Conduit 2 overcomes its problems by offering a long and varied single-player campaign with a good sense of humor.

The Video Review

Tom Mc Shea gets some new armor as he makes his way through the Conduit 2 video review.

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The Good

Irreverent, B-move-caliber story   Labyrinthine levels with plenty of secrets   Varied artistic design   Exciting boss fights.

The Bad

Hilariously awful AI   Classic Controller issues.

Conduit 2 is a breath of fresh air in a genre that takes itself far too seriously. Breaking away from the shackles that made The Conduit an insipid chore, this unrestrained sequel addresses every concern from the first game with a jester’s aplomb. Gone is the overly dramatic story that made government conspiracies as banal as a tour through a doorknob factory, replaced by a tongue-in-cheek narrative that revels in preposterous logic. The paint-by-numbers level design has been tossed in the scrap heap as well. You travel the globe in Conduit 2, and the circuitous layouts make it fun to figure out where to go next. There are even thrilling set-piece moments mixed in, culminating in a number of over-the-top boss fights that provide an explosive change from the normal action. That’s not to say Conduit 2 is without fault. The core action is mired in problems, ranging from hapless AI to predictable combat, and the lifeless multiplayer fails to build on the cartoonish charm of the campaign. But Conduit 2 rises above these complaints. It has a style all its own, and though it has its fair share of issues, you’ll still have a smile on your face the whole time.

When the story begins, it’s impossible to tell if it’s a serious attempt to relay the plot of another alien-themed conspiracy cover-up, or if it’s making fun of genre cliches. Mr. Ford is a surly, take-no-guff protagonist, and his guttural growls make it easy to dismiss him as another run-of-the-mill tough guy. But it soon becomes apparent that you aren’t meant to take this goofy story seriously, and the outlandish plot provides more than a few laugh-out-loud moments. Take, for example, the taunting words of one late-game boss. After you shoot him in the head for nearly 10 minutes, he bellows at you that he’s through negotiating. In another amusing exchange, Ford questions why the architecture of the building he’s in seems to repeat. Your helpful friend responds that time and money force designers to reuse assets, just like in video games. It’s moments like this that make it easy to just relax and enjoy the show. Conduit 2 isn’t particularly smart or insightful, but it has enough silly banter to make the story enjoyable.

The Conduit was heralded for its outstanding controls, and the precision offered by the Wii Remote/Nunchuk combo is just as impressive the second time around. Now the Classic Controller is an option as well, and though it’s not nearly as accurate as the standard scheme, it’s a welcome addition for those who would rather use a dual-stick setup. There are some notable issues, though. You may have to slam on the duck button multiple times before your avatar reacts, for example, and aiming is far too touchy, even after you tweak the sensitivity settings. These quirks are annoying, but they won’t impede your progress thanks to the laughable artificial intelligence. Enemies act more like vaudevillian performers than trained mercenaries. You may see a soldier take cover against a wall of air or perform a somersault and forget to shoot afterward. Oftentimes, you strafe into a room with your gun cocked, only to find your foes standing around as if they’re at a cocktail party. Make no mistake about it, the AI in Conduit 2 is atrocious, though it does fit within the B-movie vibe the game exudes. It’s funny gunning down these fatuous fools, and because Conduit 2 never pretends to be a serious shooter, the inept AI only adds to the charm.

A true hero doesn’t have any qualms shooting an enemy in the back.

Your varied arsenal includes military staples such as machine guns and sniper rifles mixed in with a healthy assortment of out-of-this-world armaments. The earthly weapons generally act as you would expect, though there are some exceptions. Damage with the shotgun is woefully inconsistent, so you may behead a vile enemy with a sure blast in one fight, only to find it takes three headshots the next time around. Your alien firearms look a lot more interesting than an ordinary pistol, but they’re not quite as effective in combat. Oftentimes, it takes two or three times as many shots to kill an attacker with an intergalactic offering, which makes using these fancy tools of destruction less enticing. There is one exotic gun that not only has a creepy visual design, but is a fine killing machine as well. The hive cannon looks like a grotesque insect, complete with slithering tentacles, and delivers a deadly punch when fired. Despite some neat-looking weapons, the action in Conduit 2 is rather predictable. Fights too often erupt in narrow corridors littered with handy pieces of cover, and the typical layout combined with the aforementioned AI problems make for functional, if derivative, shoot outs.

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GoldenEye 007 is an entirely new and incredibly fun shooter that doesn’t rely on its prestigious pedigree to provide thrills.

