I played this for the Together Retro theme this month of games that came out in Europe and Japan but not America. I didn't think I had any games that fit that bill, at first, until I remembered that I picked this game up AGES ago (when I first moved into this apartment!). I didn't know a ton about it other than it was a Nintendo thing, and I was kinda surprised to see it was a Monolith Software game as well. AJ first described to me as a mixed bag, and that is a sentiment I agree with, albeit I did not enjoy the contents nearly as much as him XP. It took me around 8 hours (and that's with one level being replayed) to beat the story mode on normal mode while rescuing every person possible.
This game is about the "one heck of a day" of Raymond Bryce (aka Ray), a former rescue team member who quit when his partner died in a mission gone wrong. He's called back into action by the FBI to stop a terrorist organization known as STORM (yes, really) who have taken hostage a famous seismologist as well as Ray's partner's little sister (who blames Ray for killing her brother). Over the next 24 hours, Ray goes through a flame tornado, a 9.0+ earthquake, a mega tsunami, a hurricane, a massive flood, and a supervolcanic eruption in his mission to save the girl and save AMERICA.
It's a super cheesy homage to old disaster and action movies, and the VA isn't half bad (it's exactly good enough to fit the tone of what they're doing). Despite this being the Japanese version of the game, there is only an English dub available, which leads me to believe no Japanese dub exists (it's just Japanese subtitles), so even though you couldn't read the instructions on how to do anything, it's somewhat import-friendly in that way. The narrative is definitely the strongest point in the game and ties the rest of the action together, even if some cutscenes can go on for what feels like ages (in a very Monolith Software way). What IS the rest of the action? Well, that's where the mixed bag's uglier bits start to come full center.
Disaster came out in 2008, and as with a lot of early Nintendo-published Wii games, its mechanics are pretty focused around showing off as many Wii gimmicks as possible. As a result, there are four main modes of gameplay: Adventure, Driving, Light Gun, and what I'll just call "Rescue" events. They each deserve their own specific elaborations, so I'll try and give each its dues.
- Adventure: This is composed of running around as Ray with no real action happening. It's largely an activity that fills up the spaces in between the other activities and cutscenes. You can run around and look for people to save and boxes to crush for goodies, and you only need to worry about the occasional quicktime event/next activity starting. Occasionally there will be some active danger you need to get through, like getting through fire that'll burn you, or smoke that'll suffocate you, or getting through an area before a timer runs out, but those are all pretty well done. The camera even has an auto mode in addition to re-positioning it behind you, which is a nice feature. The only seriously clunky parts of this are the platforming. Ray can jump, but he's no Super Mario. The jumping and even the running are stiff and do not feel good, although actual platforming sections are mercifully few and far between, not to mention the hardest ones are always optional. The very first level has a fair bit of platforming in it, which gave me a bit of a worry that the whole game would be like that, but it's luckily fairly unrepresentative of the full product.
- Driving: Driving is (usually) first-person driving sections where you hold the Wiimote like a steering wheel (because of course you do). The controls are acceptable, and the addition of using A as a handbreak to drift is neat, but that's more or less where the positives end. The driving sections are easily the worst parts of the game, as they don't control as well as they need to, visibility is usually either poor or even non-existent (I'm looking at you tsunami level!!!), and they can be (or at least feel) pretty frustratingly long. These sections are utterly dreadful, and it really sucks that you can't skip them at all. The requirement to have to push through the driving sections is easily the #1 thing that would keep me from recommending this game to someone.
- Light Gun: This is one of the game's stronger action elements for sure. Ray very routinely needs to fight STORM soldiers in guided light gun shooting gallery segments done by pointing the Wiimote at the screen. You shoot with B, hide behind cover by holding Z, shake the nunchuk to reload, and even zoom in for better aim and damage by holding C. You can even earn points for doing well at them, and then use those to purchase new guns and upgrade the ones you have. You can even find a special NPC around some maps who will give you tickets to the shooting range that you have access to between levels, and clearing those gives you access to special super weapons! I personally mostly just used the pistols, since they have great range, infinite ammo, and perfectly fine damage if you're doing headshots. That said, I'm sure the other guns are much more useful on hard mode. Some of the boss encounters can drag on a bit and have irksome difficulty spikes (glares at two-jeep battle), but I had a fair bit of fun with this mode even if it can get a bit repetitive after a while.
- Rescue Activities: These are activities you do to save people in peril throughout the game, and they can range from ALL sorts of stuff that you'll do with the Wiimote. Pointing it at areas on their bodies to bandage them if they're hurt, pumping it in time with a rhythm to do CPR to them, waving it out at just the right moment to catch their hand to save them from a fall. They're fun diversions, and some of the better quicktime events.
Speaking of quicktime events, the game does have a LOT that pop up during Adventure points, but they're alright and work well for the most part. Some seemed very unreasonably temperamental with how I needed to waggle the Wiimote. Gestures that had been totally fine an hour ago were suddenly giving me failed results, and that can get really irritating in things like in the last level, where one of the last sections is a long series of quicktime events you can only miss one or two of before you need to restart the section. The game is thankfully very merciful with checkpoints, but there are still times I wish it were even a little more merciful with them. Had this been a Nintendo game that came out these days (well, for one, they probably wouldn't say "shit" in it), the game would probably have the option to just auto-complete an action segment you failed enough, and it'd be much easier to recommend. But this is a game from 2008, and it doesn't have that, and the experience suffers for it.
Verdict: Hesitantly Recommended. The campy presentation is fun and silly, but the game's runtime kinda outstays its welcome. The story is also so silly and fluffy that it makes it kinda difficult to get really invested in, and being invested in seeing the narrative to its conclusion is pretty important if you're gonna stick through the worst of the action sequences. This game is just as entertaining as it is frustrating, and it's something I'd only recommend to people who really like the Wii (i.e. motion controls) and have plenty of patience. Add on top of that that most people who read this would have to import the game to play it, and it's really difficult to justify recommending such a mixed experience with such a potentially high barrier to entry.