Your enjoyment of The Conduit is going to depend directly upon whether or not you're picking up what the Wii is dropping. It's a good-looking Wii game, which to some people on the Internet is still like calling I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here the least obnoxious reality show on TV. The mouse and the keyboard, and even the controllers of the other two systems, may be more precise. But what those games are missing is the Wii's motion-control functions, and yes, they certainly add much to a standard first-person shooter.

Title The Conduit Developer High Voltage Software Publisher Sega Price $49.99 Shop.ars Platform Nintendo Wii

The game doesn't ask you to meet it halfway. It gives you every possible control option and then opens itself up so you can configure your own control scheme. That includes the limited ability to assign motion-based commands. You can even move aspects of the heads-up display around, change the speed of your character, and turn off the blurring effect that happens when you reload. This game doesn't want to tell you how to play; it really wants to get along with you.

Other than confident use of the Wiimote and some neat graphical tricks, the Conduit doesn't offer much in the way of surprises. You'll fight your way through each level, taking on both human and nonhuman foes, and you'll find the expected weapons along the way. Some feel more powerful than others, but everyone will find something he or she likes. My one complaint is that grenades feel somewhat underpowered, and since I'm a grenade-happy fool, that's a major letdown.

The story doesn't offer anything new, but it is pleasantly reminiscent of the original Nintendo 64 Perfect Dark. The action may be a linear set of gunfights, but you'll also be given use of the ASE—the all-seeing eye—and you'll use that floating, orb-like device to find hidden objects and secret passages, and to unlock certain doors. Using the ASE to explore the levels and find all the secrets—and there will be hidden discs in each level that require use of the ASE in order to unlock everything—gives some areas a slower pace that works well. Some sections will feature hidden organic mines that will blow up if you don't disarm them with the ASE.

The story is over a little too quickly—seven hours or so will see you through—but the multiplayer is quite the nightcap. Support for up to 12 players, the WiiSpeak peripheral for trash-talking, and a comfortable array of game modes and options will keep you playing for a long, long time. Some may be turned off at how different the game feels from other shooters (and it's funny to imagine all those players waving controllers at the screen) but once you warm up to it, using the Wiimote to spray shotgun shells at the heads of other players brings its own rewards. Lag has yet to be an issue in the dozen or so games I've played, although the friend code mess Nintendo still insists upon continues to rankle.

What sets High Voltage Software apart is that it took the Nintendo Wii seriously as a platform, and the team tightened the controls until they screamed. Then it opened them up so you can have it your way. The multiplayer mode is also something to be proud of, and the single-player game is not a bad way to spend an afternoon or two. The haters will continue to hate because it doesn't look as good as 360 or PS3 games, and some will continue to turn up their noses at the idea of the motion controls, but the fact is that The Conduit brought an actual, honest-to-goodness, high-class first-person shooter title to a system that badly needed it. The people dumping on it are taking out their frustrations on the system, not the game. Don't let them scare you away from a good time... not to mention the vocal stylings of one Kevin Sorbo.

It can be campy, and the violence can be more brutal than the Teen rating may let on (due to the controls) but this is good stuff. If you a see a plot twist or two coming, there are worse things in life.

Verdict: Buy