Call of Duty: Modern Warfare took the first-person shooter series to a level it had never been before. The switch from the traditional World War II scene to the current era of warfare paid off in a big way for Activision and its developer Infinity Ward. The single-player mission was excellent and the online play for Modern Warfare still has people hooked. But Activision made several changes for this version including switching the developer to its other dev team – Treyarch – and moving the scene back to World War II for its newest installment in Call of Duty: World at War. And perhaps the biggest change of all is that a Call of Duty game will be available for the Wii for the first time.

Since Call of Duty: World at War is now on the Wii, it has many people wondering how this first-person shooter will translate to the system. Well the Wii’s version of World at War is aided heavily by the fact that this is a Call of Duty game, meaning it’s going to be good no matter what system it’s on. The concept for the single-player campaign is once again great as it plays off the model Modern Warfare presented in switching back and forth between storylines.

One story follows the American – Miller – through his attacks on the Japanese while the other story is about a Russian named Dimitri who is battling the Germans around Berlin. This version of Call of Duty is way darker as well since cinematic scenes show prisoners being burned in the face with cigarettes, soldiers get lit on fire with flamethrowers, and a whole lot of swearing is thrown into the mix.

The ever popular online play is back again along with the ranking system which allows people to level up as they play. It’s as good as ever, but a couple of things have been changed. The helicopters which players got for killing seven people in a row without dying have been replaced by killer dogs and these are even harder to avoid than the choppers. And, unfortunately, the co-op campaign mode isn’t found in the Wii’s version of World at War.

The graphics in this game are pretty solid for a Wii game since they’re not as far off the PS3 and Xbox versions as other titles are; they’re still a step down though. As mentioned before, the sound will involve a whole lot of cussing in World at War to authenticate this WW II model.  And Activision really pulled out all the stops when they hired major actors like Kiefer Sutherland (Sgt. Roebuck) and Gary Oldman (Sgt. Reznov) to do voice acting for the game.

The only thing that the Wii’s Call of Duty: World at War suffers from is poor gameplay. Players will use the nunchuk to guide their character’s footsteps and the Wii remote to aim the gun. In theory, this sounds cool but the process can be painstaking and you may even get dizzy from trying to aim the gun. Luckily, you can switch the controls to five different styles and one of them includes the use of the Wii Zapper. However, none of these five modes, including the Wii Zapper, makes things much easier on players. This is the only flaw in an otherwise enjoyable game.      

Gameplay: 5.6
The faulty control scheme is the only thing holding the Wii’s Call of Duty: World at War back from being an excellent game.

Graphics: 8.7
Activision Blizzard has done an admirable job in implementing good graphics into a Wii game.

Sound: 9.0
Depending on your tastes, the swearing may be for better or for worse.  But one can’t argue with the excellent voice acting which includes the talents of Kiefer Sutherland and Gary Oldman.

Difficulty: Hard
On the PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360, World at War would only be moderately difficult. However, the Wii’s control scheme makes things a whole lot tougher.

Multiplayer: 8.5
The multiplayer setup is once again excellent, but the absence of the co-op campaign mode really hurt the game here.

Concept: 8.9
A great campaign featuring multiple storylines has been rolled out once again and the multiplayer mode is still top notch.

Overall: 8.1
It would be easy to let the gameplay stop you from wanting to play Call of Duty: World at War, but there are just so many other things the game has to offer. If you own a Wii and are confident in your Wii remote abilities than this is an excellent game to pickup.