Scarface hands-on: The Wiimote chainsaw

It would be easy to pass off Scarface on Wii as a cynical attempt to eke more cash out of what was a very lucrative (and well received) game on PS2 and Xbox. In fact before GamesRadar was given the chance to get hands-on with the game, that's exactly what we were thinking - clumsily integrated Wii controls, identical (if not worse) graphics, a developer looking at us through sad eyes going through the motions of trying to sell a rehashed game as a new, exciting project.

But, encouragingly, we were wrong. Difficult as it may be to take a game originally designed for regular joypad control and make it work effectively with the Wii's motion sensing device, Radical has had a lot of fun taking the most controversial elements of Scarface and having you do them with exaggerated hand actions. It would be bold to say it actually works better than with a Dual Shock or an Xbox controller, but it's certainly a lot more involving, and ultimately more amusing.

Here's our rundown of the five reasons why Scarface might just be the best example of porting an existing third-party franchise to the Wii and not botching it up in the process:

#1 The Chainsaw
It's clear this is the main selling point of Scarface Wii, and Radical is especially proud of it. On a normal controller it's just a case of holding down the fire button and waggling the stick a bit - on Wii the whole controller vibrates, and crucially, emits a loud roar through the built-in speaker when you rev it up.

When you select the weapon, it makes a low throbbing noise so you know it's cooked up and ready to slice. To use it, holding down the A button disengages the camera control from the Wiimote (otherwise movement of the controller would cause the camera to move too) and then different slashing movements cause Tony to butcher his enemies on screen with clinical efficiency. Sooner or later you'll be off the sofa thrashing around the room like Leatherface on heat.

Get a decent combo together and you can perform the ultimate sadist special move: remove head, legs and arms in a bloody fountain leaving behind a mangled body stump and a pile of twitching limbs. Whoop loudly. Feel a bit wrong about whooping quite so loud. Put lightly it's strong material for a Wii game and combined with our next reason, deliciously tasteless.

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