Shoddy Single Player, But Worth the Online
• Virtually Lag less Online Play
• A Variety of Online Modes
• The Option for Ranked Matches
• Great Alternative Shooter
• Only $8
The Bad:
• Shallow single player
• Only two player split screen
• Team balance is a little whack
• Motion controls aren't as precise you would like them to be.
• Only 8 maps (4 big, 4 small)
Water Warfare is a first person "shooter" released on WiiWare. This shooter replaces bullets with water, arming your character with a squirt gun. You start off by choosing an outfit for your character. There are very few options to start with, but you unlock a costume each time you beat a boss. From their, you can either do a set of tutorials, or jump right into an online match. I recommend the tutorials to save face.
After being taught the basics, there is little else to get from the single player. You will play variations of the same mission over and over: defeat so and so within a time limit, team match, etc. Short of unlocking more costumes, you will find little drive to continue.
The multiplayer is this game's specialty. While not perfect, it is defiantly one of the better Wii shooters out there, especially for a WiiWare game. You have 6 modes to choose from: Battle Royale, Death Match, Treasure Chest, Assault, Base, and Point rally. These are basically Team Death Match, Death Match, Capture the Flag, Checkpoint Races, etc. Once you pick what you want to play, you are put into a lobby with a limited amount of phrases to say to the others waiting to play. The lobby shows one of the game's flaws, with 3 on 5 matches a regular occurrence. After everyone picks a map, the match begins.
There are 2 (.5) ways to control this:
• Wii Remote + Nunchuck (supports the Wii Zapper, which equals the ".5")
• Classic Controller
Personally, I prefer the classic controller. As a shooter fan, it feels more natural to use a dual stick. The Wii Remote/ Nunchuck combo is not an awful choice, however. It is nice to point and shoot. This combo's biggest flaw is that switching weapons (which you do by swinging the remote down) can be a hassle, and when you are in a fire fight and run out of ammo, that extra time to switch weapons can be fatal.
Regardless of the bad publicity for this game being "Kids only", I would recommend this game to anyone looking for a decent shooter on the Wii.