Wii ForumWii Space

cornyjohn · 06-21-2008, 02:30 PM

Protöthea is a top-down vertical shooter that utilizes both the Wiimote and Nunchuk, resurrected from Ubisoft's less than stellar PC title.

PLOT -- 2/10
Plot? What plot? The game forces players to jump right into the action without knowing anything about what the plot is about. There are no cutscenes, text, or anything of that sort to reveal what is going on, which leaves you bewildered as to why you're even playing the game. Upon beating one of the CRAZILY easy bosses, Protöthea jumps right into the next level. After the last boss, credits roll in silence, still not revealing the reason for the conflict.

CONTROLS -- 5/10
Once you actually figure out what the controls are, they actually aren't half bad. Move with the Control Stick, shoot with A. Bombs can be deployed with B, and your ship can also slow down time with Z. Weapons you pick up can be switched with the D-pad.

You would expect a game that doesn't come with one of those little instruction booklets to at least feature some sort of menu item for a list of controls. However, in this case, your assumption would be incorrect. the game does not include anything of the sort, making you guess at what you're supposed to do. I didn't figure out how to switch weapons until the 6th or 7th level (there are only 8). This is the main reason I gave the controls such a low score.

GAMEPLAY -- 5/10
Gameplay is basically what you would expect from a top-down shooter, just avoid bullets and shoot what you see. You can use a variety of level-specific weapons to shoot your air targets, and bomb the ground units. The air AI is nice because enemy ships don't just travel in a straight line, they actually try to avoid your fire. However, your bombs are useless in later levels, because the ground turrets that existed in early ones are removed. Bosses are FAR too easy, and some aren't actually bosses at all (one was just a base that was defended by enemy ships; blow up the enemy ships and then bomb the base). Slowing down time is a pain, because it lasts only about 5 seconds, far too short to actually be of any use. It also must be switched on or off, which means it can't be used in bursts. The weapons system should have been a little nicer, maybe powering them up with successive pick-ups, but this is a minor problem when compared to Protöthea's various other flaws. The lack of score is absolutely ATROCIOUS. I also have a problem with EVERY freighter you destroy dropping a health item. It makes the game too easy, as you can always count on about half of your health coming back when you kill one.

Beating Normal Mode unlocks Hard Mode, but in my opinion, it's hardly worth it.

GRAPHICS -- 7/10
Protöthea isn't the most visually-pleasing game out there, but it does have some nice special effects. There's a nice sea level at the beginning of the game, and a city one about halfway through. Other than that, it wasn't very impressive. Ships look plain, if you carefully examine explosions, they're grainy and not animated well, and the boss ships aren't much bigger than the freighters you see flying around.

SOUND -- 3/10
The music is a horrible mash-up of techno/rock... Fighter shots are muffled and hard to hear at best... The sound effect for slowing down time is so low it's inaudible... In short, the sound for this game will make you want to play with earplugs. If you don't have those, feel free to resort to banging your head against a hard object for relief.

REPLAYABILITY -- 2/10
If you can beat Protöthea twice, you're amazing. Not only is it a mediocre game, lacking polish in almost every aspect, but it also features no scoring. This is a real drawback, considering I might have been inclined to replay it to beat my score.

In closing, this game is a definite no-go even if you are an uberspaceshooterfangeek. The game plays and feels like it should have stayed on the PC, instead of being dug out of the video game grave to be brought on the Wii. Nothing went very well for this game, in my opinion, and it would be a wise choice just to stay away.

EDIT: I had a freeze-up today, where the Wii totally stopped responding... Had to manually turn it all the way off (red light). I'm deducting a point for that.

FINAL SCORE -- 3/10

Thousandfootwii-mote · 06-21-2008, 02:35 PM

Hmm. Seems like something my dad would like.(Sadly simplistic.)

Blan21 · 06-21-2008, 06:02 PM

thank u! I was thinking I might buy it for a second but it sounds horrible! thanks for saving me from a horrific death by banging my head against a hard object untill I went into a coma and died