Thor: God of Thunder Wii Review

ystem: Wii, PS3, Xbox 360, DS
Dev: Red Fly Studios
Pub: SEGA
Release: May 3, 2011
Players: 1
Screen Resolution: 480p	Animated Blood, Violence

Thor: God of Thunder for the Wii is a tad better than its HD counterpart. It's still a generic action game, but the Wii's motion controls, coupled with a tighter battle system, make this a bit more fun to play than the button mash fest that was the HD version. Considering we really haven't had any Wii games to play lately, it at least took me longer to get bored with it.

The story is just boring. Loki tricks Thor again, this time getting him to attack other planets. Or something. So Thor smashes things until people get upset, and he eventually realizes what he's done. It was boring. I'm not a Thor fan, and I pretty much ignored whatever story they tried to cram into this game.

The Wii version of the game fares a bit better in gameplay than it does in story. Thor's basic attacks are mapped to the A button, and more powerful attacks are mapped to the motion controls. You can also summon lightning, dodge, perform combos, and do all the other stuff that action games are known for. The game includes a hit counter much like in God of War or Devil May Cry. As the hit counter increases, Thor gains access to more powerful moves. Essentially, the more you attack, the cooler you become, which goes a long way in making combat feel awesome.

Thor earns experience points through battle, which can then be spent on upgrades. Extensions to my health and Odin Force were certainly welcome, and the special abilities granted by equipped runes were also useful. Expanding my attacks, however, never really seemed worth it. Simply mashing the A button will get you through this game.

The levels themselves are mostly linear affairs. Thor walks down what are essentially hallways before coming to what's essentially a room, which locks and forces him to defeat all the enemies inside. However, enemies go down a lot easier in the Wii version than they do in the HD version, so battles don't take nearly as long. As a result, the pacing of the game isn't too slow, and you rarely find yourself having to play battles over. Sure, it also makes the game easier, which isn't a good thing considering you could already mash your way through, but at least it's not tedious.

There are chances (albeit small ones) for exploration in the levels between fights. Finding secret tokens can unlock new concept art and costumes, some of which are modeled off of Thor's classic comic book appearance. Sometimes the levels give way to flight sections, which require you to point at the screen with the Wiimote and defeat enemies with Thor's lighting-based powers. This effectively changes the game into an on-rails shooter for a while, which is a nice change of pace. It still gets repetitive though, since there aren't nearly enough secrets to make exploration worthwhile, and the shooter levels are essentially just button mashing with a pointer.

Boss fights in the Wii version of Thor are actually way more fun than boss fights in the HD version. Almost every boss in the game is absolutely huge. Surtur alone is about three times the size of his HD incarnation. This makes most boss fights extremely cinematic, and they only get better as the game goes on. The final few fights in the game are truly epic in scale.