Call of Duty 3

• Platform: Nintendo Wii
• Published by: Activision
• Developed by: Treyarch
• Release Date: Nov 15, 2006
• Genre: Action
• Multiplayer: No
• Online: No

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Wii Impressions: Madden NFL 07 and Call of Duty 3 Continued...

Call of Duty 3
Developer: Treyarch; Publisher: Activision

If any game's ever given me mixed emotions, it's Call of Duty 3 for the Nintendo Wii. On the one hand, I was looking forward to playing it due to my fascination with the FPS genre's potential on Nintendo's newest console. In my mind, the "Wiimote" would work similarly (though probably not quite as well) to using a mouse, which is, I believe, one half of the best way to play an first-person game: using the keyboard and mouse, baby.

Does it work? Well, yeah, to a degree; but we're forgetting the second portion of this cliched analogy template. On the one hand, I was looking forward to trying FPS gaming on the Wii, and it works pretty well. The other hand, however, holds features I'm not so happy with, which we'll discuss after I tell you about the good stuff.

CoD3 feels pretty good. You do aim with the Wii remote; the B trigger button on said controller piece is what you use to fire; you move forward and back, as well as strafe, with the analog stick; and everything else is, of course, accessible via well-placed buttons on either the nunchuk or the stick. Crouching and going prone is mapped to the Z button (bigger button on the nunchuk), and jump is mapped to C (other nunchuk button). Using the A button on the remote's face, you can stare down the barrel of your gun for more precise aiming, and the d-pad serves as your general purpose bag of deadly tricks: left tosses a frag grenade (hold it down to hurl it farther), right chucks a smoke grenade, down performs a weapon-based melee attack, and so on.

Conveniently, you don't have to reach your thumb to the d-pad for some of its features. By stabbing the remote forward, you can perform your melee attack; flick the nunchuk left or right to switch weapons; push it forward to reload. Nice, convenient, and a clever way to use the Wii's main attraction: motion sensing.

That's the good hand. The bad hand holds some of the more frustrating "mini games," so to speak, that have been intertwined into the game. Take the following example. At one point a Nazi (NAZI!) jumps out, shoves down my player, and attempts to kill him through melee combat. To fight back, you have to hold the nunchuk and remote out in front of you, but on their sides, so that their heads are facing each other. You then have to row each controller piece back and forth as hard and as fast as you can. This, so I've come to understand, is supposed to simulate your soldier using his rifle to knock his assailant away. All it gave me was a near heart attack and a headache. Seriously. I rowed hard, I pushed, I pulled, I did everything the onscreen prompting... well, prompted me to do, but I could not get past this one mini-game.

I called my brother-in-law into the room, and he did it. I let my friend take a try; he did it, too. So what the hell was I doing wrong that this game decided to punish me for? I put the controller down for hours after this, as the headache was simply not worth my time, nor the effort. I didn't mind my shoulders feeling tired, nor was I concerned about my racing heart. Some gamers that have health issues should take these factors into consideration, but I'm relatively healthy, and hey, it's a warm game; up the intensity, that's fine with me. But a headache? And the frustration that comes with not being able to pass one little portion of the game? It's not even that hard, in theory or in practice, but it pissed me off and good. I like the idea behind the minigame, but in execution, it proved to be a literal pain, at least for me.

Other than the occasional mini-game from hell (which is what war is, to be fair), CoD3 on the Wii is rather immersive. Even the shaky camera through the use of the Wii remote helped draw me into the experience; it might sound odd, but the fact that the view was a bit shaky and tilted until I got used to the controls really helped the feel of complete catastrophe wash over me. I know that might sound a bit iffy (much like Capcom defending Resident Evil 1-3s controls by saying you'd react stiffly if a zombie came running at you IN REAL LIFE) but in war, your aim isn't always silky smooth. Furthermore, the view didn't wobble and bob to the point of distraction; every gamer had to figure that tried and true genres would have a bit of a learning curve on the Wii controller, and CoD3 is no exception.

Within about 15-20 minutes, I was smoothly making my way through environments with the controls. The enemies didn't make it easy on me, but it was their gunfire and shrapnel that proved a difficulty, not the controls. Within the timeframe mentioned, I wasn't really thinking about basic movement and actions, though shifting my thumb from A to the d-pad in order to lob grenades (as mentioned, the other d-pad actions are more easily accomplished through the remote and nunchuk's motion sensing) took some getting used to, and in fact, I'm still having some trouble with it. Also, my hand would occasionally grow stiff holding the "Wiimote," and adjusting would typically cause the view to swivel every which way, which was quite obviously terribly inconvenient at times.

Graphics are rather important to FPS games (if any genre could be credited with showing off awesome technology, it's this one) and CoD3 doesn't disappoint--if you're prepared for something that looks like it's from last generation; specifically, the game looks like something running on the original Xbox. Don't misunderstand: this is not me making fun of the Wii's last-gen approach to most graphics, nor am I thinking I'm giving you a blistering new scoop. Everyone knows that the Wii is advertised as focusing on game play, not graphics, but for some gamers, the latter is important. I think the game looks pretty good; for war games, interaction on all fronts (see what I did there?) is important. If you're a picky picture player, and you own an X360, PS3, or a high-end PC, you might want to go with that version. The textures look a bit smeared and grainy, and the hands of character models almost look like something from the N64 generation. True, most of the time the fists are gripped hard around guns, so you won't be looking all that closely, but when you do see them, it's a bit glaring.

That's really as bad as it gets, though. Faces feature a fair amount of emotion and detail (the soldier trying to kill me in the minigame example above really looks strained and angry, even a bit afraid), buildings look appropriate to the era--let's face it, you're not going to be standing around admiring architecture all too often in a war game--and explosions feature satisfying amounts of debris. No, it's not all that great looking when compared to the other, more powerful consoles, and especially the PC, but it's more than good enough, and like I said, you'll be more intent on staying alive then scrunching your face at muddy looking gray brick textures.

So in the end, what do I Wii-ally think? The game is fun, it looks decent, but it can be frustrating as all get out at certain parts. In the end, I wasn't convinced that FPS gaming had been usurped from the PC, though I really never expected it to be. The Wii does offer a fun experience and I do firmly believe that next to the infamous keyboard and mouse combo, the Wii remote and nunchuk controller offers the most fun for playing FPS games. From what I've heard, if you're eager to give FPS gaming a try on the Wii, I recommend Call of Duty 3 over Red Steel, but I haven't played the latter; Remo can fill you in more on that one.

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