Review

Japanese developers are not known for creating first person shooters, after all it is far from being a popular genre in the land of the rising sun. The few Japanese FPS games that spring to mind failed to compete with their Western counterparts. Considering the limitations of the WiiWare service, can Hudson succeed where so many other Japanese developers have failed?

When compared to the average run of the mill FPS game, Onslaught is a bit unique. As you might expect it is divided into levels with missions such as reaching the end or protecting a target - but the main focus is on achieving a high score, not progression through the levels. The aim is to beat the levels as fast as possible, killing as many enemies as you can and taking as little damage as possible in order to achieve a good score and get a high rank.

To help you there are two AI controlled teammates who aid you against the Onslaught. They will shoot anything that comes from the direction you tell them to guard. In order to gang up on tougher enemies they can be told to shoot in the same direction as you, protect your sides, or protect your back. It’s a neat feature that adds a bit of strategy to the proceedings.

Another neat touch is when you take out an enemy they explode in a mess of green alien blood. If you are too close to enemies when they die you will get splattered in blood, you have to shake the nunchuk to wipe it off before it starts chewing through your armour!

There are a total of four regular weapons at your disposal – an assault rifle, which deals average but consistent damage, a submachine gun, which deals low damage but has a ton of ammo, a shotgun, which can take out large groups of enemies easily but is far less effective from a distance, and a rocket launcher, which deals devastating damage to big groups but has a very slow reload time.

There are also two sidearms which you can use if you’re in a bind. You have a small stock of grenades, and a beam whip, which instantly destroys any normal enemy if they are close enough. All weapons except the whip obviously have a limited supply of ammo. Each of the four main weapons is loaded with about ten cartridges initially, but when they are all used up you will have to find more ammo. Picking up ammo will refill your entire stock of cartridges for the weapon you currently have out, so be sure to switch to the weapon you want to refill! The whip automatically recharges over a period of time.

As you go through the levels in Story Mode you will occasionally find secret weapon caches. If you break these open and take the power-up inside, you will unlock a stronger version of one of the normal weapons or sidearms. Each of the six weapons has a total of two upgrades to find.

In addition to this there is also an “ultimate” weapon. Some levels feature the BKD-G9, a jeep armed with two miniguns, which will mow down any enemy in a fraction of a second. Naturally this has some downsides. It only has a limited supply of ammo, which can’t be replenished, and your teammates will also get in the vehicle, which means you will not have any protection to the side or back! When it is out of ammo, the jeep can simply be abandoned. In defence missions it can serve as a handy barrier to slow down enemies.

The game’s Story Mode is playable in single player only and contains thirteen levels which are divided into “tiers”. You start off with three, which you can attempt in any order, but you’ll have to beat all three to unlock the next section where you will face a boss. Beating the boss unlocks three more stages, and it continues like that until the end, which has two boss stages in a row. The Story Mode has a total of five difficulties – Easy, Normal, Hard, Very Hard and Ultra. Only the first three are playable right away, but don’t think that this a bad thing, the game gets hard very fast, even on Normal.

The Story Mode’s plot is the usual run of the mill sci-fi guff - you have crash landed on a planet which is overrun by “insect cyborgs”, and soon encounter two other soldiers. You decide to help each other defeat the bugs and save the day! It’s all very silly, but the story is somewhat vital to the gameplay, as every enemy is part insect and part cyborg and their body is weaker in certain places. Shooting the green core on any enemy will kill it in a handful of shots. Shooting flesh will also kill it somewhat quickly, but not nearly as fast as shooting the core. Shooting metal does almost no damage, meaning you’ll waste a ton of ammo before the enemy dies. Always aim for the core!

One strange thing in Story Mode is the announcer. After landing several good hits, you’ll hear a strange voice yell out extremely weird stuff such as “That’s why you’re still a kid!” This doesn’t make any sense at all, but thankfully it can be disabled if you want.

The game’s main draw is the fact it has online multiplayer! There’s two game modes available online – “Free Battle” and “Ranking Battle”.

“Free Battle” is the co-op mode – You can play with up to three others and try to beat any of the levels from Story Mode. Of course there are no AI teammates, so you’ll have to work together well, as the difficulty seems to always be set on Very Hard. Accidentally shooting teammates won’t hurt them, but it will hurt you, so it’s not recommended!

If a mission’s goal is to simply make it to the end, not all players actually have to make it. If just one player reaches the end, the mission will be completed. When a mission is over, every player gets a score based on his performance, and you can then part ways or play another mission together. If you die in co-op mode you will be revived, but you’ll lose a ton of points and probably will not be able to become first anymore!

“Ranking Battle” is more unique. All players are pitted in a giant level filled with enemies and are given a time limit. The goal is simple, score more points than the other players before the time is up! As a nice twist, when the time is almost up, a boss will appear in the centre of the stage, he gives out a ton of points, but, of course, he’s hard to beat! As in co-op mode, hitting other players will damage you, so don’t do it. If you die here you will also be revived, but again, you will lose a ton of points!

Unlike most other Wi-Fi games, you don’t actually have to wait for a game to fill up before it starts. If there are two or three players and the game is still searching for others, you don’t HAVE to wait. If all currently found players hold the 2 button, you can simply start with the people currently there. This will be quite handy when playing with friends!

Graphically Onslaught is one of the better looking WiiWare games to date, of course it would be an impossible task to compete with games developed using the Unreal Engine on PC/360/PS3 in this area but if you take it for what it is the visuals do the job perfectly. The music is fairly upbeat and non-intrusive and the commenter’s occasional voiceover adds a touch of arcade style flair, even if it can get a bit repetitive after a while.

Onslaught provides an enjoyable single player experience. It has lots of unique features and is really fun to play. The Story Mode has a great deal of replay value due to its five difficulty settings and different ranks to achieve. The game really excels online and co-op is pretty much flawless. There is not lag to be found and the matchmaking is fast and without issues. Hudson has even provided online leaderboards on their website which should keep score freaks happy. The FPS genre is a perfect fit for the Wii, but due to the file size limit on WiiWare we never expected to see a downloadable one. Hudson has achieved the unthinkable and created an original and entertaining Japanese developed FPS which comes as a great surprise. This is a must-download for fans of the FPS genre, for only 1000 Wii points this is a real bargain.