I have to admit it, I’m a sucker for Mafia movies and shows…Godfather, Good Fellas, and of course the Sopranos – I’m drawn to them. There’s something about the professional code of murderers and racketeers that is just very interesting to me.

Needless to say when the Godfather game was announced for the prior generation consoles I couldn’t wait to play it…but then I had heard EA was delaying the game and recording more dialogue from original actors, including Marlon Brando….and anytime you hear a game has been pushed back, and you start to worry. While the game eventually made its way out, the reviews were so-so, but EA still announced the game would be coming to next-generation platforms but each game would be different to take full advantage of each platform – so now we have the Wii’s “Blackhand Edition” of the game and the “Don Edition” of the PS3 game. (If you would like to compare and contrast, you can check out GameShark's review of the PS3 game here ).

If you haven’t played any of the Godfather games, all of the content will be new; however the PS3 version has similar missions and options. Both the PS3 and Wii games have more content than the Xbox 360 version (due in part of the almost 12 month period between releases on the platforms). For the record, I’m coming in to this game having played very little of the 360 version. I found that the Xbox 360 version was interesting but it didn’t really hold my attention.

The Wii version starts out by looking movie-esque – it has the music playing and a quote from Marlon Brando. What seems great at first gets annoying with subsequent plays as you cannot skip it – almost as if the game is loading information into memory. Once you get by that you are given multiple options. I jump right into the game and create my own mob character. The game sets the stage by showing you as a boy watching your father get taken out by a hit and the Don promising to take care of you.

Now you’re all grown up and ready to begin life in the Corleone family. You’ll start off with some basic training missions – the safe house is the place where you can save your game and while there are missions to accomplish, you’ll pretty much be able to do what you want when you want. After training, the first task at hand is to get the local shopkeepers to pay protection. While you are walking down the streets with many storefronts, only a select few allow you to go into them, which don’t make the game as realistic as I would like – then again, I’m guessing it would be difficult to have 500 different characters operating stores, so I suppose it is a decent compromise. The missions are enjoyable and there is definitely strategy involved – if you start taking out mob guys from other families, they’ll come looking for you. Needless to say, be careful about what you do as there are always consequences.

The graphics are impressive by Wii standards and run 16:9 widescreen in 480p. The game looks good; however in driving sequences the pop-in is extremely frustrating. In one mission you have three minutes to drive the Don to the hospital. You’re moving very fast in your car and nothing is more annoying than thinking the road is clear and then seeing a car pop up in front of you. It feels like you’re playing an online racing game and you’re thinking to yourself – where the heck did that car come from as you plow into him. This is really the only area where you wish you were using a higher graphics engine to play the game.

The controls in the game really shine, probably more so than any other console. The Nunchuck is required to play the game but all of the commands are pretty intuitive. Using the Z button to lock on to a person, you then press the b button to grab. Using the wiimote and nunchuck in unison you can then throw the guy into a wall or into the street. You can also punch the guy by throwing punches using the controls, or perform a standing head butt by ‘pushing’ both controllers at the same time. I may be sadistic but the amount of fun you can have with physical combat in this game is very high. Who needs weapons when you can throw and head butt!