Disaster Striking Wii in Two Weeks

Nintendo and Monolith's Disaster: Day of Crisis fully revealed.

By Kevin Gifford, 09/10/2008
Monolith Soft's Disaster: Day of Crisis has always been one of those "don't ask, don't tell" titles for Nintendo -- a Wii game that, for whatever reason, the publisher keeps under wraps until the very last minute instead of, you know, telling anyone about it. News a month ago that the game has received a rating in Australia was greeted less with excitement at the upcoming horror-action game and more with astonishment that the sucker (which has existed largely under the radar since its 2006 E3 announcement) was actually coming out.

But coming out it is -- September 25 in Japan, in fact -- and the Japanese game media is beginning to reveal some of the first solid details we've seen on Disaster in years. The game stars Raymond Bryce, a former rescue worker who quit the force after losing his friend and partner Steve in an accident while conducting operations on an active volcano. Nowadays he works for the local city government, but this quiet life of civic service goes awry one day when a massive earthquake suddenly levels the metropolis. A shadowy terrorist organization (one with apparent military ties that's run by a pair of army colonels) has taken advantage of the chaos to make off with a nuclear weapon, taking the brilliant geologist Dr. Davis and his assistant, Steve's younger sister Lisa, hostage.

Sounds like a take on Die Hard, in a way -- and Raymond's all to willing to take up the John McClane role. In Disaster, you'll be using the Wiimote and nunchuk to trundle the man through the ruined city, dodging threats both natural and manmade along the way. Like in the oft-forgotten Disaster Report, you'll deal with a large variety of threats, including tsunamis, flash floods, landslides, wild animals, and even flaming fireballs shot out of a nearby volcano. Occasionally you'll come across injured people lying on the street; you can use the Wiimote to help them in assorted ways, giving them CPR or freeing them from piles of rubble, and you're likely to receive some sort of reward for doing this. The terrorists are out in full force, though, boasting a heavily-armed ground force and an impressive array of armored vehicles and helicopters -- sometimes you'll need to grab a gun and head-shot people when you aren't busy saving their lives.

Nintendo of America still hasn't publicly revealed a US release date for Disaster, although the title is hitting Japan in two weeks and Europe next month. With luck, they'll stop playing keep-away from us for much longer.