As you complete the missions you will be given experience points, which allows you to level up and increase your character's stats. Each time you level up you will be given a couple of points to put wherever you want, such as your fighting skills, proficiency with the gun, speed, health and so on. Getting your character to a high level will make him extremely difficult to kill, especially if you've upgraded your weapons and have mastered the control. That won't mean you won't die from a direct shotgun blast to the face, but it curbs those unfortunate situations quite a bit.
Don't worry too much about dying, though. Although it's a blow to your confidence, chances are you're going to be dying a lot while playing through The Godfather. But that's okay, because if you do run out of health you will be revived at the nearest hospital for a nominal fee. Best of all you get to keep your weapons and just try again. Better yet, if you die in the middle of a mission you will only have to start over at the checkpoint, which can make things a lot easier. As the game winds down you will probably pass on more than you would like, but only after the game decides to go from normal difficulty to hard (and cheap). Still, The Godfather is never too frustrating and can easily be beaten if you have the patience and can put up with a few frustrating game play hiccups.
The graphics in The Godfather: Blackhand Edition are similar to what we saw on the PlayStation 2 and Xbox a year ago. It's not that this is a bad looking game, but it's hard to be impressed after seeing the game running in high def on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Thankfully the experience isn't dogged down by the somewhat outdated graphics; it's still just as much fun as it ever was.
While The Godfather is an exciting game that mimics the movie better than anybody could have imagined, it's not quite the showpiece game for the Wii. The fact that this style of game can be done on this Nintendo console does bode well for the future of the Wii, but I would rather have realized that while playing a brand new game … or at least something that hasn't already been on every other console known to man. If you're a Wii owner and you haven't played The Godfather then by all means pick this game up and see what all the fuss is about, but if you've already fought your way to the top then there's probably not enough new content here to warrant a second play through.
More On:
The Godfather Companies:
EA C+
When The Godfather first appeared on the PlayStation 2 and Xbox it surprised everybody with its high quality. But now that we've seen the game on a dozen other systems it's hard to warrant picking up the Blackhand Edition, unless you're one of the few that has never experienced Electronic Arts' mafia adventure.
Page 3 of 3
