Disaster: Day of Crisis Review

Does this disaster live up to its name?

Nintendo's Disaster: Day of Crisis has a lot of weight riding on its release.  Firstly, there is hype.  Created by months worth of short teasers and forum talk, Monolith's survival title is now anticipated by legions of Nintendo fans  whose expectations are high.  As if hype was not enough, Nintendo’s Reggie Fils Aime (Chief Operating Officer of Nintendo of America) is keeping close watch of Disaster's sales in Japan to giveit the thumbs up or thumbs down for a US release.  With pressure mounting, does Disaster live up to the crushing anticipation of Nintendo's fans or does it barely live up to its name?

Set in a fictional U.S., you play through Disaster as Raymond Bryce, a former marine tasked with taking out a special forces unit called SURGE who havestolen  a nuclear warhead.  During Ray's fight against the SURGE, an unprecedented wave of natural disasters strike the United States and panic the nation's people.  As if fighting highly trained terrorists was not enough, Ray must also deal with earthquakes, floods, volcanoes and more, all while trying to save helpless victims of the worlds unexpected fury.  Despite a rather ridiculous premise, the story is surprisingly one of the more driving aspects of the game.  It might be a cliched videogame remake of a number of Hollywood action romps, but the over-the-top nature keeps you pulled in to what would otherwise be a title most gamers find difficult to identify with.  As horrible as cliche may often be, it is popular because it is identifiable.

Disaster is split up into over 20 chapters, some of which you will spend a good 30 minutes working your way through while others can be over in a measly 60 seconds.  Such variation in mission length is a strange design decision, but no reason to disregard the title.

Disaster's gameplay is split into three parts: Rescuing, Shooting and Driving.  As you play  you will have  a love/hate relationship with at least one of these styles. Rescuing sees you on foot controlling Ray, which is not a lot of fun.   Ray controls in a suitably responsive manner, but the timing and distance when jumping is hard to predict.  While controlling Ray in "foot mode" you have three meters that monitor his health, stamina and lungs.  When your lungs fill with smoke you must find fresh air and perform breathing exercises or the price is heavy.  Stamina can be refilled by eating hilariously oversized food and drink.

When you find a person in peril you are tasked with saving them by motioning with the Wii remote and Nunchuck as directed by on-screen indicators.  For example, there are Trauma Centre style scenes to clean and bandage wounds, button mashing  areas that raise Ray's strength and controller shaking to escape tidal waves.  If you don’t enjoy waggling Wii controllers, don’t waste your time with Disaster: Day of Crisis.

Shootout sequences are frequent throughout the game, similar in style to arcade light-gun mechanics; duck,cover, pop, shoot, repeat.  It is a tad difficult to get used to at first, but the style has been tweaked enough to provide a fresh experience.  Once you are finally accustomed to the old school action, ducking in and out of cover and timing shots will become an almost rhythmic activity.

Driving sequences in Disaster fall short.  Turning your Wiiremote sideways to the candy bar position in an effort  to imitate a steering wheel is not as intuitiveas Monolith was hoping.  The result of such a control style is poor vehicle handling and slow game reaction time.  Despite Disaster's  poor driving controls, the game does offer a few thrilling chases. That said, whoever decided to point the camera at the front of the car while escaping a tidal wave deserves a slap in the face.