With so many Driver games out at the moment, you could be forgiven for getting in a bit of a muddle about what they all are. With the 3DS's differently named Driver: Renegade blazing a terribly sweary path across the handheld, we've also recently had Driver: San Francisco on the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PC, and Wii. But despite sharing the same name, the Wii version is actually an entirely different game, bringing with it an all new storyline, a two player co-op mode, and a heck of a lot of fun.
Playing as undercover detective John Tanner, you're tasked with infiltrating a network of gangs in the San Francisco area by - how else - offering to be their driver, before bringing their bosses to justice. With plenty of crashes, skids and high octane action, Driver: San Francisco on the Wii also has a much more tongue in cheek, fun loving feel, in that it take itself a lot less seriously - and it's possibly a better game for it.
There's a decent variety of missions on offer here, as the storyline takes you deeper within the gangs. Alternating between doing police work, and performing tasks for the gangs you're infiltrating, at one moment you'll be crashing through stalls to try and lure a gang leader out, the next, you'll be hunting down a gang member for the police, while the next, you'll be tailing a car in order to eavesdrop on them, whilst making sure you stay a certain distance away so you don't spook them. There's certainly a lot to keep Driver feeling fresh - and most importantly, it's a lot of fun.
You see, far from the more realistic antics you'll be getting up to in Driver: San Francisco on the more serious formats, on the Wii, Driver's a game that puts fun first. It's like everything's been deliberately designed to make you feel like you're actually an incredibly cool driver - it's hard to play the game for more than a few minutes without something amazing happening. Your car skids around corners with almost the greatest of ease, there are alleys aplenty waiting for you to lead whoever's chasing you down, and boxes stacked up in those most inappropriate of places, just waiting for you to go crashing through them, and the police? Well, they make the game what it is.
Being as you're an undercover officer and all, it's not only the gangs you have to try and avoid the ire of, but the long arm of the law as well. Crash into a civilian (and you will, no matter how hard you try), or ram a police car, and they'll hunt you down as if their lives depended on it. Throwing all caution to the wind, the police in Driver are insane - they'll drive at hundreds of miles an hour towards 90 degree bends, they'll follow you through oncoming traffic, and they'll do everything to can to take you out, regardless of how much it hurts them. The only problem is, they're not actually all that good at this whole driving lark. With a policeman right up our bumper (literally - our cars were basically locked together) we drove towards a tree at top speed, and swerved at the last second, sending the police car smashing into it. Another time, we were driving down the road, minding our own business, and got shunted sideways by a policeman who was driving so fast he must have been close to breaking the sound barrier. Finding himself in front of us, the police man got a bit confused, at which point he decided to accelerate away from us, down the pavement, knocking fire hydrants, barriers, and lights flying - at which point the police broadcast comes over the radio saying "Suspect has mounted the pavement!". It's not just us!
If anything, you're probably the sanest driver around.
Your average police chase will usually result in several wrecked police cars, as they drive without a care in the world, taking out boxes, diving off cliffs, ramming civilian vehicles - even trams fall prey to the wrath of the police at times. It's not entirely uncommon to turn around and see two police cars ramming each other (obviously they're fighting over who gets to take you down) causing one of the police cars to flip over and continue the chase on its roof. Providing much of Driver's comedy value, the police are great, with the power to drive stupidly fast, yet seemingly no idea how to use it.
The controls for your car are mostly handled on the nunchuck (you'll need both a Wii remote and a nunchuck in order to play), with the analogue stick steering (as opposed to the more Mario Kart style Wii Remote tilting you may have been expecting), while the Z button accelerates, and the C button brakes. On the Wii Remote, meanwhile, you have access to a variety of weird extra that'll make your driving all that more spectacular. By holding the A button and tilting the Wii Remote, you can make your car rise up on two wheels - helpful for getting through those narrow gaps (or just looking cool), while on the +Control Pad, you can access a variety of power-ups, including Slo-mo. Shaking the Wii Remote lets you ram your car sideways into enemies, pushing it forwards lets you boost into them, whilst shaking the nunchuck triggers your nitrous boost. Rounding out the controls, the handbrake's on B, while the all-important horn finds its place on 1.
When you're not performing a mission (or avoiding the police), however, you have access to the entirety of San Francisco as your very own playground. Able to go wherever you want, and do whatever you want, you'll be weaving in and out of (or into) the trams, jumping off the famous hills, and generally having fun as you cause mayhem in your car. There's a variety of collectables hidden around the place, too, including Trophies to be found, which unlock extras, like cars, and random ne'er-do-wells, who need taking down before they can cause too much trouble. There are even awards to be earnt, a bit like the 360's Achievements, for doing various things - racking up a certain amount of air time, shooting a certain number of enemy cars, or drifting for a certain amount of feet.
Aha, a trophy! There's plenty to be found.
In another brilliant twist, Driver: San Francisco also lets you play the game with two players. Not quite letting you do split-screen co-op (the Wii may just explode with how much fun that would be), instead, your partner gets to be the Starsky to your Hutch, leaning out the window with their Wii Remote to shoot at the bad guys you're chasing down - which is a huge help on some of the later levels. Of course, there's more to it than just shooting, too - when you're tracking a baddie, your partner becomes your radio aerial, and has to hold the Wii Remote vertically, tilting it to keep the signal strong, while they can also shoot any nearby power-ups to help you out - like the spanners, which repair your vehicle. Perfect for someone who wants to play, but doesn't think they're good enough to take the wheel, whether its your other half, or a younger child, the co-op mode lets two people join in the fun, while only one of them handles the tricky bits, and makes it perfect for family play. Better still, you can actually link a DS up to the Wii too, which lets the second player access a map, hack into police systems to get the police off your tail, or set road blocks to attempt to make your life that little bit easier.
Although it doesn't support split-screen in co-op, though, Driver does allow you to play split-screen multiplayer, with full support for up to four players on the same console - although you'll need a Wii Remote and nunchuck each. With a variety of modes on offer, including the traditional Cops and Robbers mode, there's plenty of fun to be had here - if you have enough controllers to go around.
But Driver: San Francisco isn't entirely without problems. Sadly, the motion controls haven't been done very well, with activating the nitrous achieved less by shaking the nunchuck and more by swinging if from the roof to the ceiling and back again. Meanwhile, shaking the Wii Remote to attack other cars is a bit hit and miss, and can sometimes send you the wrong way - which is why it's always good to have an extra person playing along to shoot at them instead! Another notable absence is the lack of a replay mode. Driver: San Francisco on the other platforms has a replay mode, and it's been a staple of the series since the first game. We'd have loved to have been able to edit together car chase replays of the many, many hilarious/cool moments that happen in the game, but sadly, for some reason it's been omitted. Maybe next time, eh? Another minor point is that each mission gives you a number of bonus objectives to achieve - things like driving on the pavement for ten seconds, going off-road for a length of time, not picking up a spanner, etc - but it doesn't tell you what these goals are before you start the mission, leaving you to have to pause, browse around the menu, and click on the bonus objectives section in order to find out what you need to do. A brief screen would have fixed this, as it's annoying to have to manually check it every time.
On the whole though, despite it's few flaws, Driver: San Francisco is a heck of a lot of fun. A worthwhile entry in its own right, we'd have preferred this be called something else to differentiate it from its bigger brothers - that way, maybe it wouldn't end up getting so overlooked.
Format Reviewed: Nintendo Wii
