Impressions: Modern Warfare 3 Wii (by Carl B.)

November 9, 2011, by Carl B. - Quality third party support on Wii has been severely lacking since the system's release. There have been the few exceptions – Capcom has been amazing on the system, releasing games like Monster Hunter Tri – but developers in general have handed off Wii ports to smaller teams or scrapped them altogether. Activision has released every major Call of Duty title on Wii except for Modern Warfare 2, and each has gotten better after a poor Call of Duty 3 outing. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 released on Wii yesterday, and after several hours of playing, how does it stack up so far?

Treyarch was tasked with working on the Wii port of Modern Warfare 3. It seems that they really understand how to utilize the system's strengths and hide its weaknesses – like Modern Warfare: Reflex and Black Ops, Modern Warfare 3 on Wii is actually pretty good.

Activision hasn't released any screenshots of the Wii version...
Obviously the visual fidelity of the HD versions is not present in the Wii game. It looks slightly better than Black Ops Wii, which looked pretty good in its own right.

So far the game takes place in more urban environments in the United States. This is a big relief for those of us who were getting pretty tired of the Middle East-set games, and to be honest, there's something really interesting about war games that take place in North America. It certainly hits closer to home as far as immersion goes, similar to what THQ's Homefront was able to accomplish.

Online multiplayer is fully featured in Modern Warfare 3 on Wii. Like the HD versions, the multiplayer is pretty much a copy-paste job of the previous two Call of Duty games. It's really hard to tell the difference between them, other than the new set of guns that are far more fun to use than what was available in Black Ops. I haven't experienced any lag in the matches I've played, but they're only five versus five in team modes. Voice chat via the PDP headset is also utilized.

Surprisingly, the Wii version of Modern Warfare 3 has the online Spec Ops mode. Players are able to team up with other gamers online and take on co-op based missions – it's much more fun than Nazi zombies in my opinion.

If you're on the fence for Modern Warfare 3 on Wii, fear not: this game is good. If you have the option of getting it on Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 that's the better route to go, but Wii owners itching for something to play (because let's face it, nothing has really come out this year on Wii) should consider picking this one up.

A full review will be on iNintendo in the coming days. Stay tuned!