The Video Review

GameSpot’s Tom McShea shoots from the hip in this video review of GoldenEye 007 for the Wii

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The Good

Great mix of stealth and action sequences   Lots of variety, including boss fights and vehicle sections   Harder difficulties add new objectives   Striving for par times makes you play the game in a new way   Multiplayer is fun both online and offline.

The Bad

Quick-time events and unskippable cutscenes are obtrusive   No WiiSpeak support.

Thirteen years ago, a groundbreaking first-person shooter called GoldenEye 007 was released for the Nintendo 64. It’s impossible to ignore the impact this game had on the future of the industry, but don’t assume that the Wii game bearing the same name is a mere remake of the seminal original. The new GoldenEye 007 is a modern game that refuses to cater to an old-school audience, giving it the freedom to develop a personality all its own. The varied and lengthy campaign smartly alternates between tense stealth missions and exhilarating run-and-gun forays that make it difficult to pull away. And though the online multiplayer uses the ubiquitous perks system to reward you for your hard work, it’s the sharp controls and complex levels that will have you coming back for more. GoldenEye 007 doesn’t rely on the memories of an aged shooter to be great; it earns that distinction on its own merits.

GoldenEye 007 is an entirely new game, but that doesn’t mean it has completely turned its back on everything that made the original distinct. James Bond is a world-class spy, and both games dramatize this fascinating profession by putting you through the rigors of globe-trotting espionage. There is a strong emphasis on stealth in GoldenEye that rewards patient players who would rather silently avoid a firefight than rush in guns blazing. Whether you favor a sure shot from your silenced pistol or a quick melee strike when you move in close, quietly killing off your enemies is a thrilling rush that serves as your main tactic for most of this campaign. The AI is occasionally alerted even when you swear you’re safely behind cover, but that inconsistency is rare. For the most part, using stealth is your wisest strategy, and you can discreetly kill off a small platoon without anyone noticing that something’s wrong.

Of course, a spy is more than just a silent assassin. James Bond doesn’t travel around the world just to satiate his bloodlust, after all; he’s on a mission to discover some kind of horrible truth. And to acquire these facts, you have to do some sleuthing along the way. Every level has objectives you must complete in between bouts of killing, and though they provide an interesting diversion from the core gameplay, they’re not exactly mind-blowing. Most of them involve utilizing your handy smartphone to do things like snap a photograph or hack a device, and it’s just a matter of lining up your target and hitting a button. But what makes these moments as impactful as the shoot-to-kill action is the problem solving that goes along with them. For example, in the first level, you need to access a room that is seemingly sealed shut. But if you poke your gun through a small opening in the window, you can shoot off the lock barring your entry. These puzzles are easy enough if you just take a quick peek around the environment, but they do a good job of reinforcing the fact that you’re a spy.

It might be harsh to say someone deserves to die, but it’s hard to feel bad for this unobservant soldier.

James Bond has no problem gathering vital information and certainly knows how to avoid a fight, but when the action heats up, he’s not afraid to take advantage of his license to kill. The shooting in GoldenEye is incredibly smooth whether you favor the quick-pointing precision of the Wii Remote or the traditional, dual-analog maneuverability offered by the GameCube or Classic Controller. You can easily target whatever vital organ or flailing appendage you prefer on an onrushing enemy, and the dull impact of a bullet that strikes pay dirt delivers an exhilarating thrill. Sharp controls aren’t the only reason that shooting is such a satisfying endeavor in GoldenEye; your impressive loadout gives you plenty of firepower with which to play around. Pistols, rifles, shotguns, and more come with all sorts of different attributes, and it’s easy to find one you like because they all feel so good. But James Bond has plenty of options beyond firing his gun, and the smooth shooting mechanics ensure you’re immersed no matter which path you take.

The single-player campaign stretches on for more than 10 hours, and a good deal of variety banishes any chance of repetition ruining your enjoyment. Some levels are designed with stealth in mind while others force combat to the forefront, but you ultimately have the choice in how you play. The tempo changes in a heartbeat if you accidentally alert your enemies, and though you may kick yourself for being so clumsy, it’s always a blast to loudly gun down your enemies when you were being so quiet just a moment earlier. There are other gameplay twists that ensure the campaign doesn’t tread predictable waters: brief vehicle sections thrust raw destructive power into your hands, a frantic escort sequence pushes your reflexes to the edge, and even an intense boss fight is thrown in for good measure. The only misstep comes in the form of tedious quick-time events that are overflowing with cinematic flair but aren’t any fun to play. But aside from these moments, GoldenEye 007 stays engaging all the way through.

