Soaking each other in Water Warfare is only fun for about 4 hours before you should take your summer vocation elsewhere.
Game Title: Water Warfare
Platform: WiiWare (Nintendo Wii)
Developer: Hudson Soft
Publisher: Hudson Soft
Genre: First Person Shooter
Age Rating: PEGI: 3+, CERO: A, ESRB: E 10+
Release Date: June 23rd 2009 (Japan), June 26th 2009 (Europe), June 29th 2009 (North America)
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Game Score: 5.5/10
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Summery:
Soaking each other in Water Warfare is only fun for about 4 hours before you should take your summer vocation elsewhere.
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When it comes to the summer times some kids like to spend their times at the beach building sandcastles or going for a swim, one of those other activities that kids will always enjoy and having their parents in fear for are the Super Soaker Water Gun toys that are usually the best selling toys for the summer. Developer Hudson decides to make a game where you take the soaking craze virtually with Water Warfare, a First Person Soaker game (yes, that's what this is dubbed as.) that's affordable for a very cheap price. Arm your water pistols as you're in for some soaking fun in a kid friendly shoot em up game that's only fun about 4 hours worth.
Before you start playing you'll customize your character that you can change his/her hair style, size and clothing but the options are minimal. Afterwards you can change your gameplay settings including the controls. Water Warfare can be played online against other players around the world or your own region or offline against the AI Bots and also there's also split screen multiplayer as well. There are modes simply consisting of Competitive Death Matches, Battle Royale for Survival and team based games like Treasure Chest which is it's take on Capture the Flag, Assault Mode and Point Rally which is racing. Most of the modes are simple fare but Point Rally is a new type where you must run from one point on the map to the next and get all the points to reach the goal. The game sadly only has 8 maps which are either small or larger versions of the nature park, a beach, playground and a city to play on which is indeed lacking.
You also have the main game which is the Mission Mode where you'll have up to 38 different missions to play through. These mission simple multiplayer fare but othertimes the missions due change up the rules from time to time and you'll have a boss battle which is just super easy due to the AI's predictable pattern. Mostly the missions are cake walk but some others like levels where you have to steal a enemy chest to your base without being caught or finding targets around each could take a few tries as you may need to understand the level layout, especially if you're a kid who haven't played a game like this before. Completing each of the 8 missions on the game's map will unlock an additional character in the character selection and more missions to play. The mission mode will take on average player about 3 hours to beat them all and that extra hour could be spent on the Online Modes if anybody online is even playing the game. Thankfully there are AI bots to play with but for the most part they can be flat unless you turn up the difficulty.
The goal in Water Warfare is to take out all your opponents out with the various Water Pistols, Machine Guns, Water Launchers and Shotguns laying across the map. You'll also find items which can be used as temporally weapons like Water Bombs, running shoes to make you go faster, banana peels to trip the enemy up. My personal favourite is the Hammer which can unleash a blow to stun the enemy and knock him/her out and there are other items that will dry you up or protect you from damage for a few seconds. You'll also need to be careful of the Water from around every corner, not just the players but also fountains and large lakes that you'll fall into. You can actually take damage from being inside of the water which warns you to be careful when you're near Your Health is displayed as a T-Shirt that fills up upon taking damage from water, if that is filled up to the top then you're KO'ed and you'll respawn somewhere else on the map.
You'll start every match with a weak Water Pistol but you can find better weapons as you wonder around on the map. You can only carry one weapon and if the Water Supply runs out you'll have to find another Water gun to use. You can also do Dual wield with the game's two weapons which adds a little more firepower. You can actually refill your current weapon by going to the water station or by the lakes and standing there till the meter is refilled up just like refilling a water gun in real life.
Water Warfare is compatible with the Wii Remote and Nunchuk's default setup but you can also use the Classic Controller which is a relief for players who finally want to play an FPS with the old Analog Sticks but doesn't support the Gamecube controller. The Wii Zapper is also compatible with the game but with the A Button on the Wii Remote's face button you'll may find the Zapper setup uncomfortable to use no matter what action it's using. I only use it for Zooming.
Dispute the incredibly weak mission structures and the awkward Wii Zapper control setup the gameplay itself is pretty decent and older gamers like myself can actually compare this to Unreal Tournament and some other multiplayer shooters that can stack up better then this. Soaking each other hasn't been as much fun as the real water guns if you don't like getting yourself soaked in real life or value the safety of very young children.
Water Warfare's greatest weakness is the graphics. It's understandable that this game is supposed to be a budget title so you'd wouldn't expect anything special but however these graphics look rather Nintendo 64 level. The character models from each character's generated looks and Anime style faces are decent but the game runs at a 30 Frames per second and worst of all is the way the Water guns are shown in First person. Sure they look good when you see it in the other player's hand or when they are displayed as a pickup but it's just stupid to have your character hold any weapon in the game with one just hand including two handed weapons like the Water Rifle or Water Launcher. It just makes each weapon in the game look like like a one handed pistol when what they should be like.
The Sound effects are alright with each splashing effects and item using jingles and the soundtrack consists of technical beach resort and city tunes which is mixed between poor and decent.
For 800 Wii Points, Water Warfare is an average WiiWare game that's not as good as other shooter's on the market or as Hudson's other WiiWare title Onslaught. It's fun to play for about 4 hours but it's not really a game that anyone would play during their summer breaks as they would rather spend their vocation someplace else. Unless you're a kid who sees this game as interesting to play might find this game enjoyable for the asking price. Overall Water Warfare is a title of the summer that's mostly targeted to kids then hardcore gamers who are well experienced in other games off this genre.
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The Good Points:
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1. It features Classic Controller support and controls well
2. Soaking each other hasn't been as much fun then in real life
The Bad Points:
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1. Nintendo 64 like graphics
2. Mission mode is mostly cakewalk and it's structure is weak
3. Awkward Wii Zapper control setup
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Reviewed by: Anthony Hayball (AQWBlaZer91)
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