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Tornado Outbreak (also known as Zephyr: Rise of the Elementals) is an action video game developed by Loose Cannon Studios and published by Konami for the Wii, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 in 2009. The game was announced at the Electronic Entertainment Expo on June 2009.

Developement

The idea of Tornado Outbreak supposedly came from the Co Founder of Loose Cannon Studios, Ricci Rukavina. His idea of a game was called Tornado Alley. The game would later be renamed to Zephyr: Rise of the Elementals,then the final name,Tornado Outbreak.

Gameplay

Tornado Outbreak’s gameplay is in line with that of Katamari Damacy in that (as Zephyr), players are required to suck ordinary Earth objects into their funnel to grow in size. An added level of complexity is present in Tornado Outbreak, in that players must stay in the shade at all times (shade is created by an object called the L.O.A.D. STARR), as Wind Warriors will die under direct sunlight. Each level is split into five stages. The first three stages are Zephyr pillaging the landscape in search of hiding Fire Flyers (with the location of Fire Flyers being designated by an orange glow under objects). After collecting fifty Fire Flyers in each of these three stages, a totem appears from underground, surrounding a large object on the outskirts of the playing field (a skyscraper, mountain, hotel complex, etc. depending on the geographical location – Vegas, Britain, a theme park, and so on). The fourth stage of each level is a race of sorts, which sees Zephyr flying through vortex rings surrounding the totems. This creates a massive storm above the landscape, complete with moving clouds and patches of sunlight. In the fifth stage, players must navigate these moving clouds to reach the Totems so that they can be destroyed in a button-mashing mini-game, thus revealing one of Omegaton's orbs and unlocking the next level.

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