It's rare to come across a Wii title that actually makes creative use of the system's motion controls, and it's only once in a blue moon that those controls are also effective. LIT is one such game, and it's even more uncommon in that it sells for only eight bucks. By incorporating a horror atmosphere, LIT offers a gauntlet of creative puzzles that test both your brain and reflexes.

You play as Jake, a shaggy-headed teenager armed with a slingshot and flashlight against the living shadows of his high school. It's never explained in-game why there are creatures lurking in the darkness or why the school's faculty has been transformed into beastly versions of themselves. Rachel, Jake's girlfriend who is also trying to escape the school, tells the only story in the game. She delivers her overly dramatic monologues to Jake every now and then via telephone. LIT's presentation is actually pretty shallow overall, but for an eight dollar download, it gets the job done.

Jake's high school has been overrun by deadly shadows.

The basic premise of LIT's gameplay is simple: navigate Jake from one room to the next. The shadows that plague the school make things a bit more complicated, though. Stepping into darkness spells instant death, as ghostly appendages will rise out of the floor and drag you into the mire. This forces you to start the room over from the beginning. In order to get to the next area, you will have to activate various sources of illumination within a room, which effectively creates a path to traverse. These sources of light start out as simple desk lamps or shattered windows, but eventually you'll come across oscillating lamps and motion sensitive security lights. There are also computer monitors and TV sets thrown in to guarantee diverse puzzles.

Some rooms just require the careful activation of lights to complete, but others find Jake wielding a flashlight, slingshot, cherry bombs, road flares, and a TV remote to get to safety. The flashlight obviously allows you to see what obstacles are waiting in the darkness. It also adds a creepy effect by scaring away shadowy creatures and insects lurking in the room. These creatures can't harm you, but it really adds to the horror theme. If you come across a slingshot pellet, you can fire it at a window to let in paths of light. Later on, the slingshot will be used in more creative ways. Cherry bombs are similar to the slingshot pellets but can destroy multiple objects in a wide radius - just be careful not to break valuable sources of light. Road flares create a small pocket of temporary light for you to travel through, but it's often hard to tell exactly where they can be used effectively because of how small the area is. Finally, the TV remote turns on televisions scattered across the rooms. They often serve as a bridge between two sources of light, but only one can be activated at time.

There's a catch to using all of these light sources: only so many can be activated before the fuse blows and all of them go out. There's a meter at the top of the screen showing how much power is being used. Later puzzles require the player to carefully monitor this meter as there are often several extra light sources lying around that only serve to trick you into blowing the fuse. In addition, Jake will sometimes engage members of the school's faculty in a boss fight. Rather than reaching the next room, the goal in these sections is to defeat the boss. Each one is different, offering unique variety to the gameplay and a clever change of pace.

LIT lets its creativity shine by mapping all of Jake's tools to motion controls. Some are simple such as the flashlight shining wherever you aim it, but the batteries drain pretty quickly and require a few shakes of the Wiimote to squeeze out a bit more juice. The slingshot works similar to the one in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. The camera can even pan behind Jake for pinpoint accuracy. A swing of Wiimote lights flares and throws cherry bombs. LIT also borrows No More Hero's use of the Wiimote by having all of Rachel's phone calls play only through the built-in speaker, requiring you to hold it next to your ear like a phone.

There are many sources of light in LIT, just be sure not to blow a fuse.

There are no lives or game over screens in LIT, and dying is fast and can serve as a quick reset if you screw up a puzzle, but it can be incredibly easy to get dragged into the shadows when you don't want to. Tiny slivers of shadow are more than enough to send you back to the beginning of the level, and a few of the puzzle types require less thinking and more trial and error. It's all worth it, though, especially in the more creative levels which test both your brain and hand-eye coordination. Running from light to light with perfect timing all while keeping a watchful eye on the fuse meter up top can be very rewarding.

Even with the shortcomings in its presentation and occasionally frustrating deaths, it's hard for a puzzle fan to be let down by LIT. With an eight-dollar price tag, clever puzzles, and creative motion controls, this game is a worthy purchase that'll have you waggling the Wiimote the way it was intended. With so many full-priced games that fail to capture the true Wii experience, downloading LIT should be an easy choice.