Emergency Mayhem

Emergency Mayhem - (Wii)
Developer: Supersonic
Format: Wii
Genre: Arcade

It's like the boring bits of Casualty, The Bill and London's Burning all rolled into one

Emergency Mayhem was originally planned for the PS2 and Xbox all the way back in 1995. The company in charge of development was Acclaim (the folks who used to be behind the fantastic Burnout games), but due to one thing and another this arcade/mini-game hybrid never made it off the operating table. Some may say that perhaps it should have stayed there.

As the city teeters on the edge of collapse, players take charge of the emergency services and attempt to bring order to a mad metropolis called Crisis City. You'll be wearing the hats of the police, fire and paramedic departments as various instructions from HQ crackle in through the Wii Remote speaker.

Jump behind the wheel of a fire truck, ambulance or police patrol car and race, against the clock, through the bustling city streets, dodging traffic and driving down shortcuts to reach the incident scene. Sounds frantic, dramatic and engaging? Yes. But then it all goes the way of the pear.

On reaching an emergency, play switches to one of over 30 quite similar mini-games where the Wii Remote is used in an array of ways to save the day; ranging from putting out fires, restraining prisoners, practicing CPR, to hurling bananas at out of control monkeys or herding escaped penguins to safety. You can take from these examples that this game is more tongue in cheek than a Carry-On film and this is one of the first pitfalls. It's hard to get worked up when rushing to an emergency that involves bloomin' monkeys or penguins!

Combine repetitive child like mini-games with driving sequences that verge on the tedious (generous time bonuses and little traffic) and you're served with a slice of Wii gaming that runs for the 'me too' pile quicker than an escaped chimpanzee. There's a multiplayer option too where four players can compete in a tournament against each other, but the essence of the game is still that same - and unless you're a Crazy Taxi fanatic you'll find better titles to play elsewhere.