5/5 ★ – AzulAzuril's review of Endless Ocean: Blue World.

This is one of my favorite Wii games to just sit and relax with. Endless Ocean Blue World is a huge improvement on the original, as your adventure is now globetrotting! As a diver, you’ll explore underwater environments all across the earth while you work to study a mysterious ancient myth. Gameplay wise, you get to dive underwater, but there’s so many systems to engage with. You can study, photograph, feed, and take care of fish. You can find buried treasure to sell for profit, and even manage an aquarium on the side. You also can recruit and train dolphins to perform in shows for visitors to your own island, which you get to decorate. With your rewards from these various activities, you’ll get to buy upgrades for your diver allowing you to swim and explore even more. With the Wii’s pointer controls, diving is simple and easy, and there’s always something to find in every corner of the maps you’re given. The game has a great amount of content- a story playthrough may take only 15 or less hours but exploring all side content and aiming for 100% completion is easily 40 hours or more. Plot wise, the story isn’t going to blow you away, but it is intriguing enough to keep you invested. There’s some lingering mysteries, and the exotic locales keep you compelled to always see what new location you’ll get to dive in next. The characters are pretty endearing, and I’ve grown to be very attached to the diving team of L&L services! On a presentation level, the graphics are definitely very “Wii” era, but they’re serviceable and don’t hinder the game. The soundtrack is fantastic, with beautiful vocals provided by the Celtic Women. Altogether, this is genuinely one of my absolute favorite games. I’ve played through this game multiple times and every time I do, I love it more. While it’s not the most accessible now, I hope it gets a rerelease or some way to play it on modern hardware soon, as it’s an absolute gem!