Emergency Heroes

Life in a big city is not easy and even more so for our emergency and rescue heroes who brave traffic to get an ambulance, police squad car or fire engine to various hot spots in order to save lives. While we gamers like a game where we’re causing all the mayhem, it’s also great to find a game that wholesomely places us in the role of our rescue and emergency heroes. Sadly, Ubisoft brings us Emergency Heroes … a Nintendo Wii game that just doesn’t make for a fun driving game.

The game’s main mode contains a plot but don’t expect the story to be deep and involving. This is actually too bad seeing as there’s an interesting premise that reaches a somewhat surprising conclusion. You see, you assume the role of Zach Harper, a young man who has always dreamed of being a Rescue Hero in the futuristic city of San Alto. Apparently, in this bland future, the police, emergency and fire department unite to become a single entity with the purpose of helping civilians in emergencies. Here’s the interesting bit - a member of the Emergency Heroes team (who everyone thought was dead) resurfaces and might be connected to a string of incidents that might not be accidents.

Ok, there are possibilities here but the game never really makes good use of the thought of a disgruntled hero attempting to get back at the very team that kicked him out. Instead, the game focuses on a number of emergencies that occur in the city limits. San Alto is an open city and much of the time you will spend your time in the city zipping right through it to get to an emergency. Certain emergencies call for certain types of vehicles and luckily for driving fans there are 48 different ones that have received a futuristic treatment. This means that you won’t be driving a cumbersome fire engine but rather a sleek racing machine capable of putting out fires via a hose attachment.

One good thing that can be said about Emergency Heroes is that it mixes up the emergencies so you won’t spend the majority of the game putting out fires but you will also be clearing roadblocks, taking accident victims to the local hospital or pursuing criminals in a fast police squad car. The Peril Timer will keep you on your toes since you are timed on how fast you reach an emergency spot in need of supplies, clearing roadblocks, medical aid or a water hose. This means you will be racing through the streets in order to reach a locale in time. There are bases scattered throughout the city that allow you to access your garage to change your vehicles.

The problem is that the missions become repetitive. How many times must we race back to the casino to douse a fire caused by a gas leak or pull down a reckless driver who is driving erratically? It’s basically all you’ll do with very little in terms of variation. The second problem is that the difficulty level leaves much to be desired. Fail a mission and you’ll get to do it all over again without reprimand or negative consequences. It’s a nonstop cycle of the same mission type. At least the two-player multiplayer mode has some variety that works such as Assault Course (fun drag racing) and Pass the Bomb (where you attempt to rid a bomb by passing it on to your opponent).

Control-wise, the game handles the racing rather well without throwing anything unique to the mix. You can tilt the Wii Remote sideways or use the Wii Wheel to make driving feel more realistic. Unfortunately, most vehicles don’t feel that different from each another with the exception that you can put out fires with fire engines or pick up accident victims with the sleek ambulances.

On the graphics front, Emergency Heroes isn’t a visually pleasing game but there are times when the vehicles actually do look good as they smash through debris to get to your destination. The game doesn’t handle speed all that well but at least fires look decent. As for the environments, San Alto contains some bland buildings with very little in terms of landmarks so the city doesn’t feel all that unique. Even the anime-styled characters during cut scenes look lame.

The game’s soundtrack isn’t very good either and trust me when I say that you will be tempted to lower the volume. The only reason you won’t is because you’ll get instructions from your Captain. The voice acting sounds like bad English dub from the worst anime ever and listening to it throughout the game is painful. Even your character sounds over-the-top cheesy and the dialogue laughable. I wish the sound effects were more detailed than what is featured here.

Emergency Heroes for the Nintendo Wii is a weak attempt at making a driving-and-rescue game fun and sadly there’s very little to like about this game. Even with the great number of vehicles and somewhat fun multiplayer mode, the repetitive and uninteresting levels don’t offer a challenge or an entertaining title that does justice to the Wii or to real emergency and rescue units. Skip this one if you want to avoid disappointment.

Gameplay: 4.5
At first it’s actually fun racing the Rescue Buggy and the slick-looking Walden FT7 fire truck but the rescue missions and races start becoming too repetitive to be much fun for very long. Even with the generous number of vehicles at your disposal, the game isn’t challenging and the controls are just decent.

Graphics: 5.0
At times the game looks decent on the Nintendo Wii and then, after zooming through the streets of San Alto, you’ll come to realize how bland the environments are and why places start looking the same. There are some worthwhile fire effects but they don’t make up for the horrible vehicle models and bad anime-styled characters.

Sound: 5.0
The campy voice acting and dialogue are unintentionally funny and so is the game’s rocking soundtrack that plays throughout the game. The most disappointing aspect of the sound is the sound effects that are hardly worthy of the Dolby Pro Logic II sound.

Difficulty: Easy
Even with a timer, the game isn’t hard and the missions aren’t challenging so you will be able to reach your destination with little trouble. Even if you manage to arrive late to an emergency, all you have to do is go through the course again until you get it right.

Concept: 5.0
There are 48 rescue vehicles you can pick as Zach and a good majority of them are awesome. The only thing missing was a rescue chopper. Anyway, you can use the Wii Wheel for a better driving effect and there’s a two-player multiplayer mode. You can also unlock new paint job patterns for your vehicles.

Multiplayer: 5.5
The two-player mode contains seven different game match types that will have you going up against a friend in a head-to-head competition to see who can put out more fires or rescue civilians in need. The multiplayer mode is quite possible the only highlight of the game.

Overall: 4.5
For a game that features an open environment and cool futuristic rescue vehicles, Emergency Heroes is a bland and uninspiring racing game for the Nintendo Wii. Sure, the vehicles drive decently enough but the performing the same missions repeatedly do not equal a fun time. Our emergency and rescue heroes deserve better than this.