It would be easy to pass off Scarface on Wii as a cynical attempt to eke more cash out of what was a very lucrative (and well received) game on PS2 and Xbox. In fact before GamesRadar was given the chance to get hands-on with the game, that's exactly what we were thinking - clumsily integrated Wii controls, identical (if not worse) graphics, a developer looking at us through sad eyes going through the motions of trying to sell a rehashed game as a new, exciting project.
But, encouragingly, we were wrong. Difficult as it may be to take a game originally designed for regular joypad control and make it work effectively with the Wii's motion sensing device, Radical has had a lot of fun taking the most controversial elements of Scarface and having you do them with exaggerated hand actions. It would be bold to say it actually works better than with a Dual Shock or an Xbox controller, but it's certainly a lot more involving, and ultimately more amusing.
Here's our rundown of the five reasons why Scarface might just be the best example of porting an existing third-party franchise to the Wii and not botching it up in the process:
#1 The Chainsaw
It's clear this is the main selling point of Scarface Wii, and Radical is especially proud of it. On a normal controller it's just a case of holding down the fire button and waggling the stick a bit - on Wii the whole controller vibrates, and crucially, emits a loud roar through the built-in speaker when you rev it up.
When you select the weapon, it makes a low throbbing noise so you know it's cooked up and ready to slice. To use it, holding down the A button disengages the camera control from the Wiimote (otherwise movement of the controller would cause the camera to move too) and then different slashing movements cause Tony to butcher his enemies on screen with clinical efficiency. Sooner or later you'll be off the sofa thrasing around the room like Leatherface on heat.
Get a decent combo together and you can perform the ultimate sadist special move: remove head, legs and arms in a bloody fountain leaving behind a mangled body stump and a pile of twitching limbs. Whoop loudly. Feel a bit wrong about whooping quite so loud. Put lightly it's strong material for a Wii game and combined with our next reason, deliciously tasteless.
#2 You can give people the 'wan*er' sign
You know, the one you do out the car window when someone's just cut you up? Make loose fist, move hand up and down in a fast motion? That's the one. Well, Blind rage mode - the vicious post-slaughter taunting that Tony spits out when he's built up his Balls meter - is now initiated with hand signals.
After laying the chainsaw smackdown on a victim, motioning to flick the bird at his bloody corpse causes Tony to utter one of his ever-imaginative swears. As we said before, it's all hideously tasteless, but entirely in keeping with Tony Montana's psychopath persona. As Jason Bone, lead combat designer on the game explained it casually to us, "Using the wan*ing signal gets you into a blind rage". Whatever you say, Jason, whatever you say.
#3 It's the most visually polished version
That's right. And that's not just press release shit, we've seen it with our own eyes. Lighting and shadows are noticeably improved, as are textures and draw-distance. On top of that the game runs at a higher, more consistent rate than it did on PS2 or Xbox and there are more pedestrians on screen at once - but no, you can't kill them, you're still held by Tony's strict moral code of not murdering innocents.
Big Screen, Main Screen
#4 They've actually thought about the aiming system
While Red Steel showed exactly how not to use the Wiimote to aim a gun, Scarface actually brings PC-style mouse aiming accuracy to the game by allowing players to customise their style of control.
The nunchuk is used to move Tony, while the Wiimote moves the target around the screen. Wherever you aim, your gun points and adjusts the camera where necessary. Radical realise that each player will have a different preference for this type of control and has included four options from beginner to expert which gradually increase the sensitivity of the aiming: basically how much you can move the reticule before it causes the camera to rotate.
Far from being 'experts' we found the expert mode most satisfying as it moved the camera quicker in a gunfight, however, you can still use the B button to lock onto a target, something we used quite a lot, especially when your enemy is moving or above you. The teams aim is to make it as easy as possible to shoot. "Aiming the gun with the Wiimote is the closest you can get to killing a filthy cock-a-roach without getting of your couch," Bone tells us proudly.
#5 The driving model has been improved
Radical were keen to improve the driving over the PS2 and Xbox version and have tweaked it to feel more arcadey than before. We noticed this most in the way we could powerslide round corners with ease and use the brake and accelerator at the same time, much like you can in Burnout.
So there you have it, a Wii 'version' of a game, not originally designed for it, that has embraced the control system and incorporated it in a clever way that actually improves on the original. We never expected that. We're not imagining many people to rush out and buy it again for Wii if they already own it for PS2 or Xbox - the main game is, afterall, identical. But it's certainly looking like a decent purchase for any *adult* Wii owners who want to get involved with Tony's coke-fuelled anarchy for the first time.
And like we said, the chainsaw does pretty much rock...
