Spyborgs is an interesting game, not because it’s, well, an original IP being released on the Wii by Capcom that ISN’T a light gun shooter, but rather because I can’t quite work out what Capcom’s agenda is with the title. Being very reminiscent of a Saturday morning cartoon, Spyborgs feels like a title that’s been licensed from another cartoon, but instead, I get the feeling one of Capcom’s reasons for creating Spyborgs was to get the brand licensed itself. Regardless, Bionic Games’ first Nintendo Wii title (published by Capcom) is a bit of a mix of old and new gameplay elements, along with some very polished but derivative gameplay and artistic direction. To put it simply, it’s a mixed bag.

Spyborgs follows the eponymous Spyborgs Initiative, a team of bionic soldiers (no, not Capcom’s other Bionic soldiers) who were formed to fight against a world renowned villain known as “The Jackal”. Most of the Spybrogs within the initiative were recruited by the government after being wounded in battle, and many of them are beginning to slowly disappear, and surprise surprise, the Jackal is suspected. Players step into the mechanically enhanced shoes of three Spyborgs who’ve yet to be captured; Clandestine, a female ninja; Bouncer, a large brutish robot and Stinger, a Megaman-esque character with a gun for an arm. Yes, the characters aren’t a whole lot original, and neither is the story. But, if you can get your head around this rather un-innovative story, then you might be in for some fun (either by yourself or with a friend).

The presentation of Spyborgs is a bit of a mixed bag; there are some well crafted menus and environments throughout the game, which have some pretty nice detail, especially for an original non-ported Nintendo Wii game. Models are very nicely detailed (despite having a boring artistic direction) and as previously said, the environments are great, though sometimes a little too static. This, however, works to the game’s detriment as there is a lot of slowdown during hectic times when the screen is filled with explosions, enemies and random special effects. Similarly, the lighting effects are very well done, with the floors cracking when characters hit them with force, lighting adjusting as sources are destroyed, and bushes being destroyed if one of the character slashes through them. This dynamic destructible environment adds to the game’s presentation and really gives it a layer of polish.

Spyborgs takes a page out of almost all of Capcom’s previous titles and forces players to play the game with a second character, whether or not they are computer controlled is up to the player. The game itself is set into Mario-esque stages, where each major stage is split into several subsections. The Z button on the Nunchuk is used to block, the trigger on the remote is used for generic attacks, while each of the three characters has a unique attack mapped to the C button on the Nunchuk. Thankfully, there’s not a whole lot of motion controls being implemented for the sake of it, besides the “Spyvision” gameplay mechanic. When players point their remote at an object that is hidden on the screen, a vibration and noise will occur signifying the ability to use Spyvision. With a shake of the remote, the hidden object is revealed, which is usually a health item or power up, and in some occasions “Lost Tapes” which delve into the story of Spyborgs a little bit more.

Players can switch between the two on-screen characters with the + button on the remote, but most of the crux of the game’s combat is within the team attack mechanic. Every enemy killed fills up a meter that allows players to perform a team attack when it’s filled to the brim. These attacks are more powerful moves that carry out in a cinematic fashion with quick time events thrown in for good measure. While I usually don’t quite like quick time events in games, the motions that these segments employ are rather accurate/indicative of the actions being carried out by the characters. Something that surprised me quite a bit is that each enemy has a total of approximately five unique moves depending on which character of the pair initiates the attack, ensuring that performing these super moves never really gets too repetitive.

The gameplay itself is rather enjoyable, though it does admittedly get rather repetitive after a while, and that’s one of the reasons that Spyborgs is a harder game to recommend to someone. It offers a lot of fun and a lot of diversity – there’s hundreds, maybe even thousands of different animations for the characters attacks. As previously stated, the rather simplistic nature of the gameplay makes it something that we can only recommend to hardcore beat-em-up fans as it does get a little bit boring, even with a partner. Speaking on the topic of co-op, upon one of the characters falling in battle, they are able to respawn after the other character clears the immediate area, ensuring that there are never too many points of downtime in the game. A great feature, however, is that if one player picks up a power-up, the player who needs it most is allocated it. This feature works very well and also encourages an extra level of co-operative play not seen in other co-op titles, though greedy players might not like it’s implementation. A light RPG element is implemented, in that players can upgrade each character with “sparks” earnt during gameplay, but this is pretty lamely implemented with the same skill sets across all the characters.

Most of the aural offerings that Spyborgs brings to the table are competent enough to add to the game’s experience, but unfortunately are nothing that players haven’t heard before. An eclectic mix of rock and electronica fills the menus and gameplay of Spyborgs, with dynamic music effects adding to the in-game carnage. The voice acting is rather lacklustre but part of me feels that this was the developers intention to match the game’s visuals and sounds to something akin to a Saturday morning cartoon, and in that regards, the voice acting in Spyborgs is spot on.

Thankfully there are quite a few unlockables that are available upon completing Spyborgs multiple times, including a mission select mode, an unlimited “survival” style mode and a boss rush mode in which players can battle all three of the game’s bosses in a row (yes, I was being facetious). It’s a nice touch and adds to the overall package. Completionists will want to complete their “medal” collection which are similar to achievements or trophies on other systems, to unlock a plethora of content such as faux advertisements for the Spyborgs, trailers for the game (including ones of the original incarnation of Spyborgs) and a sound test mode. Finally, there is a New Game+ mode for those who want to continue building their Spyborg. All this extra content is great and adds to the package, and additionally players will find some great length in the campaign due to it’s difficulty, which will keep dedicated gamers quite busy.

As I’ve mentioned before, Spyborgs is a very hard game to classify. On one hand it does everything right and screams of being quite a polished title that doesn’t feel unfinished. On the other, it’s bland artistic direction, quite straight forward gameplay and lame storyline really makes it feel like just another arcade brawler. The game’s greatest advantage is also it’s greatest disadvantage – the fact it’s an old school brawler that mimics not only the gameplay but the difficulty also. Definitely one of those games I can safely recommend to fans of the genre, or even to someone looking for a quality co-operative experience on the Nintendo Wii. Just be aware it does nothing majorly new.