Disaster Day of Crisis (Wii)

The readers post their own reviews.
Funkmaster V

Disaster Day of Crisis (Wii)

Postby Funkmaster V » September 25th, 2011, 5:21 am

As a Nintendo fan, I am always baffled when a game that gets decent reviews overseas is not brought to America, considering the fact that for the last three generations gamers have always complained about the lack of games for their Nintendo's systems. Fatal Frame, Xenoblade Chronicles, The Last Story are just a few games that American's will never get to play, unless they decide to soft mod their Wii's. 

Since Nintendo seemingly has decided to quit making Wii games for 2011, I decided to go back and try to find some hidden games in the library that I missed, and the import Disaster Day of Crisis was one I'm glad I found.

Disaster Day of Crisis (oddly based in America) is a game that perfectly encapsulates what I believed adventure/ action games were going to be on the Wii when the system was announced: a mix of new, motion controlled interactions and conventional gameplay. The leader character, Ray, is not a cop or a secret agent... he is a Rescue Team member. This gives a nice twist to the game, because you are not just focused on shooting people, you are also invested in treating injured civilians. This is done by a series of different motion controls depending on the care someone needs. Some situations are more realistic than others, but the good news is that none of the mini games are broken like in many other Wii titles at this point in the system's life. In fact, some scenarios can get your heart racing as well, especially when trying to resuscitate someone with CPR or trying to pull them up a cliff. 

Another strong aspect to Disaster is surprisingly the voice acting, which, along with the script is superior to games as good as Resident Evil 4. There is a lot of useless swearing, but the script itself is pretty darn good and reminds me of a ridiculous, popcorn munching movie. Because in this game, you are treated to just about everything... tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, lahars, fire tornados, floods, bear attacks, driving down mountains, earthquakes, shooting it out with bad guys, etc. This game also tracks your heart rate, energy, and whether or not your lungs are filling up with foreign gases like CO2 or volcanic ash. You have to clear your lungs, pace your sprinting, or eat crackers along the way, which could be interpreted by the gamer as a tedious or realistic. 

The gameplay of the game centers around Time Crisis inspired gun fights with a terrorist group, driving stages, and third person adventuring. Throw in about 25 ways to save someone, and you'll have a varied experience on your hands. Not everything is perfect of course: Ray's jumping is a little floaty, the gun fights are never as hard as they should be, and there is some level difficulty unevenness to the game. For example, on one level... saving people clinging to debris in a flooding part of downtown was extremely tedious, and in another level, I had to move my controller in three directions to end it.

Overall, I would give this game a B. I think the presentation of the game is stellar, the graphics are for the most part good, and the voice acting and script aren't bad. There are alot of cut scenes, but I enjoyed them. This is what I expected for all Wii adventure games... new gameplay experiences that made the Wii special in the first place: decent motion controls and over the top fun. Sadly, this is a rarity in the system's library. There are silly things in Disaster, like a light RPG leveling up element I never cared about, shooting range challenges, the nerdiest foul language you will ever hear, and some pacing issues. But overall, if you like original games, disaster movies, or dorky Japanime style hair styles... Disaster Day or Crisis is right up your soon to be flooded alley.

Disaster Day of Crisis (Wii)
B

User avatar
VideoGameCritic
Site Admin
Posts: 18074
Joined: April 1st, 2015, 7:23 pm

Disaster Day of Crisis (Wii)

Postby VideoGameCritic » September 27th, 2011, 5:42 pm

I thought this was interesting so I promoted it to the review pages.

Leo1
Posts: 2325
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

Disaster Day of Crisis (Wii)

Postby Leo1 » September 27th, 2011, 6:13 pm

A modded Wii can play European Wii releases? I wish I had picked this up when I was over there a while back. Every game shop I went to had ample copies of this, but I didn't think I'd have any way to play it.

I keep hoping we'll get Fatal Frame 4 (Perhaps packed in with the Fatal Frame 2 remake due later this year), but I'm sure NOA would never consider such a thing.

Funkmaster V

Disaster Day of Crisis (Wii)

Postby Funkmaster V » September 28th, 2011, 9:16 pm

[QUOTE=Leo]A modded Wii can play European Wii releases? I wish I had picked this up when I was over there a while back. Every game shop I went to had ample copies of this, but I didn't think I'd have any way to play it.

I keep hoping we'll get Fatal Frame 4 (Perhaps packed in with the Fatal Frame 2 remake due later this year), but I'm sure NOA would never consider such a thing.
[/QUOTE]

Yeah man, I'm getting Fatal Frame 4, Xenoblade, Another R, Last Story and Pandora's Tower from Europe b/c they are all in English

Leo1
Posts: 2325
Joined: December 31st, 1969, 7:00 pm

Disaster Day of Crisis (Wii)

Postby Leo1 » September 28th, 2011, 10:30 pm

Sadly, Fatal Frame 4 was never released in Europe. You'll have to get the Japanese version and download and install the translation patch to a SD card to play it (Don't even need to mod your Wii for that).

If Fatal Frame 4 was available in Europe, I'd import a Wii for just that.

What's the process of getting PAL games working on the Wii? Just need to install the Homebrew Channel? Will the video signal be NTSC or PAL?

Funkmaster V

Disaster Day of Crisis (Wii)

Postby Funkmaster V » September 29th, 2011, 1:03 am

[QUOTE=Leo]Sadly, Fatal Frame 4 was never released in Europe. You'll have to get the Japanese version and download and install the translation patch to a SD card to play it (Don't even need to mod your Wii for that).

If Fatal Frame 4 was available in Europe, I'd import a Wii for just that.

What's the process of getting PAL games working on the Wii? Just need to install the Homebrew Channel? Will the video signal be NTSC or PAL?
[/QUOTE]

I did not know that Fatal Frame was never released in Europe. Poop!

I am not good a modding and crap like that and I tend to lack patience getting these things to work. I thought the Homebrew channel was confusing and I really couldnt figure out how to use it. I used an SD card and something called a Smash mod, b/c it used Super Smash Brothers Brawl to trick the Wii into playing Imports. This was still somewhat confusing but it works. Basically, to play Disaster, I have to load Brawl, go to the stage builder screen, adjust the settings to force NTSC, and then eject Brawl and reset it with the Disaster disc inside. Yippee. Good thing the game is decent. I can also play Doshin the Giant now.


Return to “Reader Reviews”