Call of Duty 3 Wii Review

Call of Duty 3 on the Wii may be more a less a direct port of the PS2 version, although what sets it apart and silences the laughter of narrow minded folk directing their attentions towards a so-called next generation machine hosting a mere port from last gen, is of course the controls, and in this department Activision’s FPS doesn’t disappoint. Now with remote and nunchuk in hand let us give you our analysis.

Let’s talk sensitivity, as things aren’t quite as jumpy as in Red Steel, although you still might find yourself disorientated at times as the target suddenly aims for the sky, this is something that we don’t blame on the game, instead we feel it is all part of the learning process for Nintendo’s new machine.

Switching and reloading weapons with flicking the nunchuck in the required directions is satisfying and convenient, as is tossing grenades if you have this optional nunchuck gesture turned on. Expectedly setting bombs is also much more enjoyable on this Wii version: perhaps this was a feature which previously felt like a desperate method of adding interaction on other versions, but on the Wii it makes perfect sense as we’re interacting with games like never before with Nintendo’s remote and nunchuck combo!

We thought that the melee struggles with the Germans would have been similarly successful, although instead it’s bloody frustrating and we often found that our desperate hand movements only left us feeling fatigued and like we were fighting a losing battle, as our German attacker eventually slammed his gun into our face again and again and once more for pure badness.

Then there’s the driving, in which the game claims that you need to hold the nunchuck and the remote like a steering wheel, although this simply isn’t the case as the Wii sensor bar doesn’t seem to register any movement at all from the nunchuck when you are in control of vehicles, therefore steering with solely the remote works just fine. Still, if have the desire to simulate driving with a funny shaped steering wheel in your hands, then that’s possible too.

As this is a port of the PS2 version, the events aren’t quite as chaotic and intense as the fabulous 360 version and textures are rather crude, this does work against the game, as whilst the feeling of being in the midst of a war zone is still there, it’s ultimately a lesser experience. Nice smoke though.

True, it would be wrong to expect a multiplayer online mode, as Nintendo haven’t got everything set up yet, although we would expect an offline split-screen mode at the very least, and sadly there‘s nothing of the sort for group gaming, yes single player is all you are going to get for your money, sorry about that.

Call of Duty 3 on the Wii is still a great FPS, and whilst it has a superior version on another machine, for exclusive Wii owners, this is a really good shooter, and along with Red Steel, it certainly indicates a healthy future for the FPS genre on Nintendo’s plain white box of fun.