Family Wii

A great looking, deep, hardcore GameCube game…what, this is on Wii?
Score: 7.1~

Even Nintendo has to deal with transitions.  While the Wii was in
development and the GameCube was on the market, the game development groups in
the company had to assume they were making games for the console actually for
sale, except for those very special titles that were designed alongside the Wii,
such as Wii Sports and Wii Play.  Consequently, many of the
games Nintendo published early in the Wii’s life cycle began life as GameCube
projects, and were retrofitted to various extents for the new console.  The
Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (which was simultaneously released on both
consoles, as a Wii launch title and as Nintendo’s last GameCube game), Excite
Truck, and DK Bongo Blast have all been criticized to one extent or another as
GameCube ports.

Count Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn among them.  This, pure and simple,
is a GameCube title.  Aside from having "Wii" on the labeling,
being on a DVD, and supporting widescreen and progressive scan graphics, this
is a direct sequel to the previous Fire Emblem title.  That’s not
to say that Radiant Dawn isn’t an impressive game that looks nice, plays
deep, and is easily the best RPG released on the Wii to date.  Just don’t
expect the game to have any modern Wii niceties like motion control or IR pointing.

Of course, with the benefit of hindsight, we can see that in spite of this, Fire
Emblem: Radiant Dawn is one of the best looking Wii games because it pushed
the GameCube hardware, and frankly, most game publishers seem to not care enough
about the Wii’s capabilities to even tax a Nintendo 64.  Sadly, reviewing
this game (which was released about 18 months ago, contemporary to Metroid
Prime 3: Corruption and Super Mario Galaxy) really is a devastating
indictment of 3rd party Wii game developers that this game looks better than most
Wii games without really trying.  The inclusion of widescreen aspect and
progressive scanning is the only Wii-specific capabilities added to the game.  And
it looks so good, it still makes games coming out for Wii right now — in June
2009 — look pitiful in comparison.

The game is a direct sequel to Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, taking place
3 years after the events of that game.  With the nation of Daein defeated,
its conqueror Crimea has abdicated their rule, and so control of the land has
defaulted to its massive, indifferent neighbor Begnion, a nation content
to subjugate and exploit Daein for its own uses.  In response to the
repression, a band of Daein fighters called the Dawn Brigade have formed to resist
Begnion’s rule.  The local Begnion general, Jared, is hard-hearted
and bored, and takes some pleasure in tormenting the local population.  The
five members of the Dawn Brigade are tied together by more than just comraderie…if
any of them dies in battle, the game ends.

The difficulty of the Fire Emblem series has always made it a core gamer’s
darling, and Radiant Dawn is no exception.  There are three difficulty
levels, and if you’re new to RPGs, or if you’ve only ever played lighter fare
like Pokemon or Puzzle Quest, you’d best start on Easy.  The
Medium difficulty is a challenge, and I haven’t even attempted the hard setting.  If
you want an RPG with no compromises, Fire Emblem: Radiant
Dawn is as good as it
gets.

The game is deep, with lots of turn-based strategy, weapons that wear out, objectives
with tight timelines, and more stats than you will know what to do with.  This
is not an ideal first RPG for anyone.  This is intended for RPG veterans
who are looking to be pushed.  While the story is a continuation of
Path of Radiance, you do not need to have played the previous game to enjoy
this game.  As you play, plenty of back story will be provided.  Mostly
this takes the form of narrated stillframes, text panels spoken by characters,
and the occasional cut scene.  The writing is good, but there is a
ton of it, and some players may be put off by the immense amount of text in the
game.

The graphics certainly are nice.  The cut scenes are beautiful, though
rare.  The maps and characters are nicely detailed and animated.  The
story panels are hand drawn and look nice.  The menus are all laid
out nicely.  It’s a well done game, though aside from the maps there’s
not much that’s really going to wow you.

The controls are done with the Wii remote only, and oriented sideways by default.  There
is an option to rotate the controls so you can play holding the remote in one
hand, which is what I prefer.  No IR control means that navigating
all the screens and menus can be tedious at times.  It’s times like
this that traditional game control really feels like a step backwards.

The audio is adequate for the purposes of the game.  The voiceover
work is quite good where it appears, and the music is appropriate, if not entirely
memorable.  Same with the sound effects.  Nothing stands
out as particularly stunning, but it’s all well-done.

As with most RPG’s, Radiant Dawn is a sizable adventure.  It will
likely take you between 30 and 60 hours to complete this game the first time through,
depending on your experience level.  And with three different skill
levels, if you’re the type to replay games, you’ll find even more value here.

I find myself torn over Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn.  It is an excellent
game, but as with my criticisms of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, it’s not a
Wii game.  There’s
nothing in the gameplay that couldn’t be done on any other platform.  Perhaps
that’s not a hard and fast requirement for a Wii game to be fun, but I can’t ignore
it either.  Just including IR pointing would have improved the flow of this
game immensely.  Without it, it’s still fun, but it’s still a GameCube
game just the same.