Let’s get down to this quickly because I’m tired and I know I couldn’t sleep comfortably without saying what I need to say about these games. There’s been a lot of grief thrown in High Voltage Software’s direction because of the claimed generic look of The Conduit. Now, my argument would generally be that it’s no more generic than any other scifi FPS out there but even if it were a design-by-numbers looking game the deciding factor shouldn’t be about it’s look, the look of a game should only ever be a supporting facet of the overall experience. My concern has always been whether or not the game is fun and until today I had no way of knowing this.

The single round of multiplayer I played in The Conduit evoked a sense of arcade-y joy that I can only compare to how I felt when I played TimeSplitters 2. Yet even as I realized that High Voltage had so dramatically raised the bar for quality shooters on the Wii, I was still completely floored by amazing potential shown in the demo I played of The Grinder.

My full impressions are after the break if you’d care to read them. (I totally would if I were you.)

So in my game of The Conduit I was set up against four other people at other kiosks and we were just playing a standard deathmatch variant. I was an easy target for about half a dozen kills while I was getting used to the controls, but after five minutes I was comfortable enough with what became a very natural feeling control layout that I ended up dominating the rest of the game. The look acceleration felt just right and it wasn’t often that I found myself pointing so far off the screen that the reticule would jump around. Everything that you’d need to do in any FPS was easily accessible on the Wiimote and Nunchuck. By default The D-Pad is used for weapon selection and zoom, the Z-button enacts a soft lock-on feature, and thrusting the Wiimote and Nunchuck would activate either a fierce melee attack or cause you to throw a grenade.

The High Voltage people assured me it was all fully customizable but I didn’t feel the desire to change a thing. I know that using the Wiimote’s pointer and motion sensitivity necessarily results in the loss of precision control in an FPS, but I cannot easily relay to you how much more gratifying it is to kill someone with a grenade you lobbed yourself with a flick of the wrist as opposed to just hitting a shoulder button. Likewise, pushing the Wiimote in a stabbing motion to instigate a melee attack feels immensely satisfying. Playing multiplayer in The Conduit was the first time I’ve experience an FPS that has what feels like a satisfying flow to the the gameplay as opposed to just rewarding the twitchiest responses. It may look clumsy and unspectacular on screen, but from my experience I’m confident in ranking it among the new batch of Wii games that have finally got the right feel for the Wiimotes down.

And then there’s The Grinder. I had heard rumors that the game would be like Left 4 Dead for the Wii, but I didn’t expect it to actually be Left 4 Dead for the Wii. The game has the same kitschy feel that Left 4 Dead has via film effects like grain and dust, though High Voltage says that they’re actually pulling this approach from their previous efforts in Hunter: The Reckoning. The demo area I ran through in co-op mode with Eric from High Voltage was this slightly claustrophobic rust-colored canyon and shanty house filled with nosferatu-esque vampire demons. The game’s being built using the same engine as The Conduit and it totally shows.The two games are very visually different, but the feel of the controls are very similar.

By the end of the first wave of vampires I was successfully shooting, punching, and throwing explosives at hordes of creatures and by the time we got to the Werewolf boss we just wailed on him together with molotovs and assault weapons. The build I played was very rough and this was clear from the start what with certain enemies behaving weirdly or altogether failing to spawn, but as fun as The Grinder was to play I knew that most of what the game would be by the time it launches still needs to be properly developed and ironed out. So with the understanding that what I played was only a glimpse at the vast potential of The Grinder I very well think it may be the upcoming Wii game that I am most excited about.