Full Review

30 July 2007 - Nintendo seem determined to dispel this myth that their consoles are just for the kiddies. Not only do they unleash the brutal Resident Evil 4 on an unsuspecting public, but tempt us to take control of Tony Montana’s "little friend" too.

Based on the blooming brilliant film of the same name, Scarface the game decides to go against the usual trend of following the story of the film, and bring about a kind of sequel.

Only problem is, at the end of the film, a coke filled Montant dies in a blaze of over the top action based glory. So to combat this unfortunate incident, the endings been changed so Tony keeps his life intact, but looses all his power, respect, and his masses of cash.

Your task is – surprise surprise – to make Tony a feared crime lord all over again, and get the cash rolling in. Using the good old Grand Theft Auto model of drive anywhere, shoot anything, and take on missions when you fancy, what transpires is a hectic bullet filled action-a-thon that’s about as brutal as most gamers could ever stomach.

Your main responsibilities are firstly to blow away all the gangs holding onto portions Miami so you can take over the city piece by piece. And secondly, to buy up as many businesses to act as fronts for your drug fuelled dealings as possible. Tony isn’t going to go tampering with what made him big first time around after all.

It’s not too surprising to hear that Scarface doesn’t control in quite the same way as last years PS2 version. Using the Nunchuk to move around, and the Remote to aim, things are about as standard as you can get on the Wii. The only problem is, your aim also controls the camera, meaning that you’ll need to be constantly aiming at the screen, otherwise the camera will spin wildly out of control. And how many of you fancy holding out your arm, pointing at the screen for hours at a time?

Entering Blind Rage mode is now achieved by a quick wiggle of the Nunchuk, allowing you to view the action from a first person perspective, and handing you unlimited ammo, and infinite health. Only problem is, that wiggle isn’t so easily picked up by the Wii, which can only leave you massively frustrated as you miss a perfect opportunity to unleash your unlimited rage.

Graphically, things aren’t much different. There’s a hint of slightly softer edges, and a few less graphical bugs, but Scarface couldn’t ever be considered a total looker like Resident Evil 4. At least there’s all the customary swearing and cursing that any game based on Scarface should cram in by the bucket load.

VERDICT
If you’ve played one of the other versions, you might want to give this a miss. As nice as it is to swing a chainsaw around using the Wii Remote, there’s not much difference between this and the cheaper PS2 version.

But if balls out action is what you’ve craving on your Wii, then you could do a hell of a lot worse than shell out for this little title.