The Wii hasn’t had a solid shooter in its lifespan… until now. The Conduit from Sega and High Voltage Software milks every last drop of goodness out of Nintendo’s little box to give you the shooter experience you’ve been waiting for. Is it the best shooter ever? No. Is it a really fun experience with innovative controls and solid multiplayer? You bet.

The graphics are the first thing you’ll notice in The Conduit. I’m not sure what deal with the devil was made at High Voltage, but the team has achieved a graphical fidelity never before seen on the Wii. You’ll find new elements all the way through the single player campaign, encountering some enormous bosses that you wouldn’t think the Wii could handle. The control customization is easily my favorite portion as I can set this game however I please. Every single developer should take note; this needs to be the new standard. Literally every element of the controls can be tweaked, remapped, or moved. If you want the HUD in the lower right or the center of the screen, go for it. Lastly, The Conduit brings true first person shooter multiplayer to the Wii for the first time. I didn’t hit any lag in the many matches I played in either Regional or World Wide games. The maps and gameplay modes are solid and you’ll want to keep playing.

My main issue with the The Conduit is the story; it just seemed too cheesy for me. That could be due to the need to cater to all audiences, but it came across a bit dry and laughable in spots. The single player campaign could be a bit longer. After playing through, I didn’t feel much need to play again on a higher difficulty setting, so that portion of the game may not give you much replay factor either.

I was astonished by The Conduit when I first saw the game almost a year ago. Now that I have my hands on the final product, I’m still impressed. The controls are phenomenal and the game achieves a graphical fidelity not seen before on the Wii. It’s an online multiplayer shooter with motion controls; which should make you smile. Hopefully Sega and High Voltage can find a way around the Friend Code system in their next title (or Nintendo can just fix it). Either way, it’s a solid shooter that will give you quite a bit of play time.