The Godfather: Blackhand Edition

"The Wii, kiddy? Whatever you want to think."

This game is easily one of the best games I've ever played. It's fun, addicting, and violent all at the same time. Also slightly gruesome, but that's alright. This version of the game is probably the best out of all the platforms it's on, and soon you'll know why.

GAMEPLAY: 10/10

Imagine a mafia version of GTA where you can ruthlessly take over businesses, rob banks, and start mob wars. You get ambushed at every turn, and the police jump on your every move. This is The Godfather: Blackhand Edition in a nutshell. The game, overall, I find is more enjoyable than other versions on other platforms. This is mostly due to the addition of a very well done Wii Remote control scheme. You point at the screen to aim (when locked on or in free aim mode), you swing the remote and nunchuk around to beat your enemy to a bloody pulp, and you even get to flick or twist the remote to open doors! The button commands also work very well, with the D-pad to look around and minus button to take cover and duck. It also works well because you don't need to leave cover to lock on and aim at your enemies. When you fire, your guy just pops out from safety and opens fire. The controls are easy to handle and yet are fun enough that you'll spend a while bating civilians just to try the combat out.

Ah, the combat. The sweet, delicious combat. You'll quickly realize that there is nothing more fun than bring your hand down and watching your mobster bring a 2x4 down on a rival mobster's head. Melee, or "Blackhand" combat is just fighting bare handed, with a garrote wire, or even with various blunt weapons you'll find lying around. For Blackhand combat, you swing the remote and nunchuk to bring down enemies up close. You can just do a quick thrust forward to do a weak jab, or you can put your whole arm behind a hook to bring the enemy down faster. Holding down on the D-pad will let you do power attacks, which attack slowly but let you do tons of damage at once. Holding down on the D-pad also lets you threaten storeowners when extorting businesses, which can eke out a bit more money than usual.

Gun combat does nothing overly original, but it is simple to figure out and satisfying to watch. After pulling your gun, you simply lock on and hit the B trigger to shoot. There are a variety of weapons to use, from pistols to shotguns to tommy guns. These all do different amounts of damage with different firing rates, so some may be more useful in some situations than others. Naturally, you can aim with the remote to hit the right part of people as well. While locked on, this is limited to the target and a small area around said target. This is far easier to use but doesn't allow full control. You can also enter free aim mode using the plus button, allowing you to aim wherever and shoot at anything. Free aim mode feels very sensitive, so use with caution (or turn the sensitivity down a bit).

In this game, extortion is one of the biggest parts of the experience. You get money, respect, and sometimes a favour or two from extorting businesses. You walk in, try to get the store owner to pay up, and then proceed to increase the pressure on them through various ways such as property damage, and threatening. This is done for normal businesses and rackets, although you can simply skip the entire process later in the game and you can just buy out racketeers in some cases.

GRAPHICS: 7/10

There's a fair bit of buildings popping in and out of existence, and sometimes you'll turn around and something that was there before will be gone. The graphics could have been pulled off on the Gamecube easily enough, but they work well for the game and it looks like they take a step up when it goes to a cutscene.

SOUND: 8/10

Alot of the music is from the movie, which is good at times. It sounds great, but it doesn't fit in with alot of what you'll be doing. The most common part of the soundtrack seems more fitting for a funeral than a casual road rage in enemy territory. Alot of the voice actors from the movie are also in the game, and there aren't any major screw-ups. I feel that there should've been some sort of conversation or something between NPCs in the street, and alot of the lines used in extortion and combat are recycled to the point where you can nearly recite half the game's dialogue.

STORY: 9/10

I'm sure you can guess most of this. Your father was an esteemed Corleone who was murdered by Don Barzini. When you become old enough, you help the Corleones in hopes of being accepted into the family and given a chance at revenge. You climb the ranks, eventually reaching Don, and you do favors for members of the family as they request. Simple.

OVERALL: 8.5(9)/10

Definitely worth every extra penny you have, despite the fact that it looks slightly outdated. There could have been more done with this version of the game, but what they have done was good enough for me.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/21/07