The Three Musketeers: One for All review

Dumas hits WiiWare!

Review written by
armond

July 27th, 2009

Three Musketeers: One For All! for Nintendo's WiiWare was one of my highly anticipated titles. Graphically, it's akin to Viewtiful Joe with bright and detailed cel-shaded graphics. It has to be pointed out that the screens of this game that are around on the internet just don't do it justice. If you watch a trailer for it; it'll greatly change your opinion.

For those of you familiar with the Dumas novel, then you're in for a treat. Those of you not familiar with it.. worry not, although it's based on the works, it's not a direct basing. It's a beautiful nod to a literary classic.

Taking on the role of Porthos, the player has the daunting task of rescuing Athos, Aramis (two of the Three Musketeers), and their scamp of a protege, D'Artagnan. This is a pure unadulterated platforming romp and fans of the genre will lap this up. Avoid the pits, swashbuckle the enemies, pick up coins and hearts as you make your way through the levels. Familiar? Hell yeah it should be, it's platforming at its best, a game that you can simply pick up and play.

For those worrying about controls, as you play there's an unobtrusive guide at the foot of the screen. Two buttons on the Wiimote are used, so even your dog can start playing (that's if the cat will give him a turn). A's the jump button and B is for sliding boxes around. Movement is controlled via the Nunchuck's thumbstick. Confused? NO, I didn't think so. For attacks, simply flick the remote.

When you first fire up Three Musketeers: One For All! you'll be in awe at the beautiful graphics, quite how Legendo managed to squeeze so much graphical detail into such a tiny WiiWare package is beyond me. Backgrounds are bright, vivid and varied, enemies are beautifully designed with some genuinely funny expressions and the use of camera angles is truly amazing; especially how it seamlessly swings 90 degree corners so that you can carry on with your quest.

Now onto my gripes. As much as I adore this game, there are a few niggles that I ought to point out, for all you prospective sword wielding musketeers. Occasionally, you'll find the physics that drive the game go a bit haywire which will lead to the player having an unfair death. Load times are longer than the average WiiWare title, but I suppose this is to be expected due to the sheer volume of graphical eye candy stored in the compressed file. Also now and again there are a few dips in the overall frame count of the game, but again it's to be expected with such a promising and benchmark pushing title.

Sadly, the cut scenes are static, but this is quite possibly down to the sizing constraints of the WiiWare delivery system but they do their job and do it quite sufficiently. There's some more than impressive voice acting on display, which more than makes up for the cut scenes. The background music is a treat, doesn't get repetitive or annoying like some other titles I can mention, although none of it really will stick in your mind the next day on the bus.

My closing thoughts of the Three Musketeers: One For All! is that I'm very impressed with what Legendo have done with their first title. Graphically, gameplay and aurally, this title is amazing. It was quite possibly let down by its own pursue of greatness. Should you buy it? To put it simply, yes you should. It plays like a classic platform game which has lengthy and varied levels that will keep even the most hardcore of platform players busy for a good length of time.