Sniper Elite Comes to the Wii

At the end of 2005, Rebellion Developments put the last finishing touches on its Sniper Elite and released it on the original Xbox, the PlayStation 2 and PC. The game featured an innovative idea and an original video-game take on the classic sniper showdowns, like the ones in Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, during the Sniper's Last Stand mission, turning away from the simple point-and-click aspect of previous first-person shooters. Even today, most players record bullet damage as an instantaneous event, regardless of the distance between the shooter and the target.

Sniper Elite brought a tremendous feeling of realism to gunfire battles, by inflicting the effects of gravity and wind upon a bullet's trajectory, an object that received a solid form and mass. Firing at long distances needed careful planning, compensating for the wind speed and bullet drop, something that we later saw evolved in Call of Duty Modern Warfare, during the Pripyat assassination mission.

Now, some four and a half years later, Reef Entertainment has decided that it's time to bring the WWII shooter to the Wii. "The Nintendo Wii platform has been very good for Reef and we will continue to develop innovative and unique games for it," Peter Rezon, the CEO of Reef Entertainment, said. "Following on from our recent launches of Free Running & Rogue Trooper: Quartz Zone Massacre, we are incorporating features to ensure that Sniper Elite will be an essential purchase for all shooter fans."

Rezon further added that Sniper Elite represented the developer's most ambitious project yet. "We have taken a game which has been called ‘the Gran Turismo of War Games’ and we will fully immerse gamers into Berlin 1945. Rifle add-ons such as the Wii Zapper have been a primary focus to make the game as realistic and exciting as possible. We believe this will be one of the most fun shooter titles launched in 2010."

The Wii version of Sniper Elite takes full advantage of the console's motion-control gimmicks, with the Wii Remote movement and gestures, and is also compatible with the Wii Zapper. The game also received new levels and some additional features as well, making it a different experience from the original release. The title is expected to arrive on the console sometime during the second quarter of 2010.