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Ant Nation Review for Nintendo Wii

Ant Nation Review for Nintendo Wii

While I am all for creativity in the gaming industry, sometimes I just have to wonder what developers are thinking when they come up with an idea for a game. Case in point: Ant Nation. While ants aren’t terrible subjects for video games (SimAnt was interesting enough), making a game about torturing them certainly is. On the surface, Ant Nation claims to be a strategic title that challenges you to command your own nation of ants. However, after playing this title I can only conclude that Ant Nation is an interactive screensaver where you can burn the ants.

Ant Nation screenshot

The poor value of the game was pretty much evident from the second I started it up. Upon entering the game’s main mode, the game asks if you want a tutorial. Being a newcomer to the Ant Nation, I replied “yes.” The game then presented me with a handful of text screens that were supposed to explain how the game worked. The screens told me that the ants enjoyed eating candy, and I could use the magnifying glass to look around their environment and the dropper to pick them up. “OK,” I thought, “this seems pretty simple.”

The game progresses by allowing you to take on special missions. The first few were very simple tutorial-style missions that told us to pick up ants and to zoom in on them with the magnifying glass – so far, so good. However, the trouble came in when the game told me to level up an ant. The tutorial made no mention of leveling, and I was utterly stumped as to how to perform this feat. Picking the ant up didn’t help, zooming in didn’t help, and I had to resort to just pressing random buttons to try and figure it out. This is where Ant Nation takes a turn for the weird.

Ant Nation screenshot

After much trial and error, I figured out that “leveling up” your ants entails picking them up with the hand tool and then draining their life. Sometimes you will only have to drain their HP by 40 or 50, and sometimes you will have to get them into single digits in order for their level to increase. To make matters worse, when this leveling does occur, it does not automatically replenish your ant’s life bar. If you had to drain them to 2 HP, then they will stay there. The little wounded ants turn blue and hobble around, and they even sport a frowny face above their bodies to let you know that they aren’t doing well. This mechanic forms the backbone of the gameplay, and I have to say that while I am not a staunch animal rights activist, I couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable torturing the ants to level them up.

Once you have leveled them up for the first time, the game will start to give you more divergent tasks. Some involve getting your ants into combat (there are several missions which involve you galvanizing your army to fight evil ladybugs) and others entail finding red ants and smashing them with a hammer; yes, a hammer. Although here’s an interesting fact: while giant hammers definitely squish fire ants in Ant Nation, they bounce off of ladybugs. Just thought I’d mention that.

Ant Nation screenshot

The game’s premise is ridiculous, and the gameplay doesn’t do much to help. Performing the 100 missions in the game will only take you about an hour or two, and then once you’re done, there’s nothing left. The game tries to create lasting value by letting you grow your ant army, but in order to increase your numbers, all you have to do is plunk down a sugary concoction and then wait 3 or 4 minutes while the ants multiply. You literally just sit there and watch. It is insanely boring, and I felt as though I was watching a screensaver rather than playing a game as I waited for my ant army to increase in size.

Ant Nation screenshot

The poor gameplay certainly was the worst aspect of Ant Nation, but technically, Ant Nation is no gem either. The games world is very small, and it takes about three seconds to scroll from end to end, either horizontally or vertically, and the ground is almost featureless. Sure, there is one pond, a log, and some grass, but it’s just not enough. I wouldn’t expect this game to really blow anyone out of the water with its scope, but games like PixelJunk Monsters show us that even games with the smallest extent can still have rich, detailed graphics.

Sound here isn’t any better, and you can expect to hear plenty of repetitive tunes while you are playing. There are no real sound effects in Ant Nation, but I am not really going to knock it there because ants don’t make much sound. Overall though, the game’s soundtrack is nothing special and can be grating if you are marathon-ing through the two hours it takes to play this game.

Even if the premise of Ant Nation didn’t disturb me as much as it does, the gameplay is enough to condemn this title to the back of the WiiWare bin. With boring mechanics, a very short 100-challenge main mode, and lousy production values, I can’t recommend Ant Nation to anyone. It’s not broken, but it is far from enjoyable.

RATING OUT OF 5 RATING DESCRIPTION 1.5 Graphics
The world is small, featureless, and plain. 3.0 Control
Navigating around the world is easy enough, and the controls work satisfactorily. 1.1 Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
Background music is repetitive and annoying. 1.5

Play Value
You’ll be done with it in two hours, and there really is no reason to come back.

1.4 Overall Rating – Avoid
Not an average. See Rating legend above for a final score breakdown.

Game Features:

  • Zap your ants with lasers, fry them with your trusty magnifying glass, send down lightning, and much more to build them to be the strongest Ants on the block.
  • Send your ants into war against local bullies like spiders and ladybugs. Is your colony ready for the fight?
  • 100 missions keep you busy facing a smorgasbord of fun and wacky tasks.
  • Bonus mode features 20 additional challenges that allow you to get crazy with all your favorite weapons of ant destruction.
  • Use your Wii Remote controller to drop a virtual hammer on your ants, use your Wii Remote like a metal detector to find in-game gold and much more.

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