In LostWinds, the player controls a young boy named Toku and the elemental wind spirit Enril (and in two-player mode, a second player also controls Enril) as they travel Mistralis in order to rescue it from the antagonist Balasar, a vengeful spirit.

[4] A second player can join in with their Wii Remote controlling a second on-screen wind cursor, allowing Toku to fly farther but not higher.

As he heads back toward his home, the bridge he is on collapses and he falls into a cave, where he finds a crystal shard.

Enril was trapped in this form when Balasar, one of the spirits assigned to watch over the land, decided to conquer the world.

In the epilogue, Deo tells the other spirits that Enril is back, but Balasar got a hold of the message as well and is plotting to defeat the "boy-hero".

He began envisioning puzzles and later added a second character to be "moved" and "protected" by the wind, and applied his ideas to the Wii Remote.

[8] LostWinds was initially the only listed WiiWare game that was unavailable for download or transfer onto the Wii U at the console's launch in November 2012, but this had since been patched in April 2014.

[23][24] IGN praised the Wii version's sound and graphics, calling the presentation "remarkable", and felt the gameplay was fresh and fun with clever puzzles and tight controls.

However, they had concerns with the short length of said console version, which they claimed could be finished in about three hours, but felt this was offset by the relatively inexpensive price compared to a retail game.

[17] Eurogamer also praised the presentation, controls and puzzles, claiming it to be a "mini-masterpiece",[11] while GamePro gave the Wii version a perfect score, calling it "beautiful and unique".

[13] 1UP.com thought the same console version was "charming, beautiful, and loaded with smart, judicious use of the Wii Remote" while voicing minor concerns with its length,[25] while Nintendo Life thought said console version was "innovative" but "not quite as revolutionary in terms of play control as some had hoped", though they stated that it was "a step in the right direction" for the platform genre and WiiWare games as a whole.

[26] N-Europe praised Frontier's "astounding attention to detail" in LostWinds and its visuals which make it seem like a "living, breathing fairytale".

[22] Addressing the short length of the Wii version, Frontier founder David Braben believed LostWinds stacked up favorably against some recent, full priced retail games which offer as little as between four and seven hours of gameplay.