The game’s story is played out via mission briefings and reveals pirates have acquired technologically advanced aircraft and other heavy firepower machinery from unknown sources and are attacking military establishments. Fearing the worst has yet to come, the International Council assigns Mike “Downtown” Hudson, as well as other recruits, to investigate and destroy enemy bases.
Shoot him down, he said I was a mummy's boy.
At the start of each mission, you’re taken to a selection screen where you choose an aircraft to fly and its weaponry pack. Generally, there are two to three weapon packs available per aircraft and each focuses on certain combat styles. For instance, one weapon pack may have three weapons: multipurpose missiles, air-to-air missiles and unguided bombs, while another pack will only have the multipurpose missiles and air-to-air missiles – the difference being it replaces the unguided bomb with a higher ammo capacity. All weapons also have unlimited ammo. However, they need to “regenerate” once used. There are further variations between weapons including attack range, destruction capabilities and guidance, all of which benefit those who like to strategise before heading out to war.
Playable aircraft range from the common F16 Falcons and F15 Eagles, right down to the stealth-famous F117 Nighthawk, all of which have different strengths and weaknesses in the fields of speed, handling, defence and combat. Heatseeker, however, fails to utilise this aspect to its full potential. In one mission for example, the game suggests using the Nighthawk because you’re required to destroy a radar detector without being noticed by the enemy. Once the radar is destroyed though, the mission becomes more combat orientated and has you protecting allies against several fighters. The thing about the Nighthawk is that it’s less than capable of doing this due to its slow speed and poor defence capabilities, which makes it an easy target. Needless to say, you’ll want to stick with the more balanced aircraft to ensure victory.
Missions mainly consist of identifying and destroying enemy targets. Nevertheless, there are several different enemy craft including submarines, fighter jets, tanks and anti-air turrets – all of which require different tactics to defeat. However, enemies are never too difficult to destroy as they usually approach in small, easy to defeat waves, although there are times when scenarios become a lot more chaotic. In one such instance, you are tasked with protecting naval fleets from incoming enemies who, in turn, have heavy air, ground and sea support which will inevitably leave you dodging an endless amount of homing missiles and gunfire as you take down primary targets. There are occasional breaks in gameplay that detour from shooting in the form of avoiding radars and scanning aircraft to investigate if they’re carrying hostile cargo, but these moments are short-lived and are followed almost instantly by a dogfight. Additionally, there are three bonus objectives to complete which will unlock new weapon packs and aircraft but unfortunately most of these can only be used in Mission mode, the game’s alternative to a free play mode.
Explosions, how we love you.
Despite the game’s generic gameplay, the control system is surprisingly solid. The Wii remote is used to point and aim at the screen while the Nunchuck is used for speed boosts and braking. Shooting and switching primary weapons reside on the B button and D-Pad respectively while locking onto targets is accomplished by pressing the A button. Additionally, you can fire a machine gun by pressing the Z button, while dodging incoming missiles is implemented by a warning system where the game prompts you with a message such as “Hit the Deck”, which will correspond to a certain action of the Wii remote -in this case, pointing it downwards. For those who are familiar with simulation titles, you have also have the option of using a professional control scheme via the options menu which will give you the ability to turn your aircraft a full 360 degrees by twisting the Wii remote.
As mentioned in the first paragraph, there is a big emphasis on explosions in Heatseeker, and nothing demonstrates this better than the game’s Impact Cam. The Impact Cam, as its name suggests, is a system which makes the camera focus (in slow-motion we should add) on successful missile hits that result in an enemy exploding. Like other games which use similar effects, the Impact Cam not only becomes tedious after a few hours of play but also draws you away from the action and ruins the pace of the game. Thankfully, you can switch the Impact Cam off but at the same time, it’s like turning off a key aspect of Heatseeker that the developers clearly intended to draw excitement out of the player.
Visually, the game doesn’t look pretty. Everything from enemy fighters to allied carriers look rough and pixelated and don’t even begin to test the graphical capabilities of the Wii. On top of this, there is a serious issue with model scaling. In one particular mission, you have to destroy an enemy compound which is roughly only double the size of your own aircraft. Last we checked, jets were supposed to seat only one or two people, not a whole battalion of troops. Even enemy battle tanks look like tiny, moving matchboxes – it really is quite ridiculous but thankfully, most (key word there is “most”) objects are scaled appropriately.
Lets put an end to the TV show, Lost.
Heatseeker’s soundtrack is some what of an acquired taste - nothing but rock. Although it’s suited to the game’s theme and design, tracks tend to differ slightly between levels making them feel repetitive. The voice work is also less than desirable as quite often your commander and wingmen will continually repeat phrases such as “Downtown’s down, Downtown’s down,” whenever you’re perform a dive manoeuvre to avoid enemy fire. Their speech is also muffled by purposely added static which is supposed to give the game a certain degree of realism, but in the end, it prevents you from properly hearing mission objectives.
At its core, Heatseeker is unfortunately nothing to get excited about. It has shocking visuals, repetitive voice work and generic gameplay. At the same time though, it has a solid control scheme which would be more than suited to other air-combat titles however, it’s not nearly enough to redeem it.
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