In Endless Ocean, you explored under the sea, discovering different species of aquatic life at your own pace with a New Age soundtrack in the background. It was very pretty, and incredibly relaxing, though somewhat lacking in the gameplay area. However, Blue World makes up for that in spades by adding in a whole ton of different things to do. There are multiple locations to explore, from the icy Arctic and Antarctic Seas to sunny coral reefs to an Amazonian river. The plot revolves around your character joining a diving company and getting mixed up the quest for the mythical "Song of the Dragons" which turns into an underesea adventure where you recruit other divers as you search for the greatest undiscovered treasure ever known. Of course, even after finishing the main plotline of the game, there are still plenty of things to do, like taking requests for specific photographs, giving guided tours, creating a private coral reef and stocking and designing an aquarium in Japan, so you'll be kept busy for quite some time.

My favorite new activity was the salvaging. Using a sonar-like tool, you can scan the seabeds for various items to dig up. The crusty, rusty objects are then scanned by an expert who reveals what exactly you dug up. So that sphere might be a gemstone... or a worthless baseball. As in the first game, you're also able to fill up your encyclopedia of undersea life by encountering and identifying as many species as possible. And between the number of empty slots in the treasure guide (there's also coins to find!) and the encyclopedia, there's plenty to keep completists busy. The game also keeps track of every single little thing you do, from how many times you've run out of air to how many times you've healed a fish. Yeah, you can also heal the fish you find with an item called the Pulsar. This also comes in handy when encountering dangerous sharks or whatever, because shooting them with the Pulsar calms them down. You can't be killed, but every hit takes away from your remaining air, which isn't good. Instead of the unlimited exploration of the first game, Blue World gives you limited air in your tank, although it's possible to raise your diving levels by gaining experience.

The graphics are improved over the first game, and some of the underwater temples are extremely impressive. Seriously, towards the end, there's some breathtaking scenery. Yeah, the humans look awkward and animate like crap, but they're not important. It's the fishies who need to be accurately rendered, and they are. There's more New Age music this time around, although it's more instrumental, which helps. Occasionally, you'll enter an area that triggers a song with lyrics, and it reminds how repetitive that can be when you're underwater long enough for the song to keep looping. Unfortunately, the option to create your own custom diving soundtrack on an SD card has been dropped in this sequel. They've also added the ability to use the Classic Controller if you don't like the regular Wiimote control scheme (though honestly, it's pretty streamlined and awesome, so why you'd want to deal with a joystick is beyond me). There is also online multiplayer which can take advantage of the Wii Speak accessory (bundled with the game at no additional charge above the game-only package) for real-time voice chat while swimming with your friends, but unfortunately, none of my friends have it, so I was unable to test it out for this review. I do appreciate adding the ability to save any photos you take to the SD card, which lets you do whatever you want with the JPGs... like illustrating this review!

Blue World really went out of its way to add as much gameplay as possible, and I'm not even scratching the surface of all the things there are to do in this game in this review. I almost forgot to mention all the subquests and treasure hunts, finding the shipwrecked dog, hunting down the elusive world-traveling blue bird, befriending dolphins and teaching them tricks, relaxing on the beach and probably a bunch more I haven't even discovered yet. Yeah, there's a lot more to do this time around. And I'm still really enjoying finding new secrets tucked away, even though I've finished the main quest. The greatest compliment I can pay Endless Ocean: Blue World is that I enjoyed it so much that it actually got more playtime than Heavy Rain, which came out at the same time! Sure, that's partially because soothing undersea exploration is more fun than investigating an emotionally fraught kidnapping case, but it's also a whole lot of fun. There's a lot to explore and discover, and if you're one of those gamers who thrives on getting 100% completion, I challenge you to get every single achievement in Endless Ocean: Blue World! (I know I never will!)

9 out of 10