Score
Gameplay:	8
Graphics:	7
Sound:	9
FunFactor:	8
PlasmaFactor:	8
Overall:	8

Scarface: The World is Yours Review
August 15, 2007 by Ryan Mandarino

Every once in awhile, a game comes around that just makes you say, "Did I just hear what I think I did?" That was my original thought as I started up my copy of Scarface for the Wii. From the first few seconds of cut scenes you are inundated with words and phrases that only Tony Montana, the leading man, could spew out. There were a few moments in there where I had to check the games case to make sure that I was really playing this game on the Wii. While Scarface is not for the weak of heart, it does negate all of those kiddy game comments made against the system. Folks, Tony Montana is back and he is taking over Miami.

Say hello to my little friend

For anyone who has seen the movie, you know that Tony Montana goes out in a blaze of glory. This might have lead to a bit of an issue for Vivendi Games as they did not want to mirror the movie so instead, they rewrote the final scene. Instead of Tony dying inside his mansion, he survives the onslaught of gunfire and escapes. Poor Tony, once a grand Cuban coke lord, has now been reduced to nothing. You are shown glimpses of what takes place after the escape as Tony plans to retake everything that was striped from him and get revenge on those who took part in it.

Before you begin, the game takes you through a short tutorial that will help you get used to the Wii controls. After playing a couple of shooters on the Wii, I was very skeptical. After just a few minutes of playing around, the controls felt extremely natural to me. Basically, you choose the speed at which your pointer moves which can allow for quick turning. By hitting down on your control pad, Tony immediately faces the opposite direction. You move around by the thumb stick on the nunchuck control, target with the "Z" button and fire with "B". You can even taunt enemies by flicking the nunchuck in an upward motion like you are giving them the finger.

Scarface is not just about firing your weapon and hitting a target, you get to aim at specific body parts. The game keeps track of blowing off heads, limbs and even kidney shots. The better that you become at shooting specific areas of the body, the more boost you will get for your rage meter. Once your rage meter is full, you can go into a drug crazed killing mode, by shaking the Wiimote, where you become invincible and have unlimited ammo. You can easily tell when you have entered this mode, as your screen will turn blood red. Once your training is complete you are ready to take on the world and rebuild your once grand empire.

The game starts you off as your mansion gets overrun by everyone who wants you dead. You quickly grab your gun and start making your way to safety. Basically, this means that you blow holes in everyone who stands in your way. You will meet up with a couple of your friends as they try to get you onto the grounds and out of sight. As expected, they don’t last to long and you eventually find yourself speeding away sporting a couple of extra holes in your clothes. You will notice a menu screen that gives goes over your accomplishments, but I will get into that a bit later.

After a short cut scene, it’s time for you to take your town back over. To do so, you must meet up with old friends willing to assist you. First things first, it’s time to get your mansion back. Before doing so you get a chance to mess around with the Dealer menu and possibly the Heat Menu if you have been bad. Both are the same and anyone who has ever kicked off in a Madden Football title will feel right at home. When a deal is about to go down you will be presented with a meter. You hit the "A" button to start the meter and hit the "A" button again to stop it. The trick is to stop the meter in an exact area. If you let the meter go past this area, the deal will not go through. Its fairly simple to master, but does get a bit harder for some of the later missions.

Once you have your mansion back, its time to rebuild your cocaine empire. This is done by starting street wars, selling cocaine, buying businesses as drug fronts, and raising your reputation level. Soon enough, you will have the opportunity to call entire neighborhoods your own and run your drugs out of warehouses. With money that you collect you can add accessories to your mansion, hirer drivers, and assassins. After each main story mission is complete you will have a menu that shows how well you did. If you want to know the size of your "Balls", this will be your favorite screen.

It’s your momma’s…

This is probably Scarface’s weakest point as the graphics can only be so good on the Wii. You can run the title at a max 480p, which is almost the equivalent of the Xbox version. The world looks pretty good as you’re cruising around, but you will notice some slight issues with up-close shots, as it’s very easy to see the individual polygons and the jaggies. A big bonus was there was very little to no slowdown in frame rate, even with bullets and body parts flying everywhere.

Cock-a-Roach

The voice acting is done so well in the game you swear that the person voicing Tony was Al Pacino. As stated earlier, Tony has a lot of his movie lines in the game and it becomes very difficult to find a sentence not littered with profanity. Even Bam Margera has his own little voiceover. The normal sounds like cars, gunfire, and screams of innocent bystanders getting run over by your car are all done pretty well.

Taking back my turf

Blowing people away with the Wiimote! There was something satisfying about shooting the arm off of an enemy with a well-placed Wiishot and watching him squirm like a stuck pig. Rage mode added some extended enjoyment as your enemies surrounded you. You’d just laugh, shake the Wiimote, and watch the carnage.

Chico

I have to say; all of the profanity being sprouted out in the game had me worried a bit. I had to make sure my two little girls we fast asleep before pulling out my copy of Scarface. This however helped pull you into the world of Tony Montana and his duties as a drug lord. As an added bonus, there are a couple "yo momma" jokes, explicit of course, that had me rolling on the floor like a drug lord rolling in his stash.

 

Rewritten Ending

With a seemingly unlimited amount of side missions, good game play, and all out destruction, Scarface is worth picking up. The biggest problem I see here is the cost of the title if you have already played it on other systems. Is the game really worth the $49.99 price tag when on other systems it’s a low as $19.99? Probably not! However if you have never played the title and enjoy the GTA style of play, I would point you into the direction of Scarface. Heck, what other violent, bad language spewing, and drug dealing game are you going to play on you Wii you "Cock-a roach!"