Life in a big
city is not easy and even more so for our emergency and rescue heroes who brave
traffic to get an ambulance, police squad car or fire engine to various hot
spots in order to save lives. While we gamers like a game where we’re
causing all the mayhem, it’s also great to find a game that wholesomely places
us in the role of our rescue and emergency heroes. Sadly, Ubisoft brings us
Emergency Heroes … a Nintendo Wii game that just doesn’t make for a fun
driving game.
The game’s main
mode contains a plot but don’t expect the story to be deep and involving. This
is actually too bad seeing as there’s an interesting premise that reaches a
somewhat surprising conclusion. You see, you assume the role of Zach Harper, a
young man who has always dreamed of being a Rescue Hero in the futuristic city
of San Alto. Apparently, in this bland future, the police, emergency and fire
department unite to become a single entity with the purpose of helping civilians
in emergencies. Here’s the interesting bit – a member of the Emergency Heroes
team (who everyone thought was dead) resurfaces and might be connected to a
string of incidents that might not be accidents.
Ok, there are
possibilities here but the game never really makes good use of the thought of a
disgruntled hero attempting to get back at the very team that kicked him out.
Instead, the game focuses on a number of emergencies that occur in the city
limits. San Alto is an open city and much of the time you will spend your time
in the city zipping right through it to get to an emergency. Certain emergencies
call for certain types of vehicles and luckily for driving fans there are 48
different ones that have received a futuristic treatment. This means that you
won’t be driving a cumbersome fire engine but rather a sleek racing machine
capable of putting out fires via a hose attachment.
One good thing
that can be said about Emergency Heroes is that it mixes up the
emergencies so you won’t spend the majority of the game putting out fires but
you will also be clearing roadblocks, taking accident victims to the local
hospital or pursuing criminals in a fast police squad car. The Peril Timer will
keep you on your toes since you are timed on how fast you reach an emergency
spot in need of supplies, clearing roadblocks, medical aid or a water hose. This
means you will be racing through the streets in order to reach a locale in time.
There are bases scattered throughout the city that allow you to access your
garage to change your vehicles.
The problem is
that the missions become repetitive. How many times must we race back to the
casino to douse a fire caused by a gas leak or pull down a reckless driver who
is driving erratically? It’s basically all you’ll do with very little in terms
of variation. The second problem is that the difficulty level leaves much to be
desired. Fail a mission and you’ll get to do it all over again without reprimand
or negative consequences. It’s a nonstop cycle of the same mission type. At
least the two-player multiplayer mode has some variety that works such as
Assault Course (fun drag racing) and Pass the Bomb (where you attempt to rid a
bomb by passing it on to your opponent).
Control-wise, the
game handles the racing rather well without throwing anything unique to the mix.
You can tilt the Wii Remote sideways or use the Wii Wheel to make driving feel
more realistic. Unfortunately, most vehicles don’t feel that different from each
another with the exception that you can put out fires with fire engines or pick
up accident victims with the sleek ambulances.
On the graphics
front, Emergency Heroes isn’t a visually pleasing game but there are
times when the vehicles actually do look good as they smash through debris to
get to your destination. The game doesn’t handle speed all that well but at
least fires look decent. As for the environments, San Alto contains some bland
buildings with very little in terms of landmarks so the city doesn’t feel all
that unique. Even the anime-styled characters during cut scenes look lame.
The game’s
soundtrack isn’t very good either and trust me when I say that you will be
tempted to lower the volume. The only reason you won’t is because you’ll get
instructions from your Captain. The voice acting sounds like bad English dub
from the worst anime ever and listening to it throughout the game is painful.
Even your character sounds over-the-top cheesy and the dialogue laughable. I
wish the sound effects were more detailed than what is featured here.
Emergency
Heroes for the
Nintendo Wii is a weak attempt at making a driving-and-rescue game fun and sadly
there’s very little to like about this game. Even with the great number of
vehicles and somewhat fun multiplayer mode, the repetitive and uninteresting
levels don’t offer a challenge or an entertaining title that does justice to the
Wii or to real emergency and rescue units. Skip this one if you want to avoid
disappointment.
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Gameplay: 4.5
At first it’s
actually fun racing the Rescue Buggy and the slick-looking Walden FT7 fire truck
but the rescue missions and races start becoming too repetitive to be much fun
for very long. Even with the generous number of vehicles at your disposal, the
game isn’t challenging and the controls are just decent.
Graphics: 5.0
At times the
game looks decent on the Nintendo Wii and then, after zooming through the
streets of San Alto, you’ll come to realize how bland the environments are and
why places start looking the same. There are some worthwhile fire effects but
they don’t make up for the horrible vehicle models and bad anime-styled
characters.
Sound: 5.0
The campy voice
acting and dialogue are unintentionally funny and so is the game’s rocking
soundtrack that plays throughout the game. The most disappointing aspect of the
sound is the sound effects that are hardly worthy of the Dolby Pro Logic II
sound.
Difficulty:
Easy
Even with a
timer, the game isn’t hard and the missions aren’t challenging so you will be
able to reach your destination with little trouble. Even if you manage to arrive
late to an emergency, all you have to do is go through the course again until
you get it right.
Concept: 5.0
There are 48
rescue vehicles you can pick as Zach and a good majority of them are awesome.
The only thing missing was a rescue chopper. Anyway, you can use the Wii Wheel
for a better driving effect and there’s a two-player multiplayer mode. You can
also unlock new paint job patterns for your vehicles.
Multiplayer:
5.5
The two-player
mode contains seven different game match types that will have you going up
against a friend in a head-to-head competition to see who can put out more fires
or rescue civilians in need. The multiplayer mode is quite possible the only
highlight of the game.
Overall: 4.5
For a game that
features an open environment and cool futuristic rescue vehicles, Emergency
Heroes is a bland and uninspiring racing game for the Nintendo Wii. Sure,
the vehicles drive decently enough but the performing the same missions
repeatedly do not equal a fun time. Our emergency and rescue heroes deserve
better than this.
