Target: Terror (Wii) Playthrough - NintendoComplete

A playthrough of Konami's 2008 FMV light-gun shooter for the Nintendo Wii, Target: Terror.

Played through on the Special Agent difficulty level. Shows all stages, including the locked ninth stage. The good ending is shown.

This is one insane, beyond over-the-top shooter. The Wii port is actually a port of the "Gold" version of the original arcade title (adding in things like the mini-games), and both of the arcade titles were handled by Raw Thrills, and you know what that means! Yup, Eugene Jarvis. His brand of awesome is all over the game.

And so is the dirty feeling of opportunism. Anyone that is old enough to remember 9/11 - watch the final mission. Would anyone argue that it's not a tasteless (albeit hilarious) "parody" of the news stories that day? At least the news clips pretty much nail the flavor of Fox News's coverage. The way America triumphs in that last battle - that's on par with Team America: World Police. Fuck yeah. And finally, the ending itself does Bad Dudes proud.

It's really nothing more than Lethal Enforcers or Virtua Cop using (for the genre) high-quality FMV overlays to replace character-sprites (and by high-quality, I'm referring to the tech side of things, not necessarily the quality of the acting), sitting atop a prerendered "on-rails" FMV backdrop that makes up the level. So, it's not FMV in the same way that Mad Dog McCree is, but it is all FMV.

Lethal Enforcers, but modern. And with more than just a bit of cheese.

How much you enjoy the B-movie quality of this will largely dictate how you feel about the game. It oozes budget-basement development costs, and proudly displays the development team that comprised the complete cast of FMV and voice actors in game. It's all super hammy and dumb, and I love it. Even better are the Midway-style super guns like flamethrowers and ice/thunder beams, the RPG that will turn a group of terrorists into flaming bits flying across the screen, and the best of all: the ICBM. This bad boy will summon from space a laser cannon strike for an amazingly specific attack on all on-screen enemies - even more impressive, you can call it while aboard an airplane and somehow still only hurt the bad guys! It's pretty incredible that the plane didn't just explode.

Now, my only gripe with Target: Terror on the Wii (and it's a HUGE one) is that the game is ridiculously hard. Even by arcade game standards. Most of the enemies WILL hit you if you aren't anticipating their appearance and taking them down immediately. Some memorizing and super focus will get you through the Super Agent mode (like I'm playing here), but turned up higher, I've never been able to finish the game. I run out of credits long before the final stage. The thing is, I don't remember the arcade version being this hard. In this one, you can sometimes visibly get a head shot, yet it doesn't register and then they shoot you instead. The hit detection is extremely picky, in both which pixels you can hit and the shot timing - the enemy isn't always vulnerable to being hit, especially when they are in transition animations.

I love Target: Terror, but the control/difficulty issue really can make it a frustrating experience. I recommend it - with reservations - but I can tell you that despite the annoyances I enjoyed it a great deal. Maybe not as much as Ghost Squad (which I just about worship - light gun games don't get better than GS on the Wii), but if you want something amusing and reminiscent of a poorly directed 80s movie, this will satisfy you, guaranteed. It's pretty much a Kung Fury videogame. Just without Kung Fury.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

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