|
You gotta love Nazis and terrorists. These guys have kept gaming stocked with bad guys for as long as there's been a need for people to shoot, especially when the street punk of the 90s became passe. When you've got a terrorist in the gun sight there's no need to worry about the sanctity of human life, you can just mow him and his buddies down and go looking for more, conscience clean and a happy little song of death in your heart.
Those wacky anti-American goofballs are at it again in Ghost Squad, terrorizing politicians and even kidnapping the president in the Wii port of Sega's military light gun arcade shooter. This calls for the special talents of the Ghost Squad, an elite military unit that gets in, cleans house, and gets out without leaving a trace. “Without a trace” apparently has a new meaning, seeing as property damage and dozens of terrorist corpses are left wherever they go, but extreme situations require extreme measures. If those measures require shooting everything that moves then all the better.
Ghost Squad doesn't try to be more than a solid and entertaining shooter, and you just can't go wrong with that.
|
Ghost Squad is technically a light-gun shooter, but the Wii doesn't have a light gun so has to make due with the remote. There are several ways it can be used, including by itself as a pointer and in conjunction with Nintendo's Wii Blaster, but the best way by far is as part of the Naki Perfect Shot. This is a plastic pistol-shaped shell that houses the remote in the barrel, and lets the game be played in classic light-gun fashion. As it turns out, though the Wii isn't really suited for accurate aiming, even with careful calibration. This means that the on-screen crosshair needs to be left on, despite the opportunity for higher scoring you can get without it, and turns Ghost Squad into a fancy point & click shooter.
Despite quirks of hardware, Ghost Squad is still a load of fun. It's a short game, comprised of only three missions, but built with serious replay in mind. When a level is successfully completed, a higher-ranked version of it opens up with new paths and events available. Not only that, completing all three levels earns experience from score and successful events, leading to new outfits and weapons to choose from. The outfits are just for the fun of it, but the weapons have a noticeable effect on how the game is played. You've got to be more careful with a shotgun than a pistol around hostages, of course, but the rifle's ability to pierce cover has its pluses and minuses as well. I'm still not quite sure how accidentally killing both the pilot and co-pilot of Air Force One by shooting them through the back of their chairs didn't lead to an automatic Mission Failed.
|