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Intuitive controls, fast gameplay, and the return of street football make FIFA 11 one of the most enjoyable football games for the Wii.

The Good

Variety of control methods   Mostly lag-free online   Great use of cartoony graphics   Nostalgic five-a-side and street football return.

The Bad

No tutorials for newcomers to football games   Slide tackles with the Wii Remote aren’t responsive   Inconsistent player likenesses.

The latest Wii title in EA Sports’ FIFA franchise doesn’t offer the visual realism of its HD counterparts, but it does offer an accessible game of football that is a lot of fun to play. The normal 11-versus-11 action is bolstered by easy to set up online games, a separate street football mode, and, most exciting of all, the glorious return of the much-loved five-a-side indoor mode that hasn’t made an appearance since FIFA: Road to World Cup 98. FIFA 11 makes the best of the Wii hardware and offers the most complete experience in the series yet.

To create a football game that appeals to fans of all ages and abilities, EA Sports has given FIFA 11 a number of control schemes. The first and most basic of these is All Play control, which hands movement of your players over to the CPU, so that all you need to do is pass, tackle, and shoot. This gives you the chance to just get used to the fundamentals of the gameplay or, indeed, the sport itself. FIFA 11 includes a training mode to help you get used to the controls in a closed environment, but it offers nothing in the way of tutorials to teach football newcomers the best ways to use specific techniques during matches. If you’re familiar with the sport you can skip the Wii-Remote-only All Play controls and move straight on to the Remote and Nunchuk option. Here, you are in control of movement, as well as passing, shooting, and the other fundamentals. The gameplay is fluid enough with this control scheme, but if you normally play FIFA games with a traditional control pad, it can take a few matches before you get used to the button layout. That’s because this option requires multiple button presses for techniques that normally only require one button in other versions, such as lobbed passes. If you consider yourself a seasoned FIFA pro, then the Classic Controller option is the one for you. This configuration closely represents the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 controls and offers the most gameplay depth, with the ability for slightly more accurate passing and shooting, which is hugely important on the harder difficulty setting. Unfortunately, there is no option to use a Nintendo GameCube controller.

Controlling FIFA 11 can be as easy or as complex as you desire, but the gameplay itself remains simple compared to the versions on other platforms. Passing is far easier, requiring only a tap of a button to execute so that the ball almost always goes where you would expect. Tackling is also very easy, though with the Wii Remote and Nunchuk controls, you have to shake the remote to perform a slide tackle, and the controls are a little sluggish when defending. Shooting is the most enjoyable part of FIFA 11. The game is much less strict than other football games when it comes to the difference between shot power and accuracy. This means that you’ll quickly be scoring spectacular-looking goals from well outside the opposition’s penalty area. That’s not to say that scoring is too easy. The goalkeepers are adept at shot stopping and will often perform incredible diving saves. At first, this is great fun to watch, but after you’ve seen a goalie impossibly tip the ball just onto the post a few times in a row, it begins to feel scripted and creates false tension in matches. Overall, though, the basic 11-versus-11 game in the Wii version is hugely enjoyable and the goalies and talking don’t detract much from the excitement of the fast-paced matches. The simple gameplay is easy for casual football fans to pick up and even if you have played a lot of FIFA 11 on other platforms, you will still have plenty of fun with the spectacular goals possible on the Wii.

Indoor football is fast, furious, and lots of fun.

The street football and indoor five-a-side in FIFA 11 are much faster than the normal 11-versus-11 matches and encourage you to use tricks and skill moves to overcome the opposition. Wall passes are just as key in these modes as they are in real indoor football. There are also power-ups that can be activated, such as shrinking the other team or giving your strikers the ability to hit a shot with huge curve. One of the funniest elements of these modes, though, is the option to use different types of goals. In addition to normal street-sized goals, you can play with half-height goals, tiny goals (with no goalies), and raised goals, which are like basketball hoops that require you to use chip shots to score. This arcade like approach to the sport is one of the most exciting aspects of FIFA 11 on the Wii. The appeal of these modes stretches beyond casual players, with five-a-side returning, it also creates plenty of nostalgia for diehard FIFA fans.

