So tonight right after work the wife and I went to EB Games again. She brought my copy of Mario Kart: Double Dash. It has a $20 trade-in value, slightly less than the average going rate on eBay. I figured I'd trade it in towards The Godfather: Blackhand Edition for Wii so that I didn't have to pay full price out of my pocket. Considering I'm not going to play Mario Kart ever again, and the hassle of selling it on eBay for a measly extra $5 or so, it was worth it.
Well, I grabbed the new release and came home and popped it in right away. That was about 8 hours ago. Taking breaks for food and washroom, and a bit of relaxation, so far I have played this game for a total of 6 hours and 15 minutes, according to my Wii's time logs. This means that in the first night of owning the game, I have played it already more than Call of Duty 3 (a game I bought alongside the Wii on launch day), and also more than Rampage: Total Destruction, Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz, and Monster 4x4: World Circuit combined. I played it for over two hours longer than I played WarioWare: Smooth Moves during the brief time I owned it.
There are a ton of things to do, and the map is huge. You can find lots of little business to bust in on and take over, using a small array of tactics to try and persuade their loyalty. You can temporarily bribe cops to turn a blind eye to your rampages. You can take on tasks for people, such as taking care of a pesky thug in the back alley, or knocking someone off. You can buy new duds which will help you earn more respect. You can talk to people, you can beat people up, you can get into firefights with the cops, you can rob banks... This game has TONS of content, and it is very engagine and fun so far.
The controls in this game are also great. They are intuitive, so you basically do what you want to with the controllers, and your character does it. It takes a bit of getting used to, but if this is not your first Wii game, then you will adjust in no time. Punching feels exceptionally good, as does smacking people into walls. And don't get me started on how much fun it is to hit people with a baseball bat! Aiming your projectile weapons is also another good control scheme, with both a target-centered mode and a free-aim mode, you get your pick of how you want to aim your pistol/tommy gun/shotgun. The controls overall feel great, but the camera controls are slightly strange. I want to invert the camera rotation option, and the option is there... But that works well until you get into a free-aim situation, where if you want to turn to the left, you need to move your cursor to the right of the screen. That is just very, very wrong, and I think it slipped by the QA team because I can't think of one reason anybody in their right minds would like this. The only other thing I would have preferred done differently was the driving controls. I wish EA had copied the jeep-driving control ideas from Call of Duty 3, but improved upon it. That would have made for the complete package. But overall, driving isn't terrible, certainly no worse than you'll experience on any other system.
The sound and music are good, and I have no major complaints other than the often repeated phrases from people you speak to and limited voice actor variety. One thing I did notice is that when played through a Dolby ProLogic II decoder, the audio seems to be a little jumpy from channel to channel if you are, for example, rotating or moving around someone or something making sounds. But overall, it isn't that big a deal, and sure doesn't impede gameplay fun for me.
For the money you're going to pay, there is no better Wii game out there right now if you are looking for a deep game that can keep you busy and engaged for many hours at a time, with tons of stuff to do, and great use of Wii controls. If you are looking for a game where you play one mission here, one mission there, this might not be the best game for you (might I suggest Sonic & the Secret Rings?). But it's certainly worth a rental if you are a fan of Grand Theft Auto and have never tried The Godfather series before. If you're a GTA fan, I think you'd be hard-pressed to not enjoy this game, especially considering it really is the only option of that type on the Wii at the moment.
Simply put, this game ROCKS! If you are fine with Mature titles (violence, foul language, sexuality), decent but not amazing graphics, great controls, and gameplay that draws you in, The Godfather: Blackhand Edition is for you.
8.7 out of 10
Also, check out the North American Wii game release date calendar at Wiisels.com - now with Virtual Console game notifications!
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