Emergency Mayhem (Wii)

When you read the packaging of EMERGENCY MAYHEM, you'll think, "What a fine idea!" It appears to be a mission-based game full of driving and saving lives where you get to play as a cop, a fireman, or an EMT in eight different environments. You work to save lives or even fix a signal light as a cop. Unfortunately the controls and onscreen directions make this Wii game a disaster that's just not ready for prime time. And that's strange because this game, in which you try to stop mayhem on the mean streets of Crisis City, has been in development for about four years.

Here's why it isn't very good. You'll use the nunchuk to steer through various city precincts, but moving any vehicle in reverse is a real problem. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Even more upsetting is an arrow that's supposed to help you to get to your next mission. It doesn't work. If GPS devices were like this directional system, you'd be driving into houses and buildings constantly. These poor controls makes you want to stop playing before you're an hour into the game.

If you're up to dealing with frustrating control system, you'll have four kinds of driving missions to deal with: delivery of goods to a certain place; timed, where you must achieve something (like getting a fly out of someone's stomach) in a specific period of time; delicate, in which crashing into other cars is a big no-no; and special, which asks you to crash into a criminal's car to damage the vehicle. Along the way, you'll also meet cute, but crazed monkeys and penguins you'll have to round up. The sad thing is that with a little more fine tuning, the game could have been a little gem. As it stands now, though, the only mayhem you'll encounter here is the one permeating your mind as you try to make sense of a game full of flaws.

Available on: Nintendo Wii
Not available online
Genre: Action/Adventure
Developer: Codemasters
Released on: April 15, 2008
Price: 39.99
ESRB Rating: T for Cartoon Violence and Comic Mischief