So back at E3 in 06 we saw a trailer for a game that seemed it would change first person shooters forever. Promises of Shooting with pixel perfect aiming making head shots and sword fights that would be unlike anything we have ever played before. Did it really change the FPS the way we thought it would? Go out to your local store, purchase it and find out for yourself or just keep reading this review. First turning on the game I found myself being very displeased with the menus, they look cool and it was a cool idea but it can be very annoying to have to drag and drop the stupid icon from point A to point B. It’s not a huge deal but enough to mention. The first time I played the game was multiplayer with 5 minutes of a learning curve and I got it whilst everyone else playing ran around like chickens with their heads cut off not knowing what to do. As I kept scoring, the other guys (which enjoy Halo as their main FPS) were saying 'I don't know about this. Let’s play Wii Sports again.' And at that point I had to agree with them. In multi player the game is lacking big time in my opinion; with only 4 maps, no bots to play with and no LAN, it was a bit of a disappointment. Although, the "killer" mode ws a nice surprise. In killer mode you receive different objectives via the Wii remote speaker and have to carry them out before you are killed. So if you play multi player I suggest you play with this mode. Though death match has its place in the fun department as well if you can get four buddies together at one time. It would have been nice to see some two player sword fighting as well but I guess they will save that for the sequel. The single player on the other hand I had an absolute blast playing. You start off in L.A. going to a restaurant with your girlfriend miyu to meet her father so you can ask her hand in marriage. Her father is a respectable yakuza boss in Japan who owns many companies and businesses. No sooner than when you guys show up and start walking around the place, a rival yakuza gang ambushes the place, gun fights ensue, your girl ends up taken and her father wounded. You help him find a safe place and he points you in the right direction of who it may have been behind this. He also tells you that they are more than likely after the Katana Giri, a sword held by the leader of the gang which is none other than her father. He hands you the blade and sends you off to get the guys who took your girl. This story won’t get an oscar but it helps the game pace and can be very interesting at times. The story is told through a stylized story board with full voice acting. The voice acting is a mixed bag as some actors did a decent job while others were way over baked. The soundtrack is very well done Tom Salta did a great job in this department; the music sets the mood perfectly whether it is action or just walking down a quiet hallway. Sound effects are great too, from the gun samples to the swords clanging or even glass bottles breaking. The game runs in Dolby II but to be honest I couldn’t tell, I never hear much behind me and I have the speaker’s right by my head.

    Now for something I’m sure many of you have been curious about… the controls. Basically the pointer acts as where you aim and the aiming works great in my opinion. The problem is with the turning, there is this invisible box on the screen and once you reach the side of it you start turning, that way you are free to aim pretty much anywhere on the screen. While using the nunchucku attachment to move and strafe along with ducking and jumping. The box for turning though is too big, turning can be slow and clunky but it doesn’t kill the game as some suggest. I personally think they should have the pointer be in a fixed position like on PC and you should be able to hold down a button and free aim anywhere you want but unfortunately for us this didn’t happen. It’s understandable though this is a first generation game, its not gonna be perfect. This is one of the first games to ever have such a different control scheme so it is understandable. Some other things that were good ideas but not fully realized yet are throwing of grenades, you hold down on the D pad while doing a throwing motion with the nunchuku attachment or if you want to roll it on the ground, do like a rolling motion or underhanded throw. It’s a great idea just sometimes it can be hard to do because when you go to do it sometimes I would aim off screen while doing so and spin around throwing the grenade at my own feet. I think they should lock the screen while holding down the button or at least give option to. Another thing I had issues with it’s not a huge deal but reloading is the same as opening a door. Shaking your nunchucku downward or sideways will reload your gun or you can press left on the D pad. I think it would have been better to hold down left as if pushing the button on a real gun to release the clip and then shake downwards. One thing I thought was pretty neat is that you can turn your smaller weapons sideways left or right in a “gangsta” style, while it doesn’t help you in anyway, it’s a really creative idea. Another great function is the ability to freeze time later on in the game. When you freeze time you can shoot guns out of enemy hands or just the boss and motion with the Wii remote for them to put their guns down. Sword fighting is neat as well it’s definitely not what we thought it would be from the trailers but it’s still really cool. What happens when you go into a duel you are locked facing your opponent and it becomes a thing of timing using the remote to swing your sword in eight different directions while using the nunchucku for your short sword to defend yourself with. Time your hits with when the enemy’s guard is down or you can use several different moves you learn to break their sword so that they give up. When they give up you have a choice to kill them or spare their life and by sparing them you get honor, the more honor you get the more sword moves you can learn. Graphically this game looks very nice for Wii standards, running on the unreal two engine, displaying some nice reflections and great lighting. While the character models aren’t the best they weren’t that bad either, they had some nice animations along with some decent physics. Example: when they die up against a wall their knees would lock while the head still slumped over and they slowly fall to the floor, also getting blown through windows or over counters. Overall, I say this was a great first attempt and had some nice ideas just some things need to be tightened up or fixed altogether and hopefully future developers will do so.

-Noah

Nice level design
Great aim
Nice artwork
Graphics look nice
Great weapon selection
A good amount of levels
Excellent Soundtrack
Story line paced well while not epic did its job
Nice use of controls

Negative points

Turning is too slow
Voice work is very silly in places
Multi player seems slapped on
Lack of extra content
would be nice to skip cut scenes

Presentation 6.5

While not the best story I have ever seen the story line paced well while not epic it did its job. The menus could have been done better they sort of feel slapped on. The load times were kind of annoying as well but not that big of a deal. Level design is nice although there were a few glitches found. Great selection of weapons and sword moves.

Game play 7.0

Some very nice uses of the wiimote and nunchuku. Aiming is great while turning can be a problem. It would have been nice if they would lock the screen when throwing grenades and made reloading work the way they said it should in the instructions.

Graphics 8.0

Graphics look nice with some great art work, no major complaints here.

Music and sound 9.0

Great original score by Tom Salta. The voice acting is very hit or miss some actors did a good job while others were just overkill. Some Nice gun and sword samples.

Replay value 6.5

A good single player romp that took me about 10 and a half hours to complete which is good enough to play through again. Multi player is nothing too special the “killer” mode is pretty cool but where are the bots? and only 4 maps? Come on if its not gonna be online at least give us that. It just feels Slapped on.

-Noah