Nintendo were once concerned about their family image, famously forcing Acclaim to remove the gore from the SNES version of Mortal Kombat and – less famously – remove all signs of alcohol from Duke Nuke’em: Zero Hour on the N64. With the Wii still yet to see its first birthday, we’ve already seen a barrage of foul-mouthed and blood-stained games, with Scarface slotting neatly into this category. The chainsaw is available after just a few missions, and instead of ‘Game Over’ or ‘Mission Failed’ appearing on the screen upon Tony popping his cogs, the words ‘You Fucked Up’ appear. There’s nothing like being blunt. Unless you’re talking about James Blunt.
Rather than using the plot of the classic 1983 movie as inspiration, the game is set a few months afterwards with Tony Montana somehow coming back from the dead. The first task is to raise enough cash to get your mansion back – which is still covered in police tape, incidentally – before regaining control of the drug trade, forcing rivals off your turf and building up respect. Driving erratically – not unlike you would do in a Burnout game – boosts your ‘balls’ rating, plus you can taunt both gang members and innocents by shaking the nunchuk as you walk past. Buying or selling drugs involves a little mini-game in which a moving cursor has to be stopped in a certain area, with the same system also used for talking your way out of trouble. Cash gained from dodgy dealings can then be blown on henchmen, furniture for the mansion and more.
Like most Wii conversions it’s not much of a looker, resembling a hotchpotch of the rough PlayStation 2 version and the somewhat smoother Xbox version. The textures are sharp enough, but the characters looks like clones of one another, and often you can see the ‘seams’ in the environments and such.
Radical have obviously put a lot of thought into the controls though – vehicles are great fun to drive, with the A button on the Wii remote used to accelerate and the Z-trigger on the nunchuk to reverse. The cursor is a little slow moving during gun battles, although it’s possible to lock onto enemies, and pressing down on the d-pad handily swings the camera around 180 degrees. Shaking the nunchuk sends Montana into a rage mode, for which the screen goes red and the action is viewed from the first person. It’s best to save this for when you’re in a jam – Montana often finds himself out-gunned.
The ’80s soundtrack may be an acquired taste, but there’s certainly plenty to like here – Montana’s foul mouth alone is likely to raise a few smiles. We’re also fond of the way that you can target specific body parts. Ever wondered how good you are at shooting people in the kidney? Here you’ll get to find out.