"Target Locked."

Heatseeker is a flight sim game where you take control of a pilot codenamed Downtown, as Downtown you fly a fighter jet and try to take down everything from terrorists to smugglers to prevent a crazed dictator from attacking the world with a nuclear bomb. Though this would sound like a solid title for the Wii it quickly turns out to be another rushed port.

Gameplay: 8

The gameplay is a big highlight for Heatseeker on the Wii. The game offers you three ways to play. You can fly your plane with an on screen pointer controlled by your Wii remote, use the Nunchuck like a flight stick for a more realistic approach, or simply use the analogue stick on the Nunchuck to control your plane. I found all modes to be very responsive and very easy to learn. My one complaint is when using the pointer their is no indication that you're not pointing on the screen, causing you to get caught in a nosedive and collide with the floor.

Looks: 5

This is where Heatseeker drops the ball. Though Heatseeker may have glorified cut scenes when entering the main game it hardly shows off what the Wii can do. It has little to no textures and your planes look like they are made of paper. However the game does show off a nice blur effect when speeding with your plane and especially fulfilling explosion effects when attacking an enemy.

Sound: 7

Heatseeker's sound is ok but annoying at times. You will almost constantly be hearing the voice of your captain when flying your plane telling you where to go and what to do. This is a great feature because reading would be difficult in such a fast paced game. However this game's sound suffers one major fault, it repeats. Almost always when you're flying your plane you will be told the objective 3 to 4 times and this gets very annoying very fast. Other than that the game has great sound effects and music.

Replay Value: 9

This game has tons of replay value. Heatseeker offers 3 modes of difficulty and each level has 3 bonus missions for you to do. Upon beating each mission and bonus mission you get either more planes or weapons you can use to customize your planes. Needless to say you can spend a long time going back and collecting all the unlockables.

Closing Comments

Heatseeker offers tons of gameplay value and is good for just picking up and playing, but if the developers put just a little more effort into improving the looks this game would have a been a great addition to any gaming. I suggest renting Heatseeker before buying it and seeing if you can cope with the controls and the looks.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/04/07