Heatseeker throws you into the cockpit of modern jet fighters traveling beyond the speed of sound. Heatseeker is an extremely thrilling, fun game as long as you can make it past its several bugs and glitches. It is also one of the few Wii titles which implements the controls as well as Wii Sports did. I recommend you strap your selves in, this could be a bumpy ride.
You start your fight against power hungry terrorists and gun traders before you can even fly in a straight line, but this doesn\'t matter. With the Wii\'s easy-to-use controls, you will be shooting down enemy fighters in very little time. You are given two control schemes, the basic Arcade mode, where the plane simply follows the on-screen pointer and the Wii handles pitch and roll. You also have a much more challenging control scheme, the Professional mode, which allows you to control the roll and pitch of your plane via the motion sensor controls.
Beyond the basic controls, you also have the ability to dodge missiles by moving the Nunchuck and Wiimote in unique ways. These dodges can be tedious to trigger, leading to missiles bombarding your plane. You will eventually get used to the specific motions required to pull off dodges but by that time, you are more than halfway through the story. You can tell IR Gurus (Heatseeker\'s developer) simply ran out of buttons while porting the controls from the PlayStation 2 since you have five different controls requiring multiple d-pad presses that are just plain difficult to use while in the middle of a dogfight.
For the most part, the single-player missions are easy and take a mere 15 minutes to complete all the objectives. It is only after the third campaign that the missions start to become challenging. The objectives throughout the 18 missions are quite simple but can - and do - change on the fly. You will often be taking out refueling planes, subs, and warships on top of fighting the many enemy fighter planes. The missions are action-packed and demand full attention at all times.
Region-wise, the campaigns range from Antarctica to the Caribbean, but although the location may change, the scenes will look very similar. It would have been nice to fight over a city, for instance, rather than constantly over small islands.
Generally, you will be fighting the enemy jets alone, which make the wingman controls almost useless. When you do have a wingman, he/she is usually quite helpful and will complete objectives and even help you out of a tight jam. At most, the enemy\'s artificial intelligence is only challenging when it gives you a split second to dodge incoming missiles. The AI just flies in circles and fires missiles and thousands of bullets, instead of performing any stunts that will leave you in awe.
Heatseeker does have several bugs that obscure gameplay and even cause the game to crash altogether. One of the most annoying bugs happen when you are using the arcade-type controls. When you turn for too long, your plane ends up being stuck at an angle, which makes it difficult to get out of harm\'s way. The game also has pointer problems. The pointer easily goes off screen and sometimes disappears, rendering your plane frozen in a single direction.
Among the many added features that make the game more exciting is the Impact Camera. The Impact Cam emphasizes a good missile shot with a close up of the enemy plane being blown to pieces. You also have the ability to ride on the missile you fired, which gives you a completely new perspective on the battle scene. You can change the camera view between two third-person views and one "cockpit" view that, strangely, does not give you a cockpit but places a camera right smack dab in the middle of the plane. I would really have appreciated seeing the cockpit area of these high-tech jets.
In terms of graphics, Heatseeker provides stunningly detailed planes and beautiful clouds but is completely lacking at the ground level. The islands look as bad as early PS2 offerings, with no detail whatsoever given to the vegetation. You will, however, be surprised with the fast action the title delivers with its detailed explosions, which, in part, make the Impact Cam work so well. Ultimately, Heatseeker was just a tad more than the average PS2 port with slightly improved graphics and effects.
If you are looking for a realistic combat sim, however, you may want to keep looking. The intense speed and fluid controls through the Wiimote are a nice plus, but the game is very unrealistic and offers unlimited ammo. You can often get over 50 kills in a single mission. Even though this is highly unrealistic, it does offer intense dog-fighting action and hours of fun.
The music in Heatseeker is almost non-existent, consisting of only generic rock tunes. As for voice actors, they are pretty good but could definitely use some work. The commander\'s voice and Divot (your main wingman) sound decent, but everyone else seems a bit off. The detailed explosions and wind sound effects may be the best audio this game offers. All in all, the sound is decent but not the best.
Heatseeker takes only eight to twelve hours to complete but does something most Wii games do not - it offers a story. Even though the narrative may not be detailed, it does offer one unlike the many proof-of-concept games. Despite that, there is very little replay value other than increased level difficulty and several unlockables. If you are a newbie to this genre, this game will be extremely fun and exciting, but a flight sim junkie will find Heatseeker to be lacking. Without a multiplayer aspect, the game itself deserves a weekend rental but not much more. Codemasters hit a niche market with Heatseeker seeing as this is one of the only flight sim choices for the Wii.
"Heatseeker (Wii)" is on sale May 1, 2007 and is rated T. Action.
