Info about Video Games
Boot Camp Academy
Developers and publisher don’t want their Wii games to fall into the common group, more often knows as the “Just another Wii party game”. This one is a Wii title, and a party title, that is not going to be thrown into that special deal bin at the local games store. This title shines out among the rest and it’s not just because of the great artwork on the cover.
In Boot Camp Academy the players are being trained for an impending world war and being in this army is almost as funny as watching the Policy Academy movies. The training will involve activities from learning to drive a tank to peeling potatoes and washing dishes, through to shooting different guns, push-ups and rope climbing. This sounds great and it gives the impression of a well crafted game, with some elaborate controls and an impeccable interface to give a new meaning to party games. But that’s not what the developers did. The controls are simple and almost always explained in 3 steps. The rules and simple and the game can be explain in its entirety in five minutes.
Then why do I feel that this game can be crowned above the rest? Simply because the game just has it. The range of 19 mini games give the player snap shots of old arcade games: there are side scrollers, space invaders and shooter games. Boot Camp Academy gives the player the fun feeling without the search for the next 50c or even 20c (for the much older generation) [hey, I remember 20c games! – ed].
With most Wii titles it comes as a standard that player will need to play levels or complete tasks to unlock extra games or content in the game. Some party titles get this wrong by forcing single player game-play to unlock extras. This title refreshingly has no unlocks; from the first time the title is inserted into the drive the quick play has all the available games. One would think that this would make it less of a title, but the different approach seems better than a failed one. It might be more expensive to have more fun because a nunchuk is almost always required and this adds up when there are 4 players. The game does have the option of everyone sharing, but everyone using the same controller makes the mini-games a bit too long.
Boot Camp puts a single player through drills and has the player run through hoops like a circus animal but “we’ll make a man out of you yet, solder!” The War mode is where most people will return to the game and bring their friends with. This lays out territories to fight over with mini-games as weapons. It’s like risk minus the dice but with exercise because after a few rounds of pretend push-ups players will feel the burn.
There are two difficulty settings in the game – easy and hard. Hard unlocks an extra page of instructions to battle the added complexities in the party games. The standard characters are varied enough to not prompt every player to make their own, but customization is available for those players that want something more personal. Just in case you missed the point and are still wondering why this title is so great, consider the unexpected humour that is brought in at the oddest moments. Players will find their characters doing push-ups with one hand and then no hands, depending on the prowess of the player. Climb a rope with no hands, relying rather on the strength of your abs to ‘power-crunch’ you upwards. Now don’t try these at home without the Wii!
All in all Boot Camp Academy rounds up to be a well thought out collection of mini games that all Wii parties should have.
• At A Glance
With tons of humour and lots of accessible mini-games, this one might win the party-game war!
• Developer: Ubisoft
• Publisher: Ubisoft
• Distributor: Megarom
• Platform
Wii