Disaster: Day of Crisis

"The best features from different games joint together in one!"

After months of playing Super Smash Bros Brawl over and over and over, I finally decided that I needed a game that was entertaining enough. I wanted something with the style of No More Heroes, but all those childish games with cartoon-like characters got boring already. I decided I'd check out the best sellers, but all I found were those boring games I already mentioned. Then I checked the Japanese best sellers, and I found this. A dream come true for any Wii owner. Disaster: Day of Crisis is a game that's got it all. It is a mixture of all the great features of many great games, all of them united in one only game. This game is probably the best one-player action-adventure/survival game out there for the Wii up to today. Sure all the Resident Evil fans won't agree with me, but I must say I don't talk with sensationalism. It simply has it all, and met all my expectatives.

Storyline: 10

The story is pretty amazing. Yes, most people will agree that it is some kind of copy of “The Day After Tomorrow”, with some twists that give it a more Japanese style.

***Spoilers***

An earthquake, a tsunami, strong winds that form a storm, among other natural disasters are some of the obstacles that you'll encounter in your way to find the girl that you have to rescue, as you promised her dead older brother (her only family) that you would take good care of her. You do all that while you are being chased by a military force that is threatening the country with nuclear weaponery. You are so cool that you also have spare time to rescue innocent people who have been victims of the natural disasters during your way (sounds like something you would do on Megaman X6, right?). The main character used to work in the rescue team, so it's his job and he's used to it.

The storyline couldn't be better. Some things are way too exagerated (It's one man against an entire army of high class soldiers? All just because of a girl?!). However, that's what I like about Japanese games. No matter how exagerated things are, we accept them and can't dislike them.

Gameplay: 9

Gameplay is just the best of the game. I believe any competitive/hardcore videogamer will agree that gameplay plus storyline make up the best games, regardless of the graphics and stuff. Chrono Trigger is the best example for that.

What makes gameplay so good? Variety, that's it. One could play House of the Dead over and over, but you get sick of pointing at the screen and shooting, so you want another game. Same way, only running around attacking enemies such as in Crash of the Titans gets boring. Sure those games are great, but they tend to get repetitive. In Disaster: Day of Crisis gameplay changes. There's the main mode, which you use when walking around or exploring the stage. Here you can move around, run, jump, find people to help, open doors and stuff. Then there's the rescue mode. When someone's injured and you're going to help them, it's like playing a minigame. You have to do move your wii-mote/nunchuck or push certain buttons, sometimes at the right timing or during certain events. There's also the shooting mode, in which you have to point at the screen and shoot, just like in House of the Dead. You can also hide or zoom the screen to have a better accuracy and do more damage. I'm sure I've seen those features in some other game but I can't recall correctly. It was another Japanese game, though. Finally, there's the driving mode. In this mode you hold the wii-mote horizontally and drive, just like in Mario Kart, except you are in a first person view.

There are also minigames that you can play to unlock new weapons and gain points, which you exchange for upgrades for both your weapons and your character himself.
Why did gameplay get a 9? This is to be discussed later on…

Controls: 10

You NEED a nunchuck to play this game. The nunchuck is not used while on driving mode.

Controls are very easy. They are also customizable so that you can adjust them to fit your preferences. Controls vary from mode to mode, but the ones that prevail the most are main and shooting mode, because those are the modes you play the most and last the most time.

Graphics: 9

Yeah graphics are pretty cool, even though it's a Wii game. Out of the 3 last-gen consoles, the Wii has the poorest graphics. Yet, this game has amazing graphics. I don't play in High Definition but still the game looks pretty awesome. The video scenes look great- However, when you are playing the game it doesn't look so smooth. Still, the game has better graphics than most wii games. This game has made me want to buy a HD cable.

Sound: 10

SOUND… IS… GLORIOUS! Seriously, the sound in this game sounds like it came from a Metal Gear Solid game. The main theme is like MSG4's Theme of Love (the remix, not the original one). The voice acting is great and everything sounds very real. An amazing job was done in here.

Replayability Value: 10

A game that you wouldn't play again is just not good enough. This game encourages you to play again previously beaten stages. When you beat a stage and play it again, there is a challenge in which you have to find all hidden objects (they are like a flag with a green bottle in it) all over the stage. When you get all of those, you obtain a reward (SP points, which you can use to upgrade your weapons and yourself). You may also want to repeat a stage if you forgot to save a victim (you have a file in which you can check how many victims you have rescued and how many more are left), or simply to gain more SP points or earn items. If you are the kind of player that likes to 100% all games, then you'll love this feature.

Additional Observations: 7

During rescue modes, every time you save a victim (unless they are IMPORTANT to the development of the storyline) a conversation happens with them (Oh thanks for saving me! No problem…). These conversations are only text-based and have no voice sounds, which makes them boring.

The items in this game are too big. Seriously, your character eats a hamburger that is bigger than his head!

You get items by destroying boxes or other big objects all over the stage. However, it is illogical to think he can destroy rocks by kicking them, or he can wipe out mailboxes with his bare fist. And only in 4 punches! THIS is what doesn't let the gameplay be outstanding.
Tutorials are kind of annoying. I started playing directly on Hard difficulty but the tutorials appeared. That's ok, but the tutorials look like giant orange and white banners in the screen.

People who need help also show a yellow sign over their heads (not only during tutorials). That reduces the reality of the game.

If all those bright colors in the middle of dark places were just taken out, items were made smaller and were dropped in the streets instead of contained in rocks, and there were voices after a normal rescue, then this game would be perfect. Just like that, perfect.

Summary:
+Catchy storyline
+Variety of gameplay
+Easy controls
+Replayability value
+Great graphics (even without HD)
+Sound is outstanding (Can't wait to get an OST!)
-(Read Additional Observations)

Overall: 10

Why do I give this a 10, if it has some flaws? Because it's for the Wii. There isn't much you can do dor a console that has a 256 mb videocard and uses 4,4 gb DVDs. Sure this game could've been double-layered, but that would make it more likely to get damaged, and could harm your Wii (look at what Super Smash Bros Brawl did to so many Wii lenses). This game is almost perfect, and is one of the best Wii games out there, if not the best. I can only see Brawl be better than this, and only for the replayability value (due to competitiveness/tournaments).

This is a MUST for every Wii owner.

By the way, I played the PAL version and some names changed. I liked the Japanese names better but... oh well, the game still rocks.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 12/18/08

Game Release: Disaster: Day of Crisis (EU, 10/24/08)