Who’d have thought that the hardcore’s darling Nintendo, whose games were the only reason for any self-respecting gamer to own a Gamecube, would less than ten years later be accused en masse of disregarding and deserting their loving fans in favour of mothers and pet loving girls.

While gamers as ever have blown things hugely out of proportion, it is true that Nintendo’s Wii has been sorely lacking in games for the hardcore gamer audience. Efforts from Nintendo have been few and far between and as with the Gamecube third parties have struggled to find the console’s sweet spot.

The worst appears to be over, though, as several third parties like Activision, EA and Sega all seem to be finding their feet whilst Nintendo promise more Hardcore games and soon. Today we’re going to take a look at two of the top hardcore on Nintendo’s console available at the moment.

Disaster was actually one of the first Nintendo games announced for the Wii way back at E3 2006 and has always been a decidedly hardcore release in a sea of more casual titles.

Disaster sees you play as Raymond Bryce, a former US Marine turned member of an organisation known as the International Rescue Team. Sadly there are no Thunderbirds in sight but there is a multitude of different modes of gameplay each focusing on different elements of interesting control provided by the Wii Remote.

While it started out as a very different game played with the Gamecube control pad, Disaster is a game that actually benefitted from the change to Wii Remote controls. Driving stages will see you turn your remote sideways, Mario Kart style; shooting stages will see you point at the screen like a light gun title and a multitude of other modes of gameplay crop up throughout.

Interesting use of the Wii Remote is commonplace in this game. Some segments see you reviving people whose hearts have stopped by performing CPR by pushing down in time with onscreen prompts. Other sections will see you diffuse a bomb planted by terrorists by turning screws, cutting cables and ripping panels out of the system with various gestures.

Disaster is a game that takes the ‘minigame’ formula that has made many Wii games successful and packages it into a more traditional game title. You’re given multiple modes of play and these are strung together by a compelling but ridiculous plot. Best of all, Disaster knows it is over the top and relishes in it – in many ways I find it comparable to the TV show 24, with Raymond Bryce a worthy substitute for Jack Bauer, tackling both terrorists and natural Disasters at once, stopping at nothing to save lives.

Reggie Fils-Aime famously said Disaster might not get a US release as the voice acting is terrible and embarrassing. It is. But it’s also great, quite possibly because of how cheesy it is. Accompanied by a simply amazing music score, I found Disaster’s plot interesting and compelling and reminiscent of an 80s action movie – don’t question it, just sit down and enjoy the ride.

The core of the game is based around shooting – but with duck-and-shoot mechanics ripped straight out of Time Crisis, great light gun gameplay rivalling the best light gun games on the Wii, a full upgrade system so that you can customise Ray’s health, speed and other stats as well as his weapon load out and a New Game + mode and plenty of unlockables, Disaster is more than sizable enough for most hardcore gamers to sink plenty of hours into it.

Disaster isn’t perfect, though. Honestly, it’s far too easy in places and hard in others and occasionally the change in pace from one area and gameplay style to another can be confusing. In addition, the graphics leave a lot to be desired in places. Despite that, the game is a hell of a lot of fun. Throw in a much-needed brainless, fun story in the era of ‘serious storytelling’ in games and you’re onto a winner. Release it in the States, Nintendo!

I sometimes have a problem with swearing in games. Swearing is fine but some games are so badly written that it feels like characters swear for the sake of swearing and as a way to make the game feel more ‘gritty’ and mature. A recent offender is Sony’s Killzone 2, where swears are used so often they become entirely ineffectual.

The House of the Dead: Overkill has a lot of swearing, but it doesn’t have that problem. The game parodies grindhouse horror movies and even the stereotypes we’re often presented with in gaming. Two characters – a loud-mouthed, streetwise black cop that just oozes Samuel L Jackson, and a calm, collected special agent allegedly based off Keanu Reeves’ performance in the Matrix.

Playing as these two players will find themselves thrown into the universe of the House of the Dead some time before the events of the first game. House of the Dead was never huge on plot, but Overkill seeks to change that by adding a bit more backstory to the events of the future games, especially the first. Agent G – who is the lead character in the original – is on his first mission in this game, and what a mission it is – tasked with blowing hoards of zombies to pieces.

By now we all know what to expect from the House of the Dead series and Overkill delivers it in droves. Light gun shooting is back in force on the Wii, but Overkill delivers more methodological shooting to the series, challenging the players to rack up high scores by hitting zombies without missing or dealing out devastating headshots.

One interesting feature added in Overkill is the ability to purchase new weapons. While House of the Dead 1-4 all had players using one weapon throughout the entire game, Overkill allows players to earn money which can then be spent on new weapons or upgrades for existing weapons. Players are allowed to take two weapons into any given level and can switch on the fly, though it’ll be tempting to stick to your handy hand cannon for the sake of accuracy.

The game knows the Wii’s graphical limits and actually uses it to its strength, offering pleasing visuals and great looking showers of blood when you blow a zombie’s head off. The game offers both a story mode and a ‘directors cut’ version designed with the hardcore in mind in addition to a selection of minigames, multiplayer and full gun upgrades throughout the story mode.

House of the Dead: Overkill is shallow but it’s fun and fiendishly addictive, and is sure to prove as much a multiplayer hit with your hardcore gamer friends as Smash Bros Brawl and its kin, if not more, supporting up to four players for the zombie-killing carnage. That said, the game does have some issues – it’s undeniably short in length and despite definitely being one of the overall better-looking Wii titles, the game suffers from a juddery frame rate in places as a result. With fully upgraded weapons the game becomes far too easy, but you don’t have to upgrade them – so if you want a challenge, don’t.

In spite of its problems when all is said and done however, the game will make you laugh and smile so much it’s still well worth the price of entry. In fact, the hilarious and funky soundtrack is worth the price of entry alone. It’s funny, witty, parodies everything stupid about the videogame series and even pays homage to the truly terrible voice acting and storylines of the earlier games in the series. Even with its shortcomings, it’s a game that oozes coolness and high production values from every pore.

It’s left me hankering for a sequel, and that’s saying something – I was always more of a Time Crisis man.

Of course, these are only two of many titles on the console. Keep your eyes on TGV in the near future for more looks into the Hardcore Games available on the Wii.

Related Posts

• House of the Dead: Overkill – Gameplay trailers
• E3 2010: Sonic Colours Hands-On
• Sega delays Euro version of The Conduit
• Mario and Sonic at the Winter Games confirmed

We’ve also got a third trailer which further embelishes the game’s over the top-ness. It’s even got a stripper in it!

Limbless Glory

Goregasm

B-movie mayhem

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