Nintendo Okie

I’ve played a lot of arcade style shooters on the Wii over the last few months. They’ve ranged from really good with Zombie Panic in Wonderland to no so great with Robin Hood: Return of Richard. There’s a lot of competition in the space on Wii, so how does Teyon’s latest shooter, Heavy Fire: Special Operation fit in that space?

Rise Through The Ranks

You begin the game as a private in the U.S. Army. Playing through the game earns you points. After missions these points will be added to your ranking. When you reach certain point thresholds you’ll be promoted. When you first start the game you only have access to a pistol that requires you to pull the trigger every time you want to fire the weapon. These promotions also give you access to newer and better weapons. For the most part this just means you’ll have a bigger clip and the ability to fire at a slightly faster rate, but it’s a good way to determine how well you’re doing and it’s satisfying to see that next rank unlock.

Multiple Ways to Play

This comes from the fact that you’re not just on foot shooting at the hordes of nameless enemies. You’ll be doing so in a couple different vehicles as well. You begin the game in a Humvee barreling into the city to do what the American Army does best. You’ll be firing a machine from the top of the vehicle until it is attacked and you then proceed on foot. Later on in the game they mix things up by having you take the gunner position in a helicopter where you will fly past rooftops crawling with people who want you dead. It’s actually a good change of pace from the much slower action when you’re on foot.

You can also play the game solo or with a friend. This has been a fairly standard feature in arcade shooters for a number of years, but some games have left this out. Heavy Fire makes sure you can have someone in on the action with you. The drawback to this is the points are split between you so you won’t be getting the better guns in the game.

You’ve also got a couple different control schemes to choose from. The standard control scheme has you aiming with the Wii Remote and shooting with the B trigger. It works well enough to be fun, but I actually had more fun when I snapped the Wii Remote and Nunchuk into a Zapper. This really brought out the arcade feel of the game. They also do something I’ve wished a lot of shooters on the Wii would do. Heavy Fire gives you an alternate control scheme when using the Zapper that allows you to use the Z button as your trigger. You can actually still use the B button if you like, but the Z button on the Zapper makes more sense when you’re holding the peripheral as a shotgun style weapon. It always felt unnatural to be pulling with your forward hand on a gun and this actually places the trigger in a more natural position. It also seemed like my aim was more steady when pulling the trigger with my back hand.

Solid Visuals

Heavy Fire: Special Operations isn’t going to win any awards in the visuals department, but it’s not going to make you puke either. The color palette is a fairly drab brown and green with a few spots of color. There were a few times in the middle of the action I accidentally shot my own troops because everything sort of looks the same. Outside of the characters though things look pretty decent. Vehicles have some detail to them. The lens flares from the sun really give you the feeling of being in the desert. They’re quite good to look at and are used in the perfect times. Nothing gets in the way of the experience and the environments are actually destructible. Many of the surfaces will become pock marked with bullet holes and you can destroy a large portion of the environment to remove hiding places.

War is Short

The game’s “campaign” clocks in at six levels of play. This means it will take you very little time to actually complete the game. There’s a back story to the game, but it’s really an arcade high score game so you’re going to want to come back multiple times to best your previous score.

Difficulty is Somewhat Mixed/Accuracy is Optional

The game isn’t terribly hard to get through initially. The first three or four levels proved to be easy enough that I never got shot while going through them. After that though I had to play the last two levels a couple of times before I finally got through them. No one in the game is a great shot. They even telegraph that they’re about to shoot you with an exclamation mark over their head so you have a couple of seconds before you’re in any real danger from them. As the game gets close to the end, though, exclamations appear everywhere and it can be very hard to get to them all before you’ve taken the needed three hits before you’re dead.

That’s not to say that you don’t have to be accurate with your shots, but it’s not always easy to get your cross hairs on the bad guys, especially when they’re using doorways for cover. The game’s cross hairs are actually quite large and while they usually have something in the middle of the reticule it’s not always easy to tell exactly where you’re aiming. Luckily for the most part you’re having to shoot so many enemies at a time this doesn’t really become a problem. The term “spray and pray” comes to mind.

Conclusion

Heavy Fire is one of those games that really feels like you’ve brought the arcade into your home. The game won’t take you long to finish and it’s not terribly difficult, but I had a bit of fun playing through it. The new weapons were fun to get and it looks fairly good, especially given the limitations of WiiWare. Also, it’s only five bucks. There are better experiences in the shooter realm on WiiWare, but there are also much, much worse and all of them cost more than Heavy Fire. I’d say if you’re looking for a decent shooter for a really decent price then you should look to Heavy Fire: Special Operations.

Final Score: 3/5 Average

Review copy of the game provided by Teyon Games.
Played through the game three times, twice solo and once co-op.
Total Play time: 3 hours