No, that's not a typo: Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare has come to the Wii two years after the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC versions and yes, it came out the same day as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. For some reason, Activision left the world's most popular console off of the list of systems to get a copy of the 2007 shooter. Apparently, they have grown to have regret that choice. Modern Warfare ended up selling extremely well and ended up being one of the best titles of the year. Somewhere, Activision's executives are reaching into their pockets and feeling a small gap, thinking about how much they would have made if they had released the game alongside the other SKUs.

Two years later, they've asked Treyarch, who did an admirable job at bringing World at War to the Wii, to do the same to Infinity Ward's shooter. While the publisher's silence on the game approaching its release was fairly discouraging, Treyarch has done a better job at porting Modern Warfare to the Wii than anyone had likely thought imaginable. It's shocking how faithful the port manages to be to the original. Usually, Wii versions of next-gen games are entirely different builds. Because of the lower power, developers clean up the PS2 or PSP releases instead of downscaling the more powerful ones, which leads to Wii owners getting even more inferior versions of major releases than necessary. Reflex isn't a sloppy remake, it's a true port, cramming everything from Modern Warfare onto the system. The full singleplayer campaign is recreated shot-for-shot, and the multiplayer is present in full force.

For the few who didn't play the original, here's the abridged run-down: Middle-Eastern revolutionary Al-Asad is able to take over his country with the help of Ultranationalist Russian Imran Zakhaev. At the same time, Russia is going through a Civil War, and thousands of nuclear weapons are at stake. Gaz says it best in the beginning of the game, "Good news first, the world's in great shape." As is the case with other Call of Duty games, players will jump around to control different characters, set across varying locations around the world. In general, the story focuses on the newest member of the S.A.S., Soap McTavish, who fights alongside Captain Price and a number of other veteran soldiers. It's a short story, but provides enough fantastic moments to make up for the length. In the Wii version, none of that is changed, and every explosion is recreated on the significantly weaker system.

This comes at a cost, however. As expected, the Wii version of Modern Warfare doesn't look anywhere near as good as it did on the 360 or PS3. In fact, it doesn't even look as good as some Wii-exclusive shooters, lacking the polish of The Conduit, Metroid Prime 3, or even Call of Duty: World at War. While it is, indeed, impressive that they were able to fit it all onto the Wii, it's also just as obvious that their goal wasn't to push the system to its limits. Textures are low resolution, meaning character's faces are blurry and muddy, and character models are running with less polygons.

Particle effects, too, lack the graphical fidelity they had before, which is important when a lot of explosions are going on at once. Even with these downscales, there are times when the Wii simply can't handle Modern Warfare's chaotic gameplay, meaning there are graphical tears, stuck pixels, and a troublesome framerate that will drop down to a crawl once too much is happening on screen. It also makes some of the harder segments of the game even more difficult, since the framerate will drop during hectic portions and it's often hard to see enemies with the low-resolution graphics. Things that were easy to see on the Xbox are hidden on the Wii, and since Treyarch's goal was to make a faithful port they didn't compensate for the system's problems.



Multiplayer suffers from the same issues as singleplayer, but the problems are lessened thanks to the fact that there's no AI. Everyone in a game has to worry about not being able to see an enemy because of the low-resolution graphics, not just the player, which means things go much more smoothly, if that makes any sense. The full multiplayer suite from Modern Warfare is intact in the port, meaning online play, customizable classes, and a massive amount of customization and unlockables. There's really not much lag, either, and if not for the friend codes and lack of voice chat the experience would be perfect. As it stands, it might be the best online shooter on the Wii, it's just a shame it took this long to get there.

Luckily, Treyarch knows the Wii well in other ways. While it's almost a direct port, the addition of psuedo co-op, which allows for a second player to aim and fire while the first player controls the game normally, should prove fun for anyone interested. It's like a traditional shooter for one person and an on-rails shooter for the other, which might help non-gamers get into the military shooter without needing to learn controls. That said, the controls are actually pretty good. Treyarch knew what they were doing with the Wiimote, and Modern Warfare: Reflex might be one of the most intuitive shooters on the system. One of the interesting features of the Modern Warfare series has been the ability to pop in and out of iron sights to lock on to enemies, something which works wonders with the Wii controls. For anyone already trained on the other versions it might feel weird, but this game isn't meant to bring in people who have already played Modern Warfare, it's for those who didn't have a chance.

Beyond that, reloading is as simple as shaking the nunchuk, and nearly everything is completely intuitive. Nearly. Since the Wii doesn't have as many methods to input as other controllers, accessing things that used to be tied to the D-pad is now mapped, by default, to holding left on the D-pad and choosing the option with the analog stick. It's not a huge issue, but it takes a while to get used to, as does pressing Up to jump. All in all, it's definitely an interesting way to play, and gives the game a more visceral feeling.

If Modern Warfare: Reflex had launched alongside the other versions in 2007 it would have been seen as a success for the console, which has had troubles keeping up in terms of software. It would have proven that the main difference between the systems is graphics, and not everyone cares about fancy visuals. Coming out two years later, however, is a different story, and while it's still an improvement over traditional Wii ports it still has problems that should have been addressed in the two years since Modern Warfare released. When compared to the Xbox and PS3 version it feels incredibly gimped, but when put up against other Wii shooters, Modern Warfare: Reflex stands out, and proves that the Wii can, indeed, keep up with the high-def generation. It just can't look as good while it does it.