THOR: God of Thunder (Wii) Review

I’m not a huge fan of licensed games, particularly since I’ve played so many and only a very small percentage of them are actually good. Having produced many mediocre licensed titles before, I was a bit sceptical when I heard that SEGA were producing the adaptation of the supposedly great movie THOR, another Marvel super hero. My scepticism was understandably enhanced when I remembered how much I didn’t really enjoy the previous SEGA/Marvel titles like Iron Man and Iron Man 2. Thankfully, despite this rather disappointing history of titles, THOR: God of Thunder is actually pretty decent although there’s still a lot of work to do before any of these games become the AAA blockbusters that they could truly be.

THOR: God of Thunder follows the rather usual mantra of adapting an original story from the universe of the subject matter, rather than actually following the story of the movie itself. Adapted from the comic book universe, and created with the help of an award winning comic book writer, THOR sees one of his worlds under attack by Ymir, an army consisting entirely of ice based giants. During the battle, Thor loses one of his best soldiers, and is understandably upset and angry. Wanting to go to war with Ymir, Odin, Thor’s father, forbids Thor from doing so. However, Loki, Thor’s brother, allows Thor to do so but in the process unleashes a deadly weapon of Odin’s that was thought to be locked away forever. In a rather noble action, Thor must clean up the mess he has made before the weapon destroys the nine worlds. Yes, I can hear what you’re thinking and you’re probably right – the story is incredibly light and won’t be winning any awards, although it’s nice to see the developers trying to create something a bit more original than a straight adaptation of the film.

The game itself isn’t incredibly good looking, with some of the graphics looking like a very early Playstation 2 game at times, which is a bit disappointing in this day and age. During some more intense scenes, the action was prone to notable slow down which was confusing as the environments themselves aren’t incredibly detailed nor do they seem to be hogging many of the system resources. The character models themselves are pretty well detailed, with Thor obviously stealing most of the attention, which is a nice touch. It just feels so unstable, however, and isn’t consistent at all in its presentation.

As most promotional materials would have you believe, Thor is not the brightest tool in the shed, blinded by testosterone fuelled rage and the power of a god. As such, it seems fitting that SEGA have borrowed the God of War formula for the Thor game. Gameplay is completely third person and plays like a very intense brawler with many attacks using Thor’s legendary hammer, Mjolnir. In this regard, the game does a good job of making the player feel like a god, with some pretty impressive attacks and tools provided that allow Thor to level a playing field where he is ridiculously outnumbered. Unfortunately, the game never feels anywhere near as epic as any scenarios in God of War, with the game boiling down to combat and moving from room to room to encounter more combat. There are some “flight” sequences that break up the monotony, but these are few and far between the rather repetitive combat levels.

Controlling Thor himself is somewhat decent but the motion controls definitely feel forced. The A button is used for most attacks, with motion control gestures being added between attacks in order to keep the combos flowing. This is a clever idea on paper, but unfortunately it doesn’t really execute that entirely well, with a lot of the motion controls failing to register. In terms of timing, though, there is a notable window which makes these control methods a little bit more bearable – but overall we wanted to turn the motion controls off as they did feel tacked on, but we were sad to find we actually couldn’t. The motion controls are accurate in that they represent the movements that Thor actually does, but outside of that they still feel incredibly half assed and really bog the gameplay down. There is an experience system in place where Thor can learn new moves, increase health and such, but the game is more than easy enough to play through without them. It’s almost as if every developer follows the same formula to create an action game, and these tacked on experience systems are also starting to wear themselves thin.

The game itself doesn’t last anywhere near as long as you’d want, with most gamers finishing within four to six hours (with a large majority being towards the lower end of that range). There are collectibles which unlock alternative costumes for Thor from his previous looks, which are very nice for fans of the series. There’s also an extra difficulty level and a new game plus mode, but the game is nowhere near as endearing enough to actually elicit another playthrough. Upon completion, combat arenas also offer players to just destroy and beat up bad guys, although these also don’t feel too substantial. Finally, a Thor centric episode of The Avengers is unlockable also, which was also a nice touch.

It’s very unfortunate that the voice work in this game is so incredibly sub-par. SEGA did make an effort to get both Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddlestone in to voice both Thor and Loki respectively, but it seems they don’t take this medium seriously enough and thus phone in their disappointing performances. Unfortunately, the music itself is pretty average too, with some supposedly epic scenes falling flat due to a lack of meaningful or appropriate music. This problem feels somewhat exacerbated by the looping of the tracks that become repetitive to the point of sheer annoyance. There’s simply not enough variety here, and what is here is mediocre.

All in all, THOR: God of Thunder is a disappointing mimicry of other games in the same genre. It’s a bit of a shame to see such a decent property giving a little bit of a lack of decent treatment that it deserves. Fortunately, it does rise above several other Marvel titles, including both the Iron Man games, but overall this is not a game that will change your mind about licensed titles nor will it take over from other games in the genre too. Grab it if you absolutely love the franchise, but otherwise I really wouldn’t bother.

Graphics 5.5

Thor himself looks good, but the lack of detailed environments and slowdown really bring Thor down way too much. Games like these need good framerates, and this doesnt have it.

Gameplay 5.5

Theres a lot of moves youll never use, and the motion controls are incredibly annoying. Its a shame we couldnt turn them off, as the game could work without them. Generally speaking, the whole game feels incredibly repetitive too.

Sound 4.5

Its nice to see that SEGA and Marvel deliberated and got some of the actors in to do lines for the characters, but its not so nice to see that their performances feel phoned in. Music is flat and uninspiring.

Tilt 5.0

A new difficulty upon completion, as well as a combat arena and costumes are nice unlockables but nothing truly substantial. The four-six hour campaign is also a tad disappointing, since most people will definitely be on the lower end of that scale.

Value 6.0

Despite its issues, I did have an okay experience with this iteration of THOR. However, its problems are really ones that less tolerable gamers (unlike me) will not put up with.

Overall

THOR: God of Thunder is a decent licensed title but the genre and sub-genre have a long way to go before theyre taken seriously next to other games that they share a genre with. Its hard to recommend this to anyone besides the absolute die hard THOR fans, and considering how long its taken for him to step into the limelight, I would assume theres not that many.