Note: The Wiire editors will be updating this page throughout E3 as further impressions are gathered.
Jesse Rifkin, The Wiire Chief Video Producer
New IPs are always an adjustment, especially to dedicated Nintendo fans. Project H.A.M.M.E.R was probably the title that surprised me the most on the first day at E3. Of course, that's becuase I didn't get a chance to play it. The graphics, although far from polished, looked really good. The game itself seemed like a lot of smash n' bash fun.
When I actually played it, however, I was woefully disappointed. As I expected, the demo was big on action and completely ignored story, which was apparent enough when you begin the level and a text box pops up saying "Your Mission: Destroy All Enemies". Duh...
Basically you are a guy who goes around with a big hammer and you have to smash up every robot you see (you can also smash parts of the envoronment). You can do a regular smash, a charge-up smash, and a spin attack. Pretty simple, and I'm not going to say I didn't have any fun, because who doesn't love smashing things?
The major problem was in the controls. In my opinion, such a simple game should not have such counter-intuitive play. I understand that they wanted to use the cool 3d positioning functionality of the wiimote, but they did a very poor job of incorporating it into this game. Basically, what kills this game is that whenever the pointer moves off the screen, your character was incapable of attacking. So what would happen is after doing a spin attack or a charge-up smash, the pointer would end up somewhere unpredictable, usually off-screen. Since the pointer is just a little red dot it's not exactly what your eye naturally pays attention to when enemies come barreling down the street at you.
Here's pretty much how my experience with this game went: I would do a special move, then be running around unable to attack until the Nintendo rep moved my hand to guide the pointer back for me. A cute, blonde girl teaching a rugged, young man like myself how to play an action game? How embarrasing is that? The whole experience was totally not cool.
Perhaps this game just takes some getting used to, but there's nothing really amazing about it that would make me want to play it until I understand it. In my opinion, Project H.A.M.M.E.R. will probably get quietly swepped under the table in the wake of all the other incredible games Nintendo has lined up for the Wii.
