It would be tempting to say that after you've seen one Line Rider 2: Unbound game you've seen them all, but it just isn't true. The Wii version looks and feels quite a bit different than what we saw recently on the DS. The first thing that jumped out playing this version was how much more accurately we could predict the way Bosh would fly off a line drawn at any angle. The DS screen did a nice job of displaying the game content, but seeing Line Rider 2: Unbound splashed across a wide screen television is a pure pleasure. Everything from a presentation standpoint is upgraded, even if the basic underlying tool set is identical between Wii and DS. Building levels will be more pleasurable on the Wii, since the design elements are larger and easier to manipulate. The music even sounds a bit better coming across big speakers, rather than over the DS' itty bitty tweeters. Line Rider 2: Unbound on Wii features the same cut-scene animations, that play out as a reward between the various stages. The biggest disappointment from a design standpoint isn't really anything to do with presentation, but has to do with not being able to port tracks between the DS and the Wii. It's like Nintendo threw its "connectivity" baby out with the bathwater, since it appears that fans of particular tracks on one system won't be able to access them or swap them to another. Recreating your masterpiece on the Wii may be your idea of fun, but we were more than a little disappointed not to see more continuity between two pieces of Nintendo hardware.

Line Rider 2: Unbound for Wii is identical from a gameplay perspective to its smaller cousin on the DS. Story, Freestyle, and Puzzle Creation Modes are available here, providing various levels of control and creativity to players. The ultimate freedom lies, not surprisingly, in Freestyle Mode. You can sketch and design to your heart's content here, establishing a massive track that can then be uploaded to the game's Web site. The site features integration with Wii, by way of your friend code. Entering the code as you "register" your Wii on the site will create a link that shows tracks for download and allows you to upload tracks through your account that are then available for others to play. There is functionality on the site that makes uploaded appear even as your browse through, but you are unable to play uploaded tracks through the browser. You are also unable to share uploaded tracks between platforms. This makes absolutely no sense. Sure, there may be technical limitations, but the Line Rider experience is not supposed to be put into a silo. You are supposed to be able to create and share tracks with anyone, which isn't possible here. There's a case to be made that players experiencing Line Rider 2: Unbound on the Wii will have plenty of content, thanks to the platform's popularity, but that's not the point. When the Line Rider phenomenon is already well established, gamers should be able to access all the great content that is out there. This collection of tracks from TechDawg is excellent, but what really will keep Line Rider 2: Unbound on the shelf is how much user-generated content is available for download.

Creating a track to ride is just one part of the game. In Story Mode you'll find a series of fixed tracks with sections missing. It falls on you to draw the missing lines in place and help Bosh reach the end unscathed. As seen in the animated scenes between stages, Bosh's nemesis is constantly cooking up ways to install obstacles and pitfalls along each track. Completing a track in Story Mode means, at a basic level, choosing between one of three lines. Normal lines help you maintain speed, with fast and slow lines doing what you'd expect. There are even some trick lines you'll encounter later in the game. Drawing and shaping lines is the "big idea" behind Line Rider 2: Unbound. Once you have the line exactly as you think it should appear, you hit the play button to send Bosh sliding down from the starting line. Depending on how well he does during the ride, you have the tools necessary to edit lines. In Puzzle Creation, you will create your own incomplete tracks to share with friends or strangers online. Building a puzzle track is easier than you might think, since many people apparently think that drawing two lines with a big empty space between them counts as a puzzle... You see the difference in TechDawg's tracks and some of the better user-generated tracks online. The idea is to give players a few variables and room enough to solve a puzzle track in several ways. THIS method for creating a puzzle track is actually challenging, especially if you are motivated to make your tracks "purty." The ability to create tracks with two riders ups the ante quite a bit after you've mastered the single-rider variables. The strangest thing about gameplay that only occurred to me after playing the Wii and DS versions of Line Rider 2: Unbound in quick succession, is that tracks can't be shared directly between the two systems, even though every game mode and editing tool is identical.

The major improvement from the standpoint of ease-of-use is the scale of tools, lines, and tracks in Line Rider 2: Unbound for Wii. Compared to drawing teeny lines with a stylus on the DS, the Wii experience is like spray painting a wall. This makes a huge difference in the Story Mode, where the slightest wrong angle will send Bosh flying off at a weird angle. We were curious and a bit concerned with what motion controls would mean for drawing lines, especially after a few cups of morning coffee and shaky hands. The good news is that drawing is hard to mess up, unless you happen to have your elbow jogged in the middle of a particularly difficult line. Connecting two points is the easy part, really. After drawing a line, you'll need to grab designated points and pull them up or down to create curvature. This is where things get tricky and where having a wider range of movement and larger image in the Wii is far superior to correcting on the small DS screen. TechDawg's puzzles are nothing to sneeze at, but his facility as a designer means that there is always a solution that isn't too far fetched. The beauty of Line Rider 2: Unbound for a novice player is that every track requires only a short ride. If learning by repetition bothers you, this will become a nuisance, but most gamers are used to plenty of experimentation. It's the lifeblood of gaming, really... As long as the payoff is there, which it is in this case, nobody minds doing a little work. There are also some neat extra objectives and alternate paths in certain levels that create more replay value. The ultimate replay value will come from the user-generated content.

It's interesting that all the controls required to play Line Rider 2: Unbound on DS were handled with the stylus, which in the Wii version require both the Wii-mote and Nunchuk... No digs on the Wii version, because as mentioned above, splashing out a little on extra control is a really good thing. The basics are still handled by pointing and clicking, just as the stylus operated on the DS. What struck us as odd in this version was the omission of a visible cursor on the screen for controls. Instead there are just highlighted menu options and you flick the Wii-mote around to move through them. This sounds better than it plays. Markers are assigned to the +Control Pad, and the +/- buttons control the camera, but why wouldn't a simple cursor like every other game have sufficed for selecting tools, in place of having to flick your hand around wildly just to select a menu? Thankfully there aren't many menus, outside of Freestyle Mode. The Nunchuk powers a "context" feature in the (C) button that explains what you can do with the object highlighted at the moment. This is helpful for those that don't like to spend a lot of time with the manual. The Nunchuk's Control Stick would have been another logical choice for menu controls, but is instead mapped to camera movement. This is odd considering that some camera movement was already assigned on the Wii-mote. Camera as a motion control, tied to pressing a single button, would have been preferable to having several resources tied up between the two control devices.

It may seem nitpicky to fault Line Rider 2: Unbound for control nuances and the lack of shared content between platforms, but the reality is that you'll finish the core game quickly. After you go through TechDawg's masterpieces, what then? You'll be spend lots of time with the editing tools, looking for new tracks online, and fresh ideas from other players. What's here in terms of controls will do you fine if all you intend to do is play through Story Mode. For those going deeper who can only afford one version, grab the Wii over the DS or other portables, for the screen real estate. There's no doubt that committed players will get comfortable with the controls and it's a safe bet that the huge installed base of Wii gamers will ensure loads of customized content. All the same, we can't help but point out a few areas this good game could have tweaked to become great.