Spyborgs (Wii) - Review by Chris

Introduction

Capcom has been a strong supporter for the Wii from the beginning, having brought many big titles, from established and new franchises, to the console. Yet, many gamers have been clamouring for something a little more in line with some of the content the other home consoles have been receiving and taking this as their starting point, Capcom have brought in developer Bionic Games to develop a game that takes elements from many of said publishers franchises and ties it all together in a game designed specifically for the Wii. But is this really the style of action game that Wii owners were asking for or should this one hit the scrap heap?

Gameplay

Spyborgs puts you in control of a group of cybernetically enhanced humans out to thwart a member of their own kind, known as Jackal, who has become a traitor and is attacking the Spyborgs with his army of robots. One of the group, Stinger, awakes at the beginning of the game after having been rescued and while injured, the Spyborg initiative gifted him with some cybernetic enhancements, including a robotic arm that acts as a chain gun and a robotic eye. This provides the starting point for the game's action as from this moment onwards, the group come under attack from a succession of robots bent on defeating them and so they must act quickly to defeat them and Jackal. It provides a background upon which the game's beat-em-up action takes place, stringing together a thinly layered plot told through short cutscenes and hidden audio tapes in the game's plethora of levels, but it quickly becomes apparent that it's just padding to provide some reasoning to your constant button mashing.

As has already been mentioned, the gameplay here comprises solely of that from the beat-em-up genre of the games, with you taking control of one of two selected characters, these being selected from the 3 at the beginning of each level and the AI controlling the second character in single player, and working your way through levels of varying sizes and taking on groups of enemies until all are defeated so that you can progress on. With 3 distinct characters, the gameplay should have allowed for differentiation between them but instead, apart from the differing attacks which they possess, the gameplay never changes, having you string together combinations of strong and standard attacks to generate points and defeat enemies. And it continues like this for the 30 plus levels which the game harbours and as a result of the lack of change, it does begin to stagnate quickly. The action is quick and relentless, with the screen often being filled with enemies of various sizes and of various difficulties meaning that you'll need to work out some strategies for which to take out first so as to minimize your damage. And damage is something you will encounter a lot as the game does put up a hefty difficulty even on the mid setting, with there being 5 in total, but luckily there are plenty of health options littering the levels for you to make use of, along with some power-ups to ease the difficulty. There are green items which grant you invincibility while collecting yellow ones fill up a specials bar which halts the gameplay when activated and focuses all attacks on a single enemy; where on screen prompts take you through the means to dispatch of the enemy quickly. This is a nice idea, but brings the game to a shuddering halt and would have been much better had it not vacated the vicinity of the levels. The boss battles, of which there are only a select few, pit you against huge, screen filling mechanical beasts which you have to take down and these will test your patience as they can prove every bit as difficult as the other areas, although working out a strategy isn't too difficult as they only have a few attacks. The only other differing element to the gameplay is in the use of the IR pointer whereby items are hidden in the levels and if your cursor hovers over them, you have to press the A button and flick the Wii-mote upwards to uncover them. It is a nice touch but can ultimately get in the way of the gameplay, as some of these items appear in the midst of battles.

At the end of each level, a score is generated depending on the combos you've completed and the red orbs you've collected. These are posted in your save file, with the game allowing you to come back to them once cleared if you wish to try and beat your score. The score is also used to upgrade your 3 characters in areas such as attack, defence and movement but rarely will you see the effects of these. The game is of a decent length but the repetition of the action makes it seem much longer than it really is but it'll definitely keep you occupied for a good few hours, with the entire game also being able to be completed in co-operative play which works seamlessly but changes the gameplay in little to no way. There are plenty of bonuses and in-game achievements to unlock but again, due to the tedium of the gameplay many won't bother with them as some are rather trivial. This all being said, the game provides some good, mindless action but really will do nothing to make anyone sit up at take too much notice of it.

Controls

The control setup for this game could have perhaps benefitted from the use of a more traditional controller but the combination of the Wii-mote and Nunchuk works well and the developers haven't forced motion control on the players at all. Everything is button based, apart from the odd attack that can be activated with a shake of the Wii-mote when in the air, with their being one button for a standard attack, one for a strong attack and others for jumping and guarding. In this sense it works well and feels very traditional but because there is little in the way of alternatives in the attacks you can use with the characters, the controls themselves become as repetitive as the action, culminating in a button masher. There are some gesture sensitive moments in the game, with the game employing take down attacks where you have to follow on screen prompts to ride an enemy or do damage to a boss, with the IR pointer is put to use in a strange mechanic for finding hidden items in the levels. The gestures feel tack on and could have been left out while the latter inclusion can get in the way of the action sometimes. There is no control whatsoever over the camera, which keeps to a fixed point, meaning that during the heavier sections of the game, it can be hard to keep track of your characters due to the number of things on screen obscuring the view.

Graphics

The game is presented well, with decent looking environments and character models. Yet both of these easily fall into the generic spectrum of visual presentation with there being nothing particularly standout about either, with it all having been done before and done to a slightly better degree. The environments vary in size and some of the more sci-fi ones show the presentation at its best but they all suffer from some mediocre texture work that holds the presentation back a little. Lighting effects, however, are superb with the various colours, from red to blue to green coming from both light sources and sparks, literally glowing with enough fluorescence to hide most of the game's visual shortcomings. Character models, particularly those that you'll be in control of, are well designed, looking clean and showing a decent level of detail. Yet they never extend much beyond the tried and tested and many of the characters could easily have been taken out of any number of games already on the market. Thankfully, though, the game manages to maintain a steady frame rate for the most part even when the screen becomes filled with enemies and destructible objects being smashed to pieces.

Sound

The game mixes a selection of rock and metal for its soundtrack, which does in a way compliment the on screen action. The only issue is that there seems to be little difference between the music across the 30 plus levels and as such it becomes repetitive and doesn't linger long in one's imagination. The sound effects though, while following a similar repetitive nature, sound good though and work fully within the context of the gameplay.

Final comments

As an attempt to appease gamers' cravings for action games on the console, Spyborgs, unfortunately, falters from the get go. The action is over the top and challenging, something which older gamers will be grateful for, but it's overly simplistic and becomes tedious as a result, with little deviation from a tried and tested formula. The stagnation of the gameplay does little to help increase the excitement of the perfectly implemented co-operative gameplay or the well done, if clichéd, visuals. You'll get some enjoyment out of it if you forgive the repetition, but don't expect it to be a long burner.

Pro: Co-operative gameplay works extremely well, graphics are decent with impressive lighting, controls are thankfully button based and work well
Con: Gameplay becomes repetitive and tedious quickly, can be very difficult and unforgiving at times, some gameplay elements get in the way
Final score: 6

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