The main career mode for FIFA on the Wii this year is called Streets to Stadiums. As in the Be-a-Pro mode from previous Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 FIFA games, you create and take control of a single player. You choose his position and then upgrade his attributes and skills as his career progresses. Unlike Be-a-Pro, though, you don’t start by playing in the reserves for the team of your choice. Instead, you take the role of a street football player and must work your way up through the ranks of this unique version of the sport before being spotted by a professional team. It’s a refreshing take on the football game career mode that makes eventually playing for a top team feel like a real achievement. To speed up progression, you are asked to choose fame moments before each match. These are objectives designed to give you extra experience points toward attribute upgrades. You can choose from easy objectives (such as scoring a goal), which offer fewer experience points, or harder ones (such as scoring with a lobbed shot), which offer more. The twist is that if you fail an objective you have chosen, you will also have its experience point value deducted from your total. At first glance, this seems harsh in a more casual football game, but it does create an interesting balance of risk versus reward. There are also unlockable game boosters, which, when used before a match, offer certain gameplay variations that can work in your favor, such as faster players or harder shots. Some of these can even be combined to form extra powerful boosters, such as preventing the opposition goalkeeper from catching the ball. Streets to Stadiums does a brilliant job of creating a compelling and deep career mode that is very well suited to the Wii audience that may not want a full sim experience.

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Donkey Kong’s newest adventure makes traditional platforming feel fresh again, thanks to clever level design and great artistic touches.

The Video Review

Tom takes to the trees with the mighty ape that started it all in this video review for Donkey Kong Country Returns.

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The Good

Fantastic level design   Hidden collectibles give a substantial reason to replay levels   Vehicle sequences are loads of fun   Strong artistic design   Catchy soundtrack.

The Bad

Occasionally clumsy controls.

There’s a time and place for innovation, but you certainly can’t expect a tie-wearing gorilla to lead the charge into unexplored territory. As the name suggests, Donkey Kong Country Returns is a trip down memory lane, and this tightly crafted collection of classic platforming tropes shows that clever level design can be just as engaging as brand-spanking-new ideas. Even without cutting-edge features to distinguish it from other 2D platformers, Donkey Kong’s latest adventure is exciting because it constantly messes with your expectations. Dynamically changing levels are the most noteworthy element, and though this idea has cropped up in other games, it’s done exceptionally well here. Levels morph before your eyes, and this unpredictability ensures you’re continually presented with new obstacles that require sharp reflexes to navigate. A few questionable control decisions are the only problems in this exciting blast from the past. Donkey Kong’s return to gaming is definitely a triumphant one.

Donkey Kong has never been mistaken for a noble hero. Instead of setting out to save the world from some unimaginable horror or rescuing a damsel in distress, this starving simian is intent on getting back his stolen bananas. At least he has a companion to help him complete his self-serving deeds. Diddy Kong is just as eager to get his hands on those precious bananas, but you don’t get to switch between these two monkeys as in previous games in the series. Instead, you control Donkey Kong during the entire game, and when you find a specially marked DK barrel, you summon your little friend to help you out. He rides on your back and has a handy jetpack to help you across longer jumps or guide you for precise landings.

Diddy is an invaluable contributor because you’re so much more maneuverable when he’s in tow. If you suffer a couple of hits, you lose Diddy until you find another barrel, and controlling Donkey Kong by his lonesome makes things trickier. Gorillas are heavy animals, and you can feel his weight whenever you move him. It takes a few minutes to get acquainted with his running speed and jumping ability, but things become second nature pretty quickly. The only problem is that you have to shake the remote to perform some moves. Waving the controller to blow out a fire or hand slap the ground is mildly annoying, but it doesn’t impede your progress. The problem lies in the rolling command which lets you cross extra-wide pits. Shaking the controller is just not precise enough in such situations, which might result in you dying a few aggravating deaths. This blemish continues through the whole game, and though you get used to it over time, the problem never goes completely away.

Donkey Kong’s adventure takes him through a series of locales that recall the classic environments of Donkey Kong Country. You start things off in a leafy forest where toppling statues and flightless birds attempt to end your journey before it really gets going. From there, you navigate the treacherous subterranean world of a dark cave; the dense, foggy air in a polluted factory; and a sweltering volcano that would make even a monkey’s uncle sweat. Like the locations, the obstacles have been pulled right out of countless platformers of the past. Bottomless pits, swinging vines, rising lava, and spike-filled traps stand in your path, so don’t expect many surprises on this front. Instead, it’s the way in which these tried-and-true pieces are used that pushes you through this journey. Take, for instance, the mine cart levels. You ride along a set track, jumping over pits and dodging enemies until you reach the end. It sounds ho hum, but in practice, it’s anything but. In one such level, the track breaks before your eyes. You have to jump from one crumbling rail to the next, continually changing your strategy and pushing your reflexes to stay one step ahead of the imminent dangers.

