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The Destiny of Zorro Nintendo Wii

Format:
Nintendo Wii

Genre:
Fighting

Buy/Support:
Support Andy, click to buy via us...

The Destiny of Zorro is a great idea on the Wii. It offers a novel and interactive visit to Zorro's yesteryear morals and unproblematic sword wielding solutions to the bad guys. But without MotionPlus support it struggles to hold the attention, and the fun is short lived.

It wasn't until Antonio Banderas played the swashbuckler in film that Zorro made the transition from books to other media. And while it's hard to match the classic series of books, The Destiny of Zorro gets pretty close to reproducing a first hand feeling of sword wielding heroics.

Perhaps the most important aspect of the game is the swordplay. Being a Zorro game, they had to get this spot on. Although it has its moments, most of the time this struggles to compete with the flowing balletic moves the masked man became famous for.

Novice and young players will find the controls a little complex. Basic fencing is achieved by gesturing the Wii-mote in the air. It's energy of movement rather than accuracy that is required here. My four year old loved jumping around the living room pretending to be Eril Flin (or as he would say Ben-10). But even he tired a little when he realised it didn't matter how he did it, and often his sister would beat him by similar random movements.

You strike your opponent with these gestures, but to hurt them you need to fill your strike meter. Hold the B button and waggle frantically to use some of the green meter and inflict damage.

This meter also enables you to perform special Z moves. These have various effects - healing, movement, special jumps and the like - and can help turn the flow of the battles. To pull these Z moves off you need to draw a Z on the screen. This proved more than frustrating for my younger offspring who often struggle with accurate gestures.

All this is interspersed with a little platforming relief. But in the main the focus is on the sword fighting, and rightly so considering the best bits of the books and TV shows.

The Destiny of Zorro ticks the boxes but doesn't do a lot more. Those wanting to re-live the Robin good-doing and general foiling of bad guys will be disappointed by how muted the story is. Those, perhaps younger players, wanting to dress up and leap about with their latest hero, may find the action a little sedate.

The best fun we had was working together father and son, but all the time we did have the sense of being more committed to the whole thing than the game itself.

Written by Andy Robertson

You can support Andy by buying The Destiny of Zorro



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Andy Robertson writes the Family Gamer column.

"Videogame reviews for the whole family, not just the kids. I dig out videogame experiences to intrigue and interest grownups and children. This is post-hardcore gaming where accessibility, emotion and storytelling are as important as realism, explosions and bravado."

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