COD: World At War and the Wii Problem

Recently a friend and I sat down with Call Of Duty: World at War for the Wii, Wii Zappers in hand, we couldn’t wait to dive into the update we’ve all been waiting for to the series, the coop mode. But after a few minutes in, we realized that this wasn’t what we had been waiting for at all.

The coop mode we played was nothing short of a sham. As second player I felt a lot less like I was with a squad mate helping take out enemies in the jungles of the Pacific theater and more like I had been on some retarded version of Mr; Toad’s Wild Ride. There was no split screen, there was no freedom of movement, no health bar. In fact the only reason I knew I was there was the little red aim sight that popped up when I pointed my zapper at the screen. This compounded by my friend’s aimless firing and turning as he tried to get a handle of the controls made for a very aggravating experience and some grumblings about how we should have gotten the game on the 360. That probably would have been the smart thing to do because a game like COD: World at War was made for the 360. The Wii’s unique control scheme does not really lend itself to it.

The huge sales figures of the Wii have convinced gaming companies that they can simply convert their old go to franchises and open them up to a new audience. The problem is that these games can’t be converted to the Wii and continue to be fun. They need to come up with innovative ways work with the Wii experience. Some companies have and you’ll see games like De Blob, which actually uses the Wiimote as a Wiimote instead of as a 360 controller.

It’s fun to think that you and your friend can digitally hit the shores of the pacific together with little plastic guns in concept but when you actually experience it, it’s a bit of a failure. As a rule I would probably leave the games that were made for the Xbox 360 to the Xbox 360.