Necro-Nesia is filled with potential that ultimately got lost somewhere along the line. Sure the graphics hail from the Dreamcast days and the controls make it feel like an old PS1 Resident Evil rip-off, but who wouldn’t like a good Resident Evil alternative? That being said, Necro-Nesia ultimately amounts to some pretty lame exploration coupled with combat that’s a mixed bag. Put it all together to get a Wii launch title that definitely isn’t worth its $59.99 price tag; the highest price of all the launch titles.
The game starts by asking you to choose whether you’re left or right handed after which you head into a lengthy combat training scenario. On the one had the controls are pretty simple. The Nunchuk analog stick moves you around like a Resident Evil tank while the Wiimote is used for combat. You start out with a stick that you can swing and a pile of rocks you can throw. Hold down the B trigger and swing the Wiimote to swing the stick, simple right? To throw rocks is a whole other deal though as you have to first hold down the A button to go into first person mode, then aim with the Wiimote, then hold down the B button to lock your target, and then swing the Wiimote to actually throw the rock. Is all this really necessary just to throw a damn rock!?
Oh and why couldn’t the game use the Wiimote to look around at all times instead of using only the analog stick to move? After the training “mission” you head out on your own to kill bugs and find notes. You essentially look at your radar and wander around until you see a glowing light. You go to the glowing light, find a note or a save point, and move on to find another glowing light. Bugs of several varieties will come at you from time to time along with some other odd creatures but it’s best not to engage them at all. The actual combat is rather broken and you’re more likely to die from glitches than anything else.
First play.
So the entire game amounts to going to a point on the radar, picking up something, possibly watching some lame cutscene, and then doing it all again. At times you’ll have to throw some rocks to knock a log or something else out of the way but that’s about it. There are some boss enemies that I only got around by hiding behind something with geometry as the monsters can’t figure all that out. If a bunch of bugs crawl up onto you you’ll have to shake both of your controllers to get them off and that’s fun for about 2-3 times after which it gets annoying. Also there will be narrow logs you’ll have to cross that send you into a mini balancing game that uses the Wiimote quite nicely but that’s fun for about 2-3 times as well.
