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Wreckless: The Yakuza Missions

Score: 8.3 / 10

Most multiplatform games are the exact same game on all platforms and one review can usually cover all of them.  This is why it’s good to see that Wreckless on GameCube is quite a bit different than its Xbox counterpart released almost a year ago. (Admittedly, the GC and PS2 versions are almost entirely the same.)

The “story” has remained unchanged: take down Tiger Takagi and the Hong Kong Yakuza (using either a couple of female cops or a couple of bumbling male spies).  The cityscape has remained mostly untouched -- it's still a huge place to explore.  Also consistent with the original is car handling – not quite cartoony but not realistic enough to be considered a sim.  In a word, “arcadey.”

If you’re looking for a graphical orgy of lights and reflective surfaces, go find a copy of the Xbox version.  Wreckless on GC does look good but it’s tough to compare with the Xbox version.  The Xbox version featured tons of body damage and enough eye candy to choke a three-armed monkey.  Body damage in the GC version seems to be limited to doors falling off.  Another note is that pedestrians can now be hit.  Where the GC version blows the Xbox version out of the water is the number of missions, a two-player mode, more unlockables and drivable cars (that are easier to acquire than the Xbox version), and a long list of cheat options (like giant pedestrians, low gravity, no traffic, unlimited time, etc. that can be used to make some missions way easier and to just bomb around and have fun).

 

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My biggest gripe with the original was that it had a small roster of missions – eye candy took precedence over content.  Some missions have been ported over with the only difference being the ability to shoot missiles and activate an adrenaline boost (an automotive nod to Max Payne).  Challenge hasn’t been scaled back – if anything it has increased.  Missions are varied in their objectives – crash the Yakuza, escort a bus, destroy dim sum stands, and so on – 

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but there is (almost) always killer Hong Kong traffic to deal with.  The city streets are seething with cars, trucks and delivery vans.  So much so that most times your biggest enemy isn’t the Yakuza but Joe Schmoe driving his cement mixer.

This is where your ground-hugging supply of missiles comes in handy.  You’ll find that the best way to clear an intersection before tearing through is to launch a missile.  (Much like real life in that respect I suppose.)  Missiles become an extremely important tool since most missions have severe time restrictions and one major crash can mean restarting.  And if you want to fulfill the sub-missions to unlock more missions, you practically have to use them like a surgeon wielding a scalpel.  Much frustration can be the result (even more so if you’ve picked the wrong car for the job).  And it's also a little frustrating to have to move through each campaign in a linear fashion.

The developers were willing to take a risk with the two-player mode.  Instead of split screen, both players share the same screen.  The results are somewhat mixed, but on the whole I’m glad to see someone stepping up to the plate and trying something new.  The basic setup is that one player plays the “lead” car while the other is the “chase” car. (Stop me if I’m going to fast for you.)  For modes such as Speedy Bus (think the movie Speed), this same-screen setup works well with the lead car in the wheeled tank trying to clear a path for the other player driving a bus that will explode if it drops below a certain speed.  It’s an exercise in extreme teamwork.  It’s the modes that pit two players against each other, like Bomb Tag and Capture the Flag that turns the two-player mode into a more intense experience, bordering on work.  Altogether there are 7 modes, the only one that really got much playtime around my house was Speedy Bus.  Still, props to the developers for trying something new (even if it doesn't work all that well).

At the end of the day, I found myself coming back to this version of Wreckless (over the Xbox version) because it has more options and winds up being more fun (even though there’s still some frustration to cut through).  I know I seem to be in a minority, but I still liked Wreckless.  It may not have the razzle-dazzle of the Xbox version, but it’s got more play value.

- Omni

(January 12, 2003)

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