Q&As// Geoff Thomas: Scarface On Nintendo Wii

SPOnG: What different locations can we expect to see while exacting revenge on Montana’s enemies? In terms of game length, is the Wii version extended in any way compared to previous releases?

Geoff Thomas: We've meticulously rebuilt Miami as seen in the movie. Players can and will visit the Babylon Club, the Sun Ray Hotel, Tony's mansion... every important location from the film is present and plays a role in the story. A lot of references are quite obvious, still more are subtle and only the most hardcore film fans will pick up on them.

Scarface: The World Is Yours is an absolutely huge game. The core mission experience alone clocks in at well over 20 hours, which doesn’t include side-missions, racing, gambling, and all of the other mini-games and sandbox-style gameplay available to the player at any time. And because this is an open world simulation Miami is wide open right from the start of the game, meaning players have the freedom to rebuild their empire how they want, take out rival gangs in any order they choose… basically do anything they want to do any way they want to do it.


SPOnG: Can you explain how you have used the Wii remote and nunchuk to control yourself in the game? How are different gameplay functions like weapons control and exploring controlled?

Geoff Thomas: Character movement like running, driving, and controlling boats is tied to the Nunchuk, while weapons and camera control are handled with the Wii Remote. Firing weapons (like shotguns, machine guns, rocket launchers, etc) and moving the camera view are controlled by aiming the Wii Remote at the screen, while melee weapons such as pipes, machetes, and of course the chainsaw are controlled by holding the [B] button and swinging the Wii Remote.

We put the controls through repeated focus testing to ensure they’re not only responsive and fun, but that players can modify them in meaningful ways to suit their gameplay styles. Out of that focus testing came our aiming preference system. It basically allows you to specify the size of the 'dead zone' on-screen, our term for the area that you can move the aiming reticule around in without rotating the camera. We found that some preferred a very wide area and others a very small area, meaning that for those players that want it, we can duplicate mouse-look sensitivity with the Wii Remote... very twitchy but really rewarding.

We’re also really happy with our gesture system and have come up with some great applications. For example, during combat players can taunt enemies by ‘flipping them off’ with the Nunchuk. Whenever they do this Tony starts hurling insults and cuss-words to enrage his enemies and draw them out of cover. He also gets balls for it, which fills up a meter which, once full, allows the player to trigger Blind Rage, a mode where Tony becomes a temporarily invincible killing machine that gains health for every gangster he blows away.

The gesture we’re the most excited about is the chainsaw… by holding the [B] button and swinging it around using the Wii Remote, you can selectively hack off the arms, legs, and even the heads of enemies that make the mistake of getting in your face.

So imagine using the Wii Remote and Nunchuk to taunt an enemy, chop off their arms, then finish them off with a shotgun blast to the head! It’s a really visceral and over-the-top experience and, like everything else in the Wii edition of Scarface, it’s just that much more rewarding than other versions of the game.