Even gorillas like water slides.

Donkey Kong Country Returns is constantly twisting traditional ideas, which keeps even platforming experts on their toes. Although it doesn’t sound nearly as exciting as a groundbreaking new gameplay mechanic, the real joy in this game stems from navigating these deviously constructed levels. You will die often in this game, but it’s rarely frustrating. The challenge comes from the intelligent placement of basic platforming obstacles. You can’t take jumps for granted because things are rarely as easy as they initially appear. Crumbling platforms are just one danger you have to be mindful of: Enemies spring up in unexpected places, boulders attempt to squish you flat, and spiked balls spell doom with just one touch. There is a never-ending cavalcade of traps in Returns that ensures you’re constantly fighting for your life and keeping your eyes peeled for unexpected dangers. The level design is fantastic and it’s an absolute pleasure to discover what lies before you.

The wealth of different ideas staves off any feeling of sameness that could potentially derail your fun. In addition to the standard jumping fare, there are vehicle sequences that inject speed into the mix. You may have known that barrels can quickly shoot you across a level, but did you know you can use one as a makeshift rocket in a pinch? Some of the most challenging sections of the game involve riding a barrel at full speed through these ever-changing levels, and they’re some of the most exciting sequences as well. Cruising past fireballs, around zeppelins, and between spiked crushers will definitely get your heart racing, especially because one touch causes your temporary rocket to spontaneously combust. And, of course, there’s Rambi the rhinoceros. Surprisingly, riding atop your trusty friend is the easiest portion of the game. But even though you don’t have to fear enemies atop the horned beast, you still need to be aware of dangers. The best of these is a wild chase through a dilapidated factory, proving once and for all that rhinos are faster than monkeys.

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Fluid combat and great art lift this Force-powered sequel above its flaws.

The Video Review

Kevin VanOrd finds the Force in this video review for Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II.

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The Good

Excellent art design makes each environment stand out   Fun and flashy combat makes good use of motion controls   Great cutscenes and voice acting give the story emotional heft   Good boss fights ramp up the action.

The Bad

Too many cheap deaths   Lacks enemy variety   Unspectacular multiplayer.

The original Star Wars: The Force Unleashed buzzed with potential, but poor production values and the madness of random remote waggling muted the glow. With Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II, the power of the Force has finally begun to manifest itself on the Nintendo Wii. Where the original struggled with combat momentum, The Force Unleashed II is smooth and satisfying; where the first game’s visuals were jagged and jittery, the follow-up’s are rich and varied. The gameplay is somewhat hobbled by a lack of enemy variety, among a few other flaws. However, not only is this version longer and more exciting than its high-definition counterparts, it moves along at a better pace and fills in an important story-related crevasse left gaping in the other versions. None of that matters if this is the only iteration of The Force Unleashed II you plan on picking up; what matters is that this is a good (and good-looking) action game that makes it a pleasure to slash up stormtroopers and fling them off walkways into the abyss beneath.

The story is not as impressive as that of the original, but it is notable nonetheless. On the watery planet of Kamino, Darth Vader hovers over a familiar figure. It looks to be Starkiller, the original game’s leading man and Vader’s unauthorized apprentice. But is it really Starkiller–the one said to have sacrificed himself for the Rebellion? Thus, you step into this man’s shoes and begin your search for the truth, not to mention the search for Juno Eclipse, Starkiller’s former pilot and lover. Excellent voice acting and facial animations give cutscenes emotional impact, and a sequence on the planet of Dagobah melds gameplay and storytelling in a wonderful and unexpected way. It’s unfortunate that a lengthy central stretch that focuses on the combat needs of the Rebellion brings the narrative to a halt. In general, you spend less time getting to know Starkiller (or is it Starkiller?) and the supporting cast this time around, so the story arc isn’t as fulfilling as it might have been. Yet while the sequel may not boast a story as substantial as The Force Unleashed’s, it’s both fitting and fulfilling.

