WRECKLESS: The Yakuza Missions – GC – Review

You do have to admire a game that makes
no pretenses about what it offers.

The manual for Wreckless: The Yakuza Missions,
a Bunkasha Games and Activision release for the GameCube, states the game’s
content thusly: “Put simply, get in a vehicle and FLOOR IT!”

Yep, that’s what you do. You have a mission,
woven through three difficulty levels, and you select what you consider
the appropriate vehicle, then take off, running through or over any and
everything that gets in your way. But that’s not even half the mission.

The game features two main modes of play:
Dragon Adventure and Spy Story. Both are timed missions, but they are akin
to a single-mission time trial as opposed to the ongoing campaign.

The game takes place on the winding, twisting
streets of Hong Kong. The Dragon Adventure begins with the Yakuza trying
to stop an armored car and steal its payload. Two officers are instructed
to stop them. How? By jumping in their vehicle (there are several to choose
from, including high-powered cars or slow but better-handling vehicles)
and pummeling the Yakuza cars into submission. There are side quests that
promote destruction on a massive level. In order to score well, you may
need to run over or hit 150 objects as you barrel down the roads.

Your car also comes equipped with rockets
that can do a fair amount of damage.

The objective changes in Spy Story. Two
erstwhile undercover operatives (referring to themselves by the names of
“Chubby-wubby” and “Hubby-dubby”) are out to rob the Yakuza cash vehicle.
Again, ramming it into submission within a time limit is necessary, but
wait, there’s more. Once you have damaged the vehicle to the point where
it can no longer move, it is assumed that you have snagged the money. But
you then have to get it to the airport. A direction arrow will help you,
but if you have no clue how the city operates, that arrow may point across
a body of water, a direction you cannot take. You have to find your way
around the town to the designated spot. Oh, and if that isn’t tough enough,
one of the sub-quests may be to finish with 30 seconds left on the clock.
The game boasts a total of 40 missions, each progressively tougher than
the last.

Wreckless is a demolition derby. You can
run over people, slam into oncoming traffic, take out street accoutrements
and utilities and generally drive with total disregard to anyone or anything.

The game does enable you to drive from
a variety of vantage points, and the graphical elements are solid. The sound
is also well done.

When it comes to the game controls, this
game takes great pains to keep it as simple as possible, thus ensuring
that anyone can jump in and play.

Wreckless has dry wit, and offers a sardonic
view of action games. The game does have some features not available on
other platforms, but lacks the graphical firepower of a game like Spyhunter.
This game is enjoyable and challenging, but is also one of those games
that likely won’t have you glued to your console system for hours at a
time.

This game is rated Teen for violence.

Gameplay: 7

The demolition derby style of mayhem wears
thin quickly, and while you can unlock more vehicles in order to create
it faster and with more fervor, this game is little more than an arcade
smash ‘n crash.

Graphics: 7

The cutscenes aren’t as sharp as they
could be, and the explosions look a touch pixilated. The driving dynamics
are solid.

Sound: 7

There is a bit of a nudge-nudge-wink-wink
in the scripted dialogue, but the overall sound of the game is merely average
and expected.

Difficulty: Medium

The game can confound players as they
try to weave their way throughout the city. The controls are kept simple,
but the game presents a real challenge, and that clock continues to tick
away.

Concept: 6.8

There really doesn’t seem to be a solid
intriguing reason to play this game over and over. It is okay, but the
missions are all, more or less, the same.

Multiplayer: 7

Crash and blow up another player in head-to-head
competition. Not bad for a party, but it won’t sustain interest for any
length of time.

Overall: 7

This is an average arcade demolition game
that does have a good range of features but suffers from game play that
is basically the same thing over and over. It is a pleasant diversion,
but little else.