The Plot in Overlord: Dark Legend for the Nintendo Wii

The Plot in Overlord: Dark Legend for the Nintendo Wii
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Introducing, Overlord: Dark Legend for Nintendo Wii

I was one of those crazy fans of the original Overlord franchise, who could not get enough of the game. I picked the title up at Gamestop in their $10.00 bin and became infatuated with the quirky, and delightfully fun, yet wicked evil game. I was shocked that I had never heard about the game before, but I was glad to have scooped it up for such a low price.

When news hit that Overlord 2 was soon to be released on the Xbox 360, I was ecstatic. I played the game religiously till I conquered all that was left to conquer. Then one fine day while just browsing for Nintendo Wii games I recognized my Overlord immediately. I was pretty excited because I had no clue that an Overlord game was made for the Wii console.

Perhaps Overlord: Dark Legend was not as well marketed as the newer version for the Xbox 360; or perhaps I just like in a cave? At any rate, here it was, right before me in all it’s glory, Overlord: Dark Legends.

Initially I would have left the game behind if it was titled Overlord 2. I already beat that game on the 360, so buying it on another console would have been a bit wasteful. The Nintendo Wii version however was not Overlord 2, it was an entirely different game. After flipping the box over I also noted that there were some newly added fairy tale characters I’d never seen delivered before in any other Overlord game.

I had to have it.

Overlord: Dark Legend (The Plot)

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Overlord: Dark Legends for the Nintendo Wii takes us back to when the Overlord was a child; we learn that our high and mighty evil Overlord was once the underdog in his family; neglected by his parents, with a set of sibblings that cannot stand him. However that all changes one day on his 16th birthday when a special delivery is made to the castle where he lives. The gift inside of the box opens up the future to your young Overlord. His future of course is to rule the castle, and bring darkness to everything he encounters.

The plot is basically a prequel to the original Overlord game. If you are a fan of the series then you probably didn’t like how Overlord 2 for the Xbox 360 started. Instead of the continuation to the original story, they brought us a new Overlord, who oddly enough looked like the original Overlord’s twin.

The Wii version is nothing like Overlord 2, which is both good and bad in ways.

Game-play (4 out of 5)

Starting up Overlord: Dark Legends was not exactly what I was expecting of the game. They threw in a fairytale like vibe which tells a story in an odd 2D book manner, once you get a gist of whats going on, you continue your quest to taking over your castle, and of course killing anything, and everything that stands in your way.

The game starts off as an easy tutorial. You learn how to maneuver about on foot, you learn how to crash your axe into things, and you pick up your servant minions along the way. Of course you are also taught how to maneuver the minions around as well.

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Game-play for the most part is a little bit too simple. If you played the other Overlord games on the Xbox 360 then you’re going to be a wee bit disappointed as far as game-play goes. Everything in the Overlord: Dark Legend feels as if it were simplified for a much younger crowd. For instance, upgrading your minions and Overlord comes much easier as all upgrades can be purchased with gold, which you will have an abundance of after every quest.

In Overlord: Dark Legend, you still have your colored minion groups to collect along the way, and their special powers are all still the same.

Brown Minions are very good at fighting, while red minions should not be sent into combat. Instead keep them at a far distance and have them throw fireballs at enemies. Blue minions are very weak fighters and should not be sent into fighting at all. Their special ability however allows them to bring dead minions back to life if they are able to get to them in time before they vanish. Blues can also walk through water. Green minions are great fighters from behind. They however die very quickly if they attempt to make an attack at the front of an enemy. Green’s jump on the enemies backs; once there, it’s pretty hard for your enemy to get them off.

The comical dialog and quirky antics by your herd of minions is still present, but as far as there being any real difficult issues, I personally ran into none.

Controls (5 out of 5)

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The controls in Overlord: Dark Legend are all set up in such an easy manner that you could honestly start the game up and know how to use the controls without having to go through the drawn out beginning micro tutorials that take place inside of the castle.

You move your Overlord around using the nun-chucks joystick, and you swing your axe by flailing the nun-chuck around. Moving your minions around is done by holding down the B button on the wii mote and pointing them in the direction you wish for them to go.

The controls all work flawlessly in this game, but the one thing that pioneers of the original Overlord will not like is how slow moving their Overlord, and their minions are. In the original Xbox Overlord video game, your minions were swept across areas in the game and quickly they would destroy everything in their path; they’d be done in a matter of seconds.

In the Nintendo Wii game, things take much longer. Your minions seem to have drank some sort of lay potion during their transition over to the Wii console, because they move as if in slow motion compared to when they were on the Xbox console. Destroying one room could take a few moments, while you sit back annoyed at how unresponsive some of the minions are. At times they will destroy everything and return back to your side, while leaving behind valuable treasures that you will need. It’s a bit frustrating having to re-direct your herd back to the treasure in order to retrieve it.

Graphics (3 out of 5)

The graphics in Overlord: Dark Legend are well done, but they definitely are not as clean and polished as the Xbox 360’s version of

Graphics are mediocre

the game. Things look nice still, but the difference is noticed within seconds of starting the game. Everything seems a little more softened, and colors are not as bright and eye catching as one would expect from an Overlord title.

They attempted to give players a little bit of realism, but didn’t quite polish the overall look of the game. The graphics are not terrible, but they certainly won’t have your jaw dropping like in Overlord 2.

Sounds and Music (5 out of 5)

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Sounds and music in the game are all matched up to where they should be as far as Overlord titles go. Background music plays lightly in the background, and your minions vocals are all matched up superbly to minions voices in the original Overlord game.

Environmental noises can be heard as well. Sheep will baa as you walk near them (or slaughter them), you will hear birds chirping in outdoor environments, and watery spots will deliver the sounds of what running water would sound like. The sounds are impressive, and the music changes every so often, to ensure that you don’t go crazy listening to the same monotone hums in the background while you play.

Re-Play Value (2 out of 5)

This item only requires 1 minion, larger items require more

Re-Play value is present in Overlord: Dark Legend, but it’s not all that great.

In certain areas of the game you will find that you will have to go back to these levels in order to retrieve certain items. As your herd of minion capacity increases you will be able to return to these previous lands to pick up missing items that you could not get before with a smaller clan of minions. Some items require a large amount of minions in order to carry the objects back to the castle teleporter, and without a larger clan of minions, you have to, at many times, leave these items behind.

However going back to finished lands only offers re-play value till you manage to collect everything there is to collect. Once you have everything you need, you can continue on and finish the game. Once the game is finished though re-play value pretty much depends on the player. Would you want to go back and repeat the game from the very beginning again? If yes, then re-play value is there. If no, then there is not really a need to start the game back up again.

Overall (3 out of 5)

All in all Overlord: Dark Legend is a decent game. It’s not a video game that you’d love, nor is it one that you’d hate. It’s just another one of those mediocre video games that eventually will land it’s way into the $10.00 bins at your local video game stores.

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The game may have had a surviving chance, but the slow motioned minions really put a halt on the games fun factor, and this alone was what made it so annoying for me. I enjoyed my fast actioned wild pack of minions in other Overlord titles, but in the Wii version their sleepy like dispositions made me tired.

The game however is very easy to beat, and younger gamers who are not really into hardcore combat games will find fun in this title. It has a very Pikmin like vibe to it; as you need to work with individual colored minion groups during certain points in the game.

Overall I’d recommend the game to younger gamers who don’t like dying in every other scene during a game. It’s fun for a younger crowd, but would be a yawn fest for older gamers.