Ocean Commander [Wii]

Ocean Commander is back again? Why? This futuristic underwater shooter came out on the PC back in 2006. It sucked. The next year it floated on to the Playstation 2. It still sucked. Then it was ported on the Nintendo DS in 2008. Smaller screen, same amount of suckage. Now it's 2009 and Ocean Commander is gracing the Wii. Listen fellas, re-releasing the same crappy game with different controls doesn't make it any more fun, especially when the controls are even worse than the original.

The plot of Ocean Commander is trivial, but essentially it's the future and you have a super badass submarine that looks like a Fisher Price toy. You're fighting off aliens, or terrorists or something, shooting in 360 degrees. There are about 20 levels of underwater shooting, as well as a survival mode.

The game uses a couple different control schemes. Players can use just the Wii Remote, aiming at the screen, while using the D-pad to fire. This feels awkward and clunky, so thankfully players can plug in the nunchuk and use the analog stick to steer the ship. Still, even like this using the Wii remote feels weird. It's not as precise as the DS touch screen, and not as simple as using an analog stick.

Ocean Commander is bad in all the same reasons it was bad the last three times. The first and foremost of which is the fact that it's boring. This is interactive Ambien, people. Oh sure there are lasers and fireballs and special attacks, but it's all set in a dozen identical levels, with the same few enemies slowly swimming towards you.

The upgradeable weapons could offer something interesting to the gameplay, but instead just make everything too easy. Firing off bullets, lasers and missiles at the same time tends to obliterate everything. There's not a lot of challenge at all in the early levels, and by the time the game's enemies catch up to the strength of your weapons, the game is over.

It certainly doesn't help that enemies drop way too many powerups. Health packs and super moves rain down numerous times in a level, insuring that I never even came close to dying. Often times the health powerup drops right before the boss, completely healing you. I appreciate a little pick me up, but the developers basically held your hand here.

Nothing looks good, since the graphics are low budget designs from three years ago. The backgrounds are bland and dull, often blending in with the characters. After numerous way too long levels of the same boring backgrounds the game will switch somewhere new, like a volcano, where you get that boring background for a few more levels.

Closing Comments
We've seen Ocean Commander way too many times. It's not like the developers add new levels, or change the difficulty, or add anything that would make somebody consider purchasing the game. It's just the same, way too short, way too easy shooter with a gimmick that wasn't as revolutionary as it claims to be, even back in 2006. Stop releasing this game, it's never going to be fun.

©2009-05-12, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved