Activision has done a great job in bringing the Wii’s unique control in line, ensuring that individuals will have to go and flail the Wii controller around to conduct any type of attack. Fortunately for these players, the control scheme is such that attacks are very intuitive and in many cases mirror exactly what the character will do on the screen. Activision has honed the scheme thus down to a science, and aside from getting a full body suit worked out, it is hard to see how conceivably the controls could get much tighter.
Despite the graphical limitations of the Wii compared to either the Playstation 3 or Xbox 360, Activision has done a great job making the graphics virtually indistinguishable. The inclusion of a more active role in defeating enemies through the use of the Wii controller may give the edge to the Wii iteration of the game; individuals feel as if they themselves are vanquishing the foes in a way that is simply not possible with typical controller-based systems. The cutscenes, general storyline, and overall feel of the narrative are similar no matter which iteration of Kung Fu Panda picks up, but individuals will have to choose a specific platform to play on. Do individuals want to have a workout, do they wish to have slightly sharper graphics and a game play style that may be more common to them, or what? As long as individuals have a lot of space to be playing the game, the fact is that there is a similar multiplayer mode between the Xbox 360 and Wii versions, meaning that up to four individuals can be flailing around the room trying to knock each other out (in reality or in game, I’m not sure).
With only minor graphical tweaks to upgrade the game for the years that would pass, I could conceivably see Activision using the same time of engine and game play style for any sequels to Kung Fu Panda that may be made. With Activision having things on lock down, what they have made is a Wii game that should take the place of Wii Sports as the game that collections of individuals will play if they get together. If you one a Wii, make sure to pick up a copy of Kung Fu Panda whenever you can make it out to the store: I can guarantee that you will have tons of fun.
Rating: 8.7/10
Kung Fu Panda (Wii) / 2008 Activision / http://www.activision.com / http://www.kungfupandagame.com /