūshin'', is a line of Japanese video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly formats as well as in the f ...

'' gave it a score of 10/10, 8/10, 9/10, and 8/10 for a total of 35 out of 40, praising the open-ended exploration aspect of the game, the scale of the play area and its soundtrack. ''Endless Ocean'' had sold at least 50,000 copies in Japan.

Technical issues

On August 10, 2007, Nintendo issued a

product recall A product recall is a request from a manufacturer to return a product after the discovery of safety issues or product defects that might endanger the consumer or put the maker/seller at risk of legal action. The recall is an effort to limit rui ...

in Japan after a major bug was found in copies of the game that has released eight days before. Nintendo re-released the game in Japan with the bug removed. The bug caused the screen to go blank and caused the console to freeze when the player put one or more

bowmouth guitarfish ''Rhina ancylostoma'', the bowmouth guitarfish, shark ray or mud skate, is a species of ray and a member of the family Rhinidae. Its evolutionary affinities are not fully resolved, though it may be related to true guitarfishes and skates. Th ...

into the aquarium. The exploration mode is not affected by this bug.

Sequel

A sequel entitled '' Endless Ocean 2: Adventures of the Deep'' was released in Japan ''(as Forever Blue: Call of the Ocean)'' on September 17, 2009, and in Europe on February 5, 2010. The same sequel is called ''Endless Ocean: Blue World'', which was released in North America on February 22, 2010.

Notes

References

External links

''Endless Ocean''
at the European

Touch! Generations is a Nintendo brand used for the Nintendo DS and Wii showing games created to appeal to a broader audience (mainly adults and the elderly) than the traditional gamer. Nintendo retired the brand with the launch of the Nintendo 3DS in 2011, s ...

website
Official site

* {{Touch! Generations 2007 video games Arika games Nintendo games Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection games Scuba diving video games Touch! Generations Video games developed in Japan Video games featuring protagonists of selectable gender Video games with custom soundtrack support Video games with underwater settings Wii-only games Wii Wi-Fi games Multiplayer and single-player video games