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By Keith B (23rd Jul 2007)

First of all, this game isn’t just a film adaptation, it’s also a port. So if you’re familiar with any of the Godfather merchandise, you’ll be familiar with the story of the Blackhand Edition. But don’t worry: Even if you come at this game knowing the films and knowing the earlier game versions, I guarantee you will still find this Wii release as exciting as if the concept of breaking noses for extortion purposes were entirely new to you �" Godfather: Blackhand Edition is a Wii title definitely worth getting.

The game follows a marginal character from the well-known trilogy of films. His story is now foreground and made the center of a gripping narrative. As a kid, he witnessed the killing of his dad by rivaling Mafiosi. At the time, the Don told him to sit tight and wait with his revenge until the right time. Now, it seems, his time has come. Five mafia families are ruling over NYC, and one of the higher up members of Corleone’s family has taken it upon himself to bring you up in the clan. It seems like the rivaling families are conspiring against Corleone, so there’s more than enough work for you to do… To begin with, you design your own character from scratch, and give it a funky name. Like Toni “Macaroni” Clamoni. Something that smacks of wop, and that will help you “get made,” as they say in mob parlance. Once you’re satisfied with your avatar, you hit the streets. More upgrades become available later on, at least if you’ve got the necessary cash. For now, you spend most of your days accruing funds from business partners �" well, perhaps ‘accruing’ is the wrong word, as the process tends to be rather violent.

To do good “business,” respect is everything, if you’re with the mob. The way you behave in the game impacts everyone around you, and modifies how shopkeepers, members of other gangs, or cops will treat you. It sounds simple enough �" only one parameter to manipulate �" but really it is a pretty ingenious way of complicating things in an otherwise fairly linear game experience. So where RPGs have experience points, Godfather has respect points. Basically, they function like skill points that you can spend on your character, and that you can put towards various ends �" turning yourself into a better fighter, getting better at deterring shopkeepers from making all kinds of trouble, or getting along better with the cops. The more respect you’ve earned, the higher-up your position in the family will be. By and by, you can also pick your favorite approach to solving typical mafia problems: you can choose to be more subtle (blackmail, bribery, and the likes become important in this case) and become an “Operator;” conversely, you can choose to just shut up opponents with the good old fist-in-the-mouth technique by becoming an “Enforcer.” To get help with your various duties, you can hire other gang members to form a little posse and help you out.

Besides completing missions and following the narrative, extortion and racketeering are the other main ways of getting respect. Since the missions tend to get a little repetitive after a while, side-jobs such as holding up trucks or doing bank heists can turn out to be almost more fun than following the main story line. But of course, the game developers have done a good job making the missions as varied as possible. During the game, you’ll be planting bombs, carry out contract hits, kill off the odd traitor, and �" of course �" engage in lots of inter-gang shootouts. If you do well at all this, you’ll end up Don yourself. Oh yeah baby, you’ve come a long way since being a little nobody who was looking to suck up to Don Corleone!

Undoubtedly, the most important (and the best!) update to Godfather: Blackhand Edition is its control scheme. The controls in the game are both intuitive and complex. Instead of playing through a tedious tutorial, you learn as you go, and acquire the skills you need later on in the game by and by throughout the earlier missions. When playing, for the most part it’s advisable to hold Wiimote and Nunchuk as if you were boxing in WiiSports. This works well for basic, unarmed confrontations, but also for driving and aiming. When you aren’t armed, you can grab your enemies, shake them around, or strangle them. As soon as you have some gear on you, the Wiimote controls the crosshairs (there’s also an alternate option where all the aiming is done automatically), and it’s pretty much point and shoot. Both Wiimote and Nunchuk respond to your actions precisely and quickly, so moving around, shooting, and driving are a lot of fun. Want some more detail? Okay: So once you’ve gotten hold of an opponent, you can do all sorts of cool stuff to him. It’s here that the intuitive aspects of the control scheme excel, since most of the actions pretty much require you to do in front of your TV set exactly what you’d want to do on the screen. Throwing someone at a wall, down a flight of stairs, or through a window thus works exactly as you’d think it would. The same applies when you want to manipulate objects �" simply pick up that mug o’ beer or baseball bat and do as you please.

Truth be told, this can make you feel a bit weird, in the beginning. Godfather for the Wii is so immersive and realistic that you may feel uncomfortable shaking NPCs up the way you do. Luckily, after a while you let go of all inhibitions and give it a good go. It’s exactly like those leagues of Parents Against Videogame Violence always say! Naw, just kidding �" of course you’ll be able to keep truth and fiction apart, won’t you now! So go on, break some bones and execute ‘undesirables’ in all kinds of mafia-style ways �" just know your limits!

Getting around the streets of New York in various hot rides also works very well. Unfortunately, the driving physics aren’t too realistic, and it’s also in your everyday interactions with the game world that you’ll soon encounter the graphical limitations of the game. But who would still expect graphic wonders from the Wii, at this point? That’s right, nobody, so let’s not be too strict, and just say that Godfather for the Wii looks pretty good. Textures are pretty smooth, most of the effects look quite decent, and most of the animation comes close enough to passing as NextGen. The actual main characters adapted from the movies, for example, look just great. Unfortunately, next to them, your rough-featured avatar looks pretty damn silly. To make things worse, the frame rate appears a little unsteady, and objects have a tendency to appear and disappear at a certain distance.

Luckily, if a game’s sound could be said to make up for it’s graphical shortcomings, then I’d say that Godfather’s soundtrack does the job. The film’s music was awesome, and if you’ve got the rights already, why not throw in a few of the fantastic orchestral pieces from the OST? On top of that, a whole bunch of the famous actors who made up the original cast for the films put in a good word, as it were, so Blackhand Edition isn’t only told as well as an award-winning movie, it even kinda sounds like one!
Godfather for the Wii is an all-around great and atmospheric game. The narrative is engaging, exciting, and very well told. And the game is deservedly M-rated, if you know what I mean! The Wii version also boasts almost twice as many missions as the other versions of the game, a lot more maneuvers, cars, weapons, and execution styles. So while you may not find the Blackhand Edition too challenging, the game’s wide range of fun things to do will definitely keep you busy for many, many hours.