I could start out this review by mentioning my dire convictions about being sent SEGA’s Ghost Squad to review for the Nintendo Wii. However, I’ll spare you the repetition and skip right to the punchline; I had enjoyed previous arcade light gun games but was not exactly sure about how effective a light gun game would be on the Wii. Thus far in the console’s history, the Wii has produced a total of zero good shooters, with the exception of Resident Evil 4 (if you can even call that a “shooter”), a port from the Gamecube version. Other companies had tried to incorporate the Wii’s ‘point-and-shoot’ capabilities, but mostly all of them had failed. Could SEGA, known for such console/light gun cooperations such as Area 51, House of the Dead and Virtua Cop, revive the dying genre? Does Ghost Squad live up to the esteemed name of its SEGA-created predecessors? Hit the jump to find out!

In short, no, Ghost Squad does not live up to the likes of other SEGA light gun games on the Saturn or Dreamcast. Unfortunately, my preliminary worries about Ghost Squad were well-placed. Upon first popping the disc into my Wii, I noticed that the interface is horrid. It may instill a little sentimentality in the hearts of true light gun game fans, but in total, it looks like something cast directly out of a bad 1997 Schwarzenegger film. It’s blocky, clunky and wants to be too futuristic for its own good.

The interface gives you three options at first: Party mode, in which you can choose to play through the game with up to three friends, Arcade mode, which allows you to go solo through the game, and Training Mode, which seems self-explanatory. As I like to think of myself as a light gun vet, fresh home from the jungles of a virtual ‘Nam, I chose to go it alone in Arcade mode, testing my reflexes against the best that SEGA had to offer.

As I soon found out, Ghost Squad’s gameplay is one of its finer points; I almost never had an issue with the Wiimote not being read efficiently, and my gun shot where I thought myself to be pointing it. The gameplay follows, for the most part, the formula of a quintessential light gun game; the game takes the player, as a government operative, through various rooms, jungles, etc while you shoot every bad guy in sight. Occasionally, the player will dawn a sniper rifle and will get to take out enemies from afar. Honestly, though, it runs consistent with the gameplay of every light gun game that I’ve ever played, awarding you for “Quick Shots” and headshots and boasting a boss battle at the end of every level. The one problem with the boss battles that I encountered was that they were all more or less the same, and each took no ingenuity or cunning to take down. Overall, however, I was pleased with the gameplay, and the fact that it was smoothly transitioned to the Wii.

Where Ghost Squad really begins to fall flat is in the length of the game. The game is only three levels long, and each level only takes around 10 minutes at most to complete, which makes it … only 30 minutes long? The first time through, I beat it in only 23 or so minutes, and my guess is that it won’t take the typical player much longer than that. The one question undoubtedely hanging over everybody’s heads is, what gives SEGA? Creating one piece of crap Sonic game after another is one thing, but actually releasing this game with only 30 or so solid minutes of gameplay is the utter definition of “suck.” There are a few unlockables to … unlock, such as new weapons and gameplay modes (like Ninja mode where you play as ninjas and chuck throwing stars at baddies instead of shooting them) that you can receive by leveling up your character, but all in all, there is only a very small replayability factor to this short game. The game’s a blast the first time through with four players, but I doubt that, with the relative ease of the game, anybody out of those four players will be itching to play again.

Ghost Squad would have greatly benefited from some sort of online mode, where you could join with your friends to take out baddies over the ‘net, but the game only offers a high score list, which is actually a step up from the slim online functionality that most Wii games offer. Arcade light gun game fans rejoice; the game’s graphics can be compared to those of an actual late-90s arcade light gun game, blocky and frazzled.

In retrospect, if you find yourself madly attached to light gun games (it’s alright to let go, you know…), then you may want to pick this up at a fairly priced $29.99. However, if you’re a tight-walleted short-lengthaphobe then steer far clear of Ghost Squad.

Pros
- “HIGH CAP MAGAZINE GET!!!”
- Gameplay (especially sniping parts) is fun
- Priced at $29.99

Cons
- Very short; only 30 minutes long
- Little to no replayability
- Priced at $29.99, far too much for a game of its length

? Will SEGA continue to churn out virtual diarreah until the company implodes?