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Name: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Reflex

When Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was released, PC, 360 and PS3 owners got to have a slice of the action, but Nintendo Wii owners were absently missed. Why now then has Treyarch - the developers behind some of the Call of Duty games, released the original Modern Warfare two years later on the Wii? It's a good question and one which would probably end in wanting to bring the game to the Wii in anticipation for the upcoming sequel Modern Warfare 2. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Reflex is what Wii owners have been waiting for, no longer will they be restricted to the 1940's in World at War, players will be able to take on various modern day factions with rocket-launchers, grenade-launchers and an assortment of other high-tech weaponry.

The premise behind the plot of Modern Warfare is a fairly simple one but takes place across multiple factions and countries, and then all ties into the same story. A Russian Ultranationalist by the name of Imran Zakhaev is behind it all, he's a terrorist, plain and simple, and it's your job to stop him. The game starts with you onboard a cargo ship with a nuclear bomb inside, as a member of the SAS you're tasked with finding a link to Imran Zakhaev to prove he's going to use the nuclear weapon for his own evil plans to bring mother Russia back to the times of the Soviet Union. As you make your way through the campaign you'll get to play as the SAS in your small squad of elite troops, in others you'll find yourself a part of the USMC where you take part in huge battles as you invade a Middle Eastern country, while it can get confusing jumping from one faction to another, the action comes thick and fast and you'll soon forget whichever side your playing for as you know your ultimate goal is the bring death to any enemies who stand in opposition.

The missions themselves are about as unique as they'll come, not only do you take part in ground battles, some will have you racing from a sinking ship as the screen sways left and right, in others you'll be in an AC-130 gunship, raining death from above on any unfortunate souls who happen to be minding their own business on the ground. It's these types of missions where the game really comes alive and keeps the action fun and involving. The scripted scenes don't offer much replay value but the fun you'll have while participating in them will have you gobsmacked at the screen hoping it never ends. The only downside to this is that the missions and the story itself are over all-too quickly, the campaign itself lasting roughly around five hours. You can of course play through them again once beaten on various difficulty modes, or play through them in an arcade mode which scores you on your performance, but, unfortunately it's only you that will see the score since the game lacks any sort of online leaderboard or a way to share your scores with your friends.

One of the series greatest assets other than the exciting single-player is the games multiplayer. For those gamers who played the game on the other platforms, or World at War on the Wii, the system is mainly the same, you kill your opponents in a variety of game modes and gain experience for doing so, this in-turn allows you to level up, unlocking more weapons and perks as you go. The multiplayer is where most players will be spending their time upon completion since it's such a strong asset to the game, with the ability to create your own classes as you level up and unlock various pieces of equipment or in-game kill streaks such as calling in gunship support, the action is just as intense as the single-player. If you're coming from World at War then you'll remember that the game modes available in multiplayer were pretty sparse in comparison to the other platforms, thankfully Treyarch have thrown in not just the Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch modes but they have also included the objective based types which were originally included in Modern Warfare on the other three platforms. Such modes include; Domination, which is a capture and hold the points affair, and Sabotage, which sees your team planting a bomb on an enemy target. These add some much needed variation to the multiplayer gaming experience, their have however been some omissions which haven't been carried over from the games original interpretation. The Kill Cam which let you see how you was killed from the eyes of your enemy has been removed, which to be fair, isn't anything to write home about, quite a few game-modes are also absent, voice support isn't included either which is disappointing but equally not as surprising with this being a Wii game, those who played World at War may remember the player-cap being eight players online maximum, Modern Warfare has upped this to ten so now you can have five-vs-five matches. Despite this, the game offers one of the best, if not, the best multiplayer online experience you'll be able to get on your Wii to date, a big claim.

The controls are of course going to be different with this being a Wii game for anyone coming from one of the other platforms, to play you'll be using the Wii Remote and Nunchuk, the Wii Remote to aim and the Nunchuk to move, players of either World at War or Metroid Prime will fit right in here since the control scheme is very similar, newer players shouldn't find it to difficult picking up the controls, they are fairly forgiving. The game does allow the customisation of the controls which is a blessing, the button assignments can be changed and so can the movement sensitivity, the "dead zone" which is basically an invisible box on screen where your screen starts turning as your reticule hits the screen can also be configured, for players serious about gaming online with Modern Warfare on the Wii this is the holy grail of customisation and it'll probably take a few games to find the correct setting which your comfortable with, but it can make a lot of difference to your aiming once changed. There is support for the Wii Zapper if you fancy it, we tried it, and to be honest you're better off staying well away from using it, while it's comfortable to use and feels more realistic as you look down the sights at your enemies, it makes the game much more difficult to play since the controls becoming more limited from the way you hold it. It's a nice feature, but given the shape of the Zapper it makes the experience harder, not easier.

Graphically the game does become a little blurry at times, don't expect the visuals you found on the other three platforms the game was released on, but don't let this put you off. The Wii isn't a HD console and for what you're getting, the game more than lives up to its name. The sounds are the same as the original however, from the mighty explosions of impending doom to the intense action-music as you progress on-ward.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Reflex is a port through and through, does this make it a bad thing? Of course not, the game does contain a few minor omissions from its original incarnation but these are easily forgiven. The original game is two years old now but playing through on the Wii is equally as exciting as the time we played through back in 2007, the action packed gameplay is still there which is really what counts. With its incredible multiplayer gameplay, great controls, and the ability to customise them, Treyarch have done well by this game, any Wii owner looking for a good first-person shooter to play on would be silly not to pick this up.