Decisions, decisions! A World at War Review

Forum member and all round dreadlocked good guy Huzzellio has been in a bit of a dilema recently. Huzz, a COD 4 afficionado that had just sampled the delights of COD 5 WaW beta on his 360, faced a problem. Buy World at War for the Wii or for the 360?

What a dilema I've had! In all truth my Wii hasn't done a lot of gaming in the last few weeks, in fact make that the last few months! Since Mario Kart was released I haven't even considered the Wii for my gaming kicks. There just hasn't been anything to really grab my attention.

The 360 has been dominating my gaming time of late, and while I love the 360 I can't help feeling frustrated at my lack of interest in the little white Nintendo box of joy. I want to play it, I want to love it but somehow it always seems to just miss the mark, or fails to capture my imagination. I'm not sure why! Maybe I just prefer the more 'hardcore' type of game (although I do really hate that expression).

Anyway I digress. Where was I? Oh yeah, the dilema. Call of Duty: World at War has been released on my beloved 360 AND the Wii. In my current mindset it would be obvious to go with the big noisy Microsoft red ring of death powerhouse that is the XBox. In fact I'd already been told that I was definitely getting the game on 360 for christmas. Buying the game on Wii as well would be nothing short of madness wouldn't it? But wait....maybe I should give Nintendo another chance? The thing that first attracted me to the Wii was that trailer for Red Steel, y'know the one - that guy sitting in his armchair pointing his Wiimote at the screen like a real gun, getting so into the game he was physically dodging the bullets around his living room!

This could be the Wii's chance to finally shine! So that was it, decision made. I went out, traded Mario Kart (risky move as it was the only game keeping my Wii alive) and bought it.

So the time had come, I fired up my dusty Wii and inserted the disc.

First impressions were positive. The menu screen looked similar to the 360 beta that I'd played to death. So I went straight to multiplayer to mix it up on my favourite mode 'Free for All'. It searched for a match and found one in good time, easily as quick as the 360 equivalent. So far so good! First map - Makin!

Now I should explain, I know Makin very well. It was on the beta and is the home to my one and only 19 kill streak. I was viewing this as the perfect opportunity to show Wii owners how we do it in Huzz town!

The map loaded quickly and then I was faced with it. I could see it was Makin, it looked like Makin yet somehow it looked different. A low res version of the map I've played a million times. Then I moved.......a lower frame rate. Where as the 360 was silky smooth, the Wii was packing around half the frames. And then I tried to navigate my way around. Suddenly I was walking into walls, looking up at the sky, looking down at the floor, spraying bullets like they were going out of fashion......I COULDN'T PLAY PROPERLY!!!!! It's a weird thing, it was like I was playing CoD 5 but in some strange parallel universe.

So there it was, a low res, less smooth, hard to control version of a game I thought I knew very well.

So I made a huge mistake in forking out for this game, trading my copy of MK in the process right? Are you kidding? I LOVED EVERY SECOND!!

Hold on....rewind a moment. Remember how I said I fell in love with the Wii because of the Red Steel trailers? That was my dream and until now no FPS had gripped me. Okay the graphics are worse than the 360 but did I expect anything else? NO! They are worse but they are very GOOD Wii graphics. The game isn't as smooth, did this come as a surprise? NO!! The frame rate IS lower but they never seem to stutter and it is very consistant. The game is hard to control compared to the 360, am I bothered? NO!! I'm not twiddling two sticks, I'm pointing a gun at the screen for crying out loud! Of course it's harder!!

The fact is the Wii version offers a very different feeling to it's higher powered cousins. As I've mentioned in other posts, the 360 and PS3 versions feel like 'CoD 4.5: World War 2 Edition'. It's not a bad thing, I love CoD 4, but it still feels like an expansion pack. But the Wii feels like a fresh game. Yes I'm struggling with the controls (at the moment) but I'm loving the challenge of trying to master them.

I know they've stripped out some game modes, and no doubt people will always gripe about it, but the gameplay itself makes up for it.

This is the first game where I believe owning both version is the correct thing to do. Treyarch have taken a great game and added the Wii dynamic to the gameplay, the dynamic that I dreamed about since the days of the Red Steel trailer.

So has the Wii finally come out of retirement for Private Huzzellio? SIR YES SIR! But if you come across me on the battlefield, go easy on me. I still can't get to grips with the controls!!

Thanks for that Huzz. Now I've read your review and also General Hillyjo's relentless recruiting on the forum, ready for his first skirmish, I am sorely tempted to get WaW for my Wii. I'm also beginning to wonder if you and Hilly have perfected Jedi mind control!

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