Elebits

The game is divided into small stages, each of which represents a certain area (e.g., a few rooms or a street). As the game progresses, the player gradually moves from exploring individual rooms in a house out into the street and the areas beyond. Using the on-screen cursor, the player aims at and captures Elebits, extracting their energy (measured in watts). Levels in the Story Mode are completed when the player reaches a certain power (usually within some pre-defined time limit).

The player manipulates objects in the world in order to hunt for Elebits, using the Wii controller as a "capture gun" similar to the Gravity Gun in Half-Life 2. As the majority of Elebits on a given level are hidden within or underneath objects, players must interact with the environment to reveal these hidden Elebits. Throughout the game, the Wii controller's motion-sensing abilities are gradually introduced. With selected objects, players turn, pull, and wave the Wii Remote to perform a variety of actions including opening a door (twisting the doorknob), pulling out drawers, turning on a faucet, tossing a variety of items, smashing vases against a wall, etc. Moving the Wii Remote without selecting an item rotates the player's camera-view, while the Nunchuk is used to move, crouch, and stretch.

Elebits (a portmanteau of "electronics" and "bits") are small creatures that coexist with humans and are the world's source of electric energy, powering all machines and appliances. Following a thunderstorm, they cease producing energy and go into hiding, causing a blackout. Ed and Ana, who are Elebit researchers, leave home to investigate the Elebits' unusual behavior. Meanwhile, their son named Kai, who possesses dislike towards and jealousy of Elebits because his parents spent more time researching them than they do on him, decides to use his father's Capture Gun to capture the Elebits and restore the electrical power. He also feels responsible for the Elebits' unusual behaviour because the storm happened right after his wish that all the Elebits would go away.

Kai's adventures lead him through the town and towards the amusement park. He is contacted via phone by his parents, who reveal that a lightning bolt during the thunderstorm created a previously undiscovered type of Elebit, the Zero Elebit, determined to be cause of the blackout. Kai travels deeper into the amusement park and finds that the Zero Elebit is absorbing all other Elebits and dangerously increasing in size. Kai manages to subdue and tame the Zero Elebit, lifting its influence on the Elebits.

According to producer Shingo Mukaitoge, Elebits began development almost immediately after Nintendo first demonstrated the Wii hardware to Konami employees. Mukaitoge desired to utilize the new and unique pointing and motion sensing capabilities of the Wii Remote and designed the game around the idea of freely touching or moving objects in a room. Dennis Lee, the project manager for the game, stated that the main goal was to "create a game that was easy to pick up and play" with a hide-and-seek-inspired game design, citing Half-Life 2 as an influence on the game control. The game's controls were constantly adjusted during development in order to provide a "proper feel" to handling the in-game objects.

Though Konami originally stated at E3 2006 that Elebits would only feature a single-player mode, competitive multiplayer was implemented before the game's release.

Elebits received "generally favorable reviews" according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. Several previews compared the game to Pikmin and Katamari Damacy due to the similar art style and character design. In Japan, Famitsu gave it a score of four eights for a total of 32 out of 40.

411Mania gave it a score of eight out of 10, saying, "If only for how well it uses the Wii’s controller and for how much fun anyone can have with it, Elebits is a must have. I would easily place it among the Wii’s top five games at this point. But if you are not sure about the kiddie premise, rent it. I am sure you will have so much fun that you will want to buy it."