The Force Unleashed II features numerous prerendered cutscenes (the same scenes used in other versions of the game), but it also includes scenes of its own rendered within the game engine, and these are much improved over the glitchy and low-resolution cinematics of the original. The cutscenes are not the most impressive aspect of the production, however: the art design deserves the greatest kudos. Including the sojourn to Dagobah, you traverse four main environments, which isn’t as many as in the original, but your eclectic surroundings do a good job of providing visual variety. When you return to Kamino, for example, you start not on a rainy dais surrounded by the circular structures you would expect, but rather in natural corridors rich with red and gold hues. It would have been nice to explore a greater array of locations, but a talented team of artists clearly put a lot of work into making each of these areas distinct and diverse.

If you’re arachnophobic, this battle is sure to give you an adrenaline rush.

Unfortunately, you won’t encounter a good variety of enemies during your adventure. Stormtroopers, mechanical spiders, and big robots with big shields make up the bulk of your battles. The good news is that the action is fun and sometimes even challenging, despite your ability to regenerate health by avoiding attacks for a short while. In the original, to swing your saber, you waved around the remote, which was both imprecise and unappealing. Now, you slash by tapping the A button, and motions are reserved for your most powerful moves. If you string together enough combos, you can slash the remote to perform a flashy saber attack. Thrusting the nunchuk forward Force-pushes enemies out of your way. Intuitive combinations of buttons and motions allow you to zap your foes with Force lightning, use Force grip to toss foes into the abyss beneath, and repel nearby ugnaughts with a shock wave. The camera, a major annoyance in the original, rarely gets in the way in the sequel, and responsive controls allow you to smoothly string moves together. An abundance of special effects and destructible environments further enhance the excitement of slicing and zapping jumptroopers–as does a move you earn later in the game that allows you to annihilate multiple enemies in slow motion.

Some noncombat activities mix up the pace, though these aren’t wholly successful. The occasional puzzle sequences are easy but offer a pleasant breather in the midst of the action. The platforming, on the other hand, isn’t consistently rewarding. A jumping puzzle in which you must pay attention to your mirror image is a clever detour. On the other hand, an early platforming sequence in which the camera constantly shifts positions mid-jump is infuriating. In one level, you must dash across a walkway, but if you enter the bridge in the middle of a jump, the floor will crumble away beneath you without warning, sentencing you to a painful death. There are a number of similar “gotcha” moments, so you may find yourself running into a deadly laser beam due to the game’s failure to communicate. Happily, the creative boss fights help pick up the slack. A battle against an oversized metal arachnid is one such encounter; it requires you to use Force grip to rotate giant rings and, later, to manipulate a set of switches before you can damage it using your slow-motion rage. The fights are a good length but are never tedious, and they keep the tempo moving by changing camera angles, requiring you to influence the environment in various ways, and generally keeping you on the move.

Tatooine plays host to dual suns and dual sabers.

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II also features local multiplayer ripped right from the Super Smash Bros. playbook. It isn’t bad as unoriginal recipes go, letting each of four players select a character and leap around and duke it out in two dimensions. Each character possesses his or her own strengths and weaknesses, as you might expect. Darth Vader’s saber slashes are powerful, but he’s not very agile; Starkiller is a good all-rounder but not strong in one particular area; and Proxy can transform into any other character, but he’s incredibly weak in his conventional form. In addition, you can perform a couple of different special moves, one of which is activated by flinging the nunchuk. Environmental hazards, such as the giant creature called the gorog waving his arms about, lend a touch of unpredictability to battle, though none of these hazards have the cleverness of Smash Bros.’ best levels–nor are the animations and collision detection very tight. Attacks often appear to go right through your opponent without doing any damage, for example.

Multiplayer balancing and other issues aside, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II is a good step forward for a series that didn’t shine in its previous outing. It’s a shame the adventure doesn’t last; while it’s lengthier than the other versions, you will still finish in around six hours. Nevertheless, the snazzy swashbuckling can be electrifying, due in part to a responsive control scheme that utilizes motion in obvious but gratifying ways, making you feel like a mighty Jedi Knight. The clumsy moments prove that this franchise still has plenty of room to grow, but that shouldn’t keep you from giving yourself over to the power of the Force.

By Kevin VanOrd, GameSpotPosted Nov 1, 2010 6:42 pm PT

Sublime level design, a charming art style, and heaps of hidden content make this an amazing puzzle platformer.

The Good

Charming visuals   Superb level design that always offers something new   Tons of hidden extras to discover   Innovative controls   Satisfying puzzles.

The Bad

Frustrating final level.

