Emergency Heroes

Emergency Heroes
Emergency Heroes
North American cover art
Developer(s)Ubisoft Reflections
Ubisoft Barcelona[1][2]
Publisher(s)Ubisoft
Platform(s)Wii
Release
  • NA: May 27, 2008
  • AU: June 12, 2008
  • EU: June 13, 2008
Genre(s)Driving
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Emergency Heroes is a 2008 mission-based driving game developed by Ubisoft Reflections and Ubisoft Barcelona and published by Ubisoft for the Nintendo Wii.

Story

The story centres around Zach Harper a former cadet of the futuristic Emergency Heroes team, an emergency service that combines the roles of police, firefighter and Emergency medical services. Harper was forced to quit the program after his actions led to the alleged death of a fellow cadet. He is called back up by Captain Walters after the team is overwhelmed by a wave of disasters and criminals afflicting the city. Harper must navigate through the streets of the city of San Alto, putting out fires, rescuing trapped citizens, clearing wreckage and chasing down criminals.[3]

Gameplay

The game takes the form of a driving game with the vehicles controlled using the Wii motion controls.[4] As a first responder in the game, the player undertakes a series of missions, all of which are performed through racing through a location. Simple side activities are also scattered around the map.[5]

Each mission requires a range of driving abilities utilising a specific vehicle. For example, the Rescue Buggies are centered on making jumps, while police missions are structured as car chases. There are 12 different variations of rescue vehicles in the game including; Police Pursuit, Police Road Clearance, Firefighter or Rescuer (the other 3 being criminal vehicles). The game also features a two player mode for two players.

Reception

Emergency Heroes was met with negative reception upon release, as GameRankings gave it a score of 45%,[6] while Metacritic gave it 41 out of 100.[7]

In their review, GameSpot gave the game a score of 2.5 out of ten calling it "Terrible". They were highly critical of the "sterile city", "repetitive missions" and "inconsequential plot", and commented that neither the single player, described as a "slog through dull missions", or multiplayer were any good.[4]

Eurogamer, giving the game a 5/10, said that the game's controls weren't too bad and that it might appeal to a "five year-old boy" but were critical of the graphics of the game, describing the environment as looking "like it belongs in a PSone game".[9]

See also

  • Emergency Mayhem, another Wii-exclusive game released in the same year involving emergency vehicles

References

  1. ^ Magrino, Tom (March 31, 2008). "Ubisoft issues call for Emergency Heroes". GameSpot. Archived from the original on November 6, 2014. Retrieved April 10, 2015.
  2. ^ Hatfield, Daemon (March 31, 2008). "Ubisoft Declares Emergency Heroes". IGN. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved April 10, 2015.
  3. ^ a b Ronaghan, Neal (June 22, 2008). "Emergency Heroes". Nintendo World Report. Archived from the original on April 14, 2015. Retrieved April 10, 2015.
  4. ^ a b c Cocker, Guy (July 1, 2008). "Emergency Heroes Review". GameSpot. Archived from the original on November 23, 2015. Retrieved April 10, 2015.
  5. ^ a b "Emergency Heroes Review". Official Nintendo Magazine: 86. July 2008. Archived from the original on October 7, 2014. Retrieved April 10, 2015.
  6. ^ a b "Emergency Heroes for Wii". GameRankings. Archived from the original on 13 August 2010. Retrieved April 10, 2015.
  7. ^ a b "Emergency Heroes for Wii Reviews". Metacritic. Archived from the original on October 13, 2015. Retrieved April 10, 2015.
  8. ^ Hayward, Andrew (June 2, 2008). "Emergency Heroes". 1UP.com. Archived from the original on 4 June 2011. Retrieved April 10, 2015.
  9. ^ a b Gibson, Ellie (September 3, 2008). "Wii Roundup (Page 2)". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on September 24, 2015. Retrieved April 10, 2015.
  10. ^ Zacarias, Eduardo (June 16, 2008). "Emergency Heroes - WII - Review". GameZone. Archived from the original on October 6, 2008. Retrieved April 10, 2015.
  11. ^ Van Leuveren, Luke (June 20, 2008). "Emergency Heroes Review". PALGN. Archived from the original on January 11, 2009. Retrieved April 10, 2015.