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GameSpot editors' review
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CNET editors' rating:
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- Reviewed on: 10/21/2008
- Released on: 09/23/2008
- Originally published on GameSpot: Rebel Raiders: Operation Nighthawk (Wii) Review
When it was first released for the PlayStation 2 and PC in early 2006, Rebel Raiders: Operation Nighthawk was already way behind the times--a simple, unimpressive air combat game that did nothing to stand out from the pack. The intervening years have not been kind, and the game is even less impressive today. Its recent release on the Wii is best ignored.
The story, like everything about Rebel Raiders, is generic and disposable. In the near future, a corrupt conglomeration of countries called the Union of World Nations is taking over the planet. As the reckless Ghost Leader, a pilot for a band of rebels called the Alliance of Independent States, you'll take on the UWN's fighters in battle and repeatedly disobey direct orders and endanger your own safety to blow up more of the UWN's stuff.
This game is okay for the first few minutes. Then you remember you're not playing it in an arcade circa 1989.
The action is mindlessly simple. You steer your plane with the Nunchuk, tilting it up or down to climb or dive, twisting it left or right to turn, and using buttons on the Nunchuk and remote to fire your weapons and switch between your three speeds: slow, fast, and very fast. This control scheme works fine, providing all of the responsiveness that the gameplay requires. Most of the time, your chief concern is shooting down enemy fighters. The dogfighting gets old very fast, given that you're always the hunter and never the hunted. The enemy jets always seem to be flying away from you. You just line them up in your sights, let loose with your machine guns or a barrage of your unlimited missiles, and watch them burn. This kind of straightforward, arcade-style destruction can be an entertaining diversion for a few minutes, but before long it becomes painfully repetitive. And the enemy poses very little threat. Sure, once in a while a missile comes up on your tail, but these can always be shaken off by performing a barrel roll with a quick flick of the thumbstick. It's simple, easy, and dull.
There are other targets to take down in the game's missions, but they're equally simple and quickly become as routine and boring as the enemy fighter jets. For instance, there are larger bombers that fly around in lazy circular patterns, firing at you with a predictable, easily avoided rhythm. And defeating the larger capital ships is a simple matter of destroying a number of small targets on their hulls with your guns. There's disappointingly little to it.
Unfortunately, you're usually not sent into the fray alone. You'll wish you were, considering that your squadmates are more of a liability than an asset. You have no way of issuing commands to them, so they'll just fly around and do their thing, which typically isn't much of anything except occasionally getting shot at, and even shot down. Apparently nobody bothered to tell them that they can evade enemy missile attacks by doing a barrel roll. This is a problem because if all of your squadmates are shot down, it's game over. Consequently, you might sometimes find yourself babysitting them, which is even more boring than flying around and taking out the enemy at your leisure.
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Rebel Raiders: Operation Nighthawk (Wii):
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