Basing a 2D platforming puzzle game on a substance as familiar as water might not seem like the most inspired of ideas, but the more time you spend with Hydroventure–known as Fluidity in the US–the more you realise how great it is. Like the water you control, the puzzles you solve have a flow, effortlessly merging into each other to create an experience that always challenges you yet never makes you feel stupid. These are brilliantly designed, each of them guided by the real-world physics of water, making them immensely satisfying to solve. While the difficultly does take a sudden, and frustrating, spike upward toward the end, it’s not enough to detract from this intelligently designed and beautiful-looking game.

Hydroventure takes place inside a magical book known as Aquaticus. Life within is usually a peaceful affair for the water inside, but a malicious inklike goop known as The Influence has decided to take over, destroying everything contained within its pages. This presents a problem for the book’s spirit, which calls upon you as a sentient pool of water to traverse the book’s pages and destroy the evil Influence. To navigate your way through, you move your pool of water by tilting the Wii Remote. Instead of moving the water directly, the pages of the book tilt, as if you’re pouring the water from one side to the other. To make it jump, you jolt the Wii Remote up, as if you’re shaking the book. This indirect control might not be as accurate as simply pushing buttons, but it feels just right, with resultant splashes and stray drops that dance around the screen as you move.

Keeping those stray drops together is the key to making your way through each of the four chapters of Aquaticus. Puzzles start as simply as pooling the water into wells to activate switches, dragging cogs to repair machines, or providing a temporary shelter for stray goldfish as you get them back to their bowl. Complexity rises as elements like water pumps and moving platforms are introduced while such obstacles as lava pits, fire-breathing blobs, and flying creatures that rain down fiery bombs try to evaporate your precious water and end the game. As you solve puzzles, you’re given new powers that further increase the difficulty. You can pool your water together at will, where it gradually increases in pressure and explodes to break down obstacles in your path. Later, you can turn into an ice block that sticks to surfaces or a cloud that can float to previously unreachable areas and launch lighting strikes at enemies.

Gears of water.

These three forms are used to create devilishly fiendish puzzles. For instance, one puzzle has you transforming into ice to break down barriers in a path, after which you have to transform into a liquid to travel across moving bucket containers before going back to ice to pull down a heavy door with your stick ability. Once there, you transform into a liquid to release a cog, use ice to activate a switch that raises the cog on a lift, and then finally move back to a liquid to transport the cog through the bucket containers to repair a broken machine. The large variety of puzzles means you’re always treated to something new. As you progress through you help firemen to extinguish fires, play delicate balancing acts with weights, and even help a spy to deactivate a nuclear weapon by destroying security cameras, to name but a few. While the solutions are sometimes tricky, they always make sense and are immensely satisfying, as well as heaps of fun to solve.

Your reward for solving puzzles is a rainbow drop, of which there are several scattered across the four chapters of Aquaticus. The four chapters span multiple pages, with each page separated into comic-book-style panes. This allows the game to use different themes from pane to pane, including the Serengeti, vast skyscrapers, and the rolling hills of the countryside, without ever feeling out of place. Charming details such as the chug of a steam train or the statues of an Inca village make the backdrops come alive, with the crisp and colourful art style making them a joy to explore. Not all panes are accessible at once, however. Some require you to collect a certain number of rainbow drops before you can access them; others aren’t accessible until you acquire a new power, encouraging you to explore each area multiple times to uncover new puzzles.

Watch out for evil flying blobs.

Once you’ve collected enough rainbow drops, you can face off against The Influence by destroying its minions on a specially designed level, where you’re rewarded with a new chapter for your efforts. These are the most challenging levels of the game, requiring some deft Wii Remote skills and a lot of patience. While the first three are ultimately rewarding, the final level is punishingly difficult, with cheap moving platforms and fire pits. You may find you don’t have the will to see it through to the end, particularly as there’s little reward for doing so. There’s also only the Story mode to play through, with no multiplayer or even simple leaderboards to compare scores or completion times against friends. This isn’t enough to detract from what is a fantastic experience, though, with the story mode featuring tons of hidden puzzle pieces and flowers to collect. These unlock minigames, such as pinball tables and one in which you have to save goldfish against the clock. Secret rainbow drops also ensure that you can spend hours exploring each level multiple times to find new puzzles to solve.

The vast collection of hidden content means that there are hours upon hours of well-crafted puzzles in Hydroventure, while the mixture of fun ideas means the core concept of moving a blob of water around never gets old. The way each chapter is laid out into separate pages and panes not only allows for some diverse and great-looking visuals, but it also means casual players can easily dip in and out for short bursts while more determined players can spend longer amounts of time hunting down extra content. The final level might be a bit too much for some to stick with, but that shouldn’t deter you from playing this excellent puzzle game, one that any Wii owner shouldn’t hesitate to splash out on.

