bit-tech Shopping: Electronic Arts Godfather: Blackhand Edition (Wii)

Rating: 10

Time with product: 1 Month

Strengths: Great game similar to Grand Theft Auto.

Weaknesses: Graphics leave a little bit to be desired.

Summary: All in all a very fun game. Lots of excitement and twists along the way. Game follows the Godfather movie and you play a rising gangster in the Corleone family. Very mature themes with strong language, adult themes and violence.

Rating: 8

Time with product: 4 Days

Strengths: Solid controls

Weaknesses: Visually dated

Summary: Glad to see this title make it over to the Wii with its solid Wii motion controls. If you've played the game on other systems, there is new content in the Blackhand Edition and the Wii controls are very tight. It was a delight to play and is a title worth playing again. I highly recommend this title for your Wii!

Rating: 8

Time with product: 6 Months

Strengths: Great source title, great port

Weaknesses: Motion controls mapped only for right-hand use

Summary: Godfather was a decent action title on previous platforms, drawing from the epic Godfather movie trilogy. On Wii, it comes together more fully by really drawing you into the action. Aiming is excellent with the Wiimote pointer, while you've never experienced immersion as when you grab a guy by his coat lapels and slam him back against a wall. A fine title previous, and an even better one on the Wii.

Rating: 8

Time with product: 2

Strengths: Fun open world gameplay, Wii controls

Weaknesses: Graphic and sound dropouts

Summary: The Godfather: Blackhand Edition is the Wii version of the original game that came out for the PS2. What the main selling point for this version was the inclusion of Wii motion controls. This includes shaking the controls in a variety of directions for different results. For example, if you have an NPC by the collar and shake the Wiimote and nunchuck, you'll start choking them. If you move the controllers to the left or right you'll slam the NPC. They might seem annoying to some but these little motions made me feel a little more like the character I was playing.I'm not sure if this was in the PS2 version but background graphics drawn in pretty late. You'll be running down the street then all of a sudden the background draws in. Same thing with women NPCs. It'll look like they're wearing a long sleeve dress but then as you get closer they're actually wearing a short sleeve dress. The character audio also wasn't present twice during gameplay.The Godfather: Blackhand Edition is still pretty fun despite it's drawbacks. Add to the fact that there's very little in terms of sandbox games makes this a must for those looking for some GTA style gameplay.

Rating: 8

Time with product: 1 Week

Strengths: Many types of missions/ Highly customizable character/ Large City to explore

Weaknesses: It can be easy to get lost in the city

Summary: One of the first things you do in the Goadfather is design your character. There are virtually thousands of combinations of facial features to choose from. The game is very open ended, you can choose to follow the story, or choose side missions, or if you want, you can just run around beating pedestrian and stealing cars. The city is huge, it's so big that you have to steal a car just to get around, walking would take to long. I really enjoyed this game, and I've never even seen the Godfather movies! This is a great game and I would highly recommend it to anyone, especially fans of the movies.