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- Reviewed on: 05/02/2007
- Released on: 05/01/2007
- Originally published on GameSpot: Heatseeker (Wii) Review
Heatseeker is an arcade-style flying game from IR Gurus, the same developer behind 2005's Heroes of the Pacific. Unlike Heroes, Heatseeker takes place in modern times and places you in the cockpit of some of today's most well-known fighter jets. It's not a very deep game; it's kind of ugly, and the voice acting is atrocious. But Heatseeker can be fun in small doses--especially if you don't mind taking down wave after wave of enemies, level after level.
The campaign in Heatseeker spans 18 missions that take place in four locations. The first few missions have you protect an island base and teach you the basic controls. From there, things escalate because you'll soon find yourself on the lookout for nuclear weapons and later smack dab in the middle of an international crisis. Before each mission, there's a short briefing that details the mission's scenario and your objectives. The briefings are so poorly done that they're hard to take seriously. Your commander is constantly yelling at you, even though you've done nothing wrong. He's also difficult to take seriously because he sounds quite a bit like Stephen Colbert as Phil from Harvey Birdman: Attorney At Law.
The good news is you don't need much of a story for what you're going to do in Heatseeker, which is blow stuff up. Your choice in planes is limited at first, but you'll eventually get to fly a number of real planes including: F/A-18 Hornet, F-15, F-16, MIG-31, SR-71 Blackbird, F-22 Raptor, and many more. Each plane has unique ratings for speed, agility, and defense, as well as air-to-air and air-to-ground ability. However, it's difficult to detect differences from plane to plane unless the ratings are vastly different. There are two different control styles to choose from. "Arcade" controls are simple and ensure your plane always rights itself, while "professional" controls are slightly more complex and give you more control over the jet. No matter which setting you choose, the controls are easy to learn, and other than it being difficult to target specific objects, the planes are a breeze to control. Your heads-up display is well designed, and as long as the game's obnoxious captions aren't obscuring a large, important part of your screen as they're prone to do, it's easy to find any information you need at a moment's notice.
You'll use the Wii remote and the Nunchuk to control your plane in the Wii version of the game. The analog stick on the Nunchuk controls your speed. You'll point the remote toward the screen and move it up, down, left or right to control your plane's direction. If you use the "professional" controls, you can twist the Wii Remote clockwise and counterclockwise to roll your plane. The controls work surprisingly well, and as long as you're up high, it only takes a few minutes before you're able to pilot your plane with ease. When you get down near the ground, the controls are just touchy enough to cause problems.
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