By Mark Walton, GameSpot UKPosted Jan 25, 2011 2:17 pm PT

Call of Duty: Black Ops offers an engrossing campaign and the most feature-rich competitive multiplayer on the Wii.

The Good

Thrilling variety throughout campaign   Fractured story creates an intriguing atmosphere   New multiplayer currency system is invigorating   Combat Training lets anyone enjoy multiplayer excitement   Classic Controller and voice chat support.

The Bad

Short campaign   Online connectivity issues.

In recent years, the Call of Duty series has produced some of the best shooters on the Wii, establishing a high standard for competitors to match. The latest entry, Black Ops, clears that bar with room to spare, thanks in no small part to the Classic Controller support that the series has long been without. Yet regardless of whether you embrace the new control scheme or stick with your trusty Wii Remote and Nunchuk, the engrossing campaign is sure to entertain you with exciting, varied gameplay and grim narrative intrigue. The excellent multiplayer boasts some invigorating new features, and the new combat training mode gives novices a way to ease into the intense competitive action. Cooperative zombie killing and new online communication architecture help make Black Ops the most robustly featured game in the franchise, and though you may lament the lack of split-screen play, this is one of the best shooters of the year.

The single-player campaign is set largely during the 1960s and takes you to Cold War hot spots like Cuba, Russia, and Vietnam. You are an elite covert operative, and your globe-trotting adventures form pieces of a puzzle–a puzzle that your mysterious captors are trying to put together by interrogating you. Each excursion into the field is a memory, and these missions slowly come together to build momentum as each interrogation cutscene puts another piece of the puzzle in place. It’s not a very original mechanic, but it gives a coherent context to the action, and a few strong characters and dramatic moments give the story some genuine intrigue. The blurry edges of your consciousness conceal information that must come to light, and the erratic visual effects and eerie audio echoes that accompany your interrogations sometimes bleed into your mission memories, which creates a great tone of uncertainty that plays out in surprising and satisfying ways.

Your interrogation-fueled flashbacks are not beholden to the linear flow of time, allowing your missions cover a wide variety of geography and gameplay. A dramatic breakout from a brutal Soviet prison is one early highlight, and later missions feature frontline conflicts, urban firefights, and mountainous incursions. The environments are richly detailed, and though the campaign sometimes seems too visually ambitious for its own good, the occasionally lackluster textures aren’t likely to hinder your enjoyment. In addition to the on-foot action, you use a number of vehicles to achieve your objectives. Some put you in the gunner’s seat while others put you behind the wheel, and though the vehicle handling is unremarkable, the thrill of blowing stuff up and speeding through hostile terrain is undeniable. The core running-and-gunning mechanics remain as exciting as ever, and the gameplay variety throughout the campaign keeps the action moving at a great clip.

Though the campaign is a rip-roaring good time, it clocks in at a mere six hours long. The mode that will likely keep you coming back to Black Ops for months to come is, unsurprisingly, the competitive multiplayer. At its core, this is the familiar top-notch Call of Duty action that players have been enjoying for years. You earn experience for doing well in battle, and as you level up, you gain access to new and powerful ways to customize your loadouts. New weapons and maps freshen things up, and one of the new killstreak rewards–an explosive-laden remote-control car–is a delightfully deadly device that embodies the frantic, slightly goofy side of virtual online combat. The Wii Remote and Nunchuk controls still work very well and are extensively customizable, but the addition of Classic Controller support opens up a whole new kind of precision. Instead of pointing your arm and wrist, a small flick of the thumb is all that you need to acquire a target. This option makes Black Ops more accessible to players who have experience with shooters on other consoles, and skilled players can still be very effective with their console-specific control scheme.

Not exactly a vacation destination, but at least the sunsets are pretty.

In addition to the expanded control options, another key new element is currency. In addition to earning experience for your battlefield performance, you earn Call of Duty points, which you can then spend in a variety of ways. Most perks, weapon attachments, killstreaks, and equipment items are available early on, providing you shell out the points to equip them. Guns are still unlocked as you level up, but again, you have to pony up the points to put one in your loadout. Having to pay your way gives you more loadout options at lower required levels than in previous Call of Duty games, and the fact that points are so crucial to improving your arsenal makes them as just as sublimely satisfying to earn as experience points.

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