EDITOR'S NOTE: We have made the editorial decision to retract the score for this review due to concerns regarding plagarism. We have addressed the issue in another post which you can find on our main page.
Nintendo just can’t seem to get a solid foothold on its WiiWare catalog. Week after week it’s the same old thing over and over again. This week Hudson tries to make an FPS for the Wii with Water Warfare, a comical first-person shooter that uses water guns to battle and soak opponents. Unfortunately Hudson took a page out of what not to do for an FPS.
Featuring over 40 single player missions for you to get soaked in, Water Warfare offers up a lot of content. In the single player missions you will have a variety of objective and boss battles. If you just want to skirmish you can play against up to seven bots with three difficulty levels. Two players can go at it in split screen or you can play with a total of eight via the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. You can play with strangers or just play a good old fashioned rank match on one of the 4 maps made. Team games include Battle Royale where the last person standing wins, Death Match is the standard FPS free-for-all, but should be called Wet Match, first player to 10 knockouts wins. Treasure Chest you have to find the opposing team's chest and bring it back to your base. In assault you capture the flag, which I figured would be called capture the flag. Base you take control of bases and score 100 points to win. Finally in point rally you need to put your gun away and race through checkpoints.
Weapon wise you’re given the standard array of weaponry to which you can blast your opponents with water!. The weapons control ok but feel like squirt guns that have no kick to them. Also perks are scattered throughout the map like a raincoat that makes you temporarily water resistant and a towel to dry yourself off.
Water Warfare is for the kids, and rightfully so for the system it’s on. But with the 800 point price tag this is way too high a price to pay for mediocre gameplay and visuals. Kids will find it very interesting to play for about an hour, but they will lose interest quickly because to be frank it’s not Halo! It doesn’t have the mass appeal and stamina that is carried over by most FPS’s. It gives you everything that they offer but the package is so weak that mixing in all the added modes seems like filler and this filling is not tasty at all. You’d be better off saving your money and buying your kids a real water gun.
Pros: good for young kids
Cons: visuals, Gameplay, water
GamePro Score: [Score retracted]
The Info: Platform: Wii (WiiWare), Publisher/Developer:Hudson Entertainment, Players: 1-2 (1-8 online), Price: 800 Wii Points
Related Links: Make sure to read PSP and Me: Gaming Love Gone Too Far, XNA Community Game of the Month: Angry Barry and enter GPArcade Giveaway: Fallout 3's Point